Page 31 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

mArine corpS
koreAn WAr

John remained in the Marines, although he was near Nagoya, Japan. “When we arrived at the camp,
basically blind in his right eye. “I passed a two-year there were only 35 soldiers on the camp so there was
college equivalent test and wanted to go into flight no housing for 2500 Marines. We lived in tents, and
training for a Corsair but couldn’t because of my eye. it was the rainy season. We always had water in our
I was going to go to computer school, but that was tents, and I can still remember snakes swimming by. I
cancelled. They said, ‘You’re all going to Korea.’ We hate snakes! (Tough.)
left San Diego in June 1953 on a troopship with 2500
men aboard. We did wet training out in the middle of The HQ was up on a hill, and I worked there as a
the ocean—climbing down cargo nets on the side of Clerk/Typist. Because I couldn’t type, I was put to
the ship. You had to wait for the LST (Landing Ship, work in the secret and confidential files area. We had
Tank) to rise up to you on a wave, or you might be to wear our dress uniforms, but at night, we worked
15’ from it. Several guys did jump at the wrong time in our t-shirts because it was so hot and humid. They
and got some broken arms and legs. On the way over, flew us back and forth to Korea, close to Seoul, on a
they told us that the war was over (the Armistice was B-29, and we would work at the 1st Marine Division
signed on July 27, 1953).” Lucky again. HQ and deliver mail between there and Japan. One
captain flew us back to our camp in Japan and said he
John’s ship changed course, and his unit, the 3rd couldn’t land a B-29 on that short of a runway, but he
Marine Division, HQ Battalion, was sent to a camp was ordered to land anyway. After landing, he came

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