This is April the 3rd 2003. My name is Floyd
Cox. I'm a volunteer at the
National Museum of the Pacific War in
Fredericksburg, Texas. We're here in the
museum in the volunteer office to interview Mr.
John Skirvin concerning
his experiences during World War II. To start
off with John, I'd like to tell you
thanks a lot for taking the time to tell your
story for retention in the archives
of the museum. Blame them. To start out with
let me ask you a little bit about
your background, where you were born, when you
were born, your mother and father's
names, and if you had any brothers or sisters.
I was born on an Iowa farm, January 26, 1922, I
was the youngest of six kids, five boys
and one girl.
What did your father do?
He was a farmer.
What were your mother and dad's names?
His name was Raleigh, her name was Nellie,
Nellie May, Copeland Skirvin.
And did you go to school up there?
Yeah, the first two years, then we moved and I
went to finish grade school and that's as
far as I got due to situations beyond my control.
Things were hard in those days.
They certainly were.
Well, what grade did you get through, John? Eighth.
The eighth grade?
Same grade my dad got through.
You stayed on the farm and worked until you
were how old, John?
I was 20 when I was drafted in 1942.
And so you were drafted in the, did you go in
the Army or Navy or?
In the Army.
I was drafted October 12th, I was sworn in on
October 12th and then I was sent home for
two weeks to get ready to get my own personal
affairs in shape, then I went back on the
26th of October, 42, for active duty.
Okay, well where'd you take basic at, John?
Camp Robinson, Arkansas.
So it took six weeks of infantry training there.
Well, how did a farm boy from your part of the country
feel about that basic training?
I felt good.
I wanted to be a soldier.
I had the idea I was going to go out and win
the war.
And I wanted to go in as soon as Pearl Harbor happened,
but I still was underage and didn't get my
parents' consent.
They said, oh no, wait, you won't have to go.
So I didn't volunteer until they drafted me,
finally, in October of 1942.
Now, after you finished basic training, did you
go on to any other schools, or...?
No, I just went from there to Fort Bliss,
Texas, to the 1st Cavalry Division.
I was in Troop G, 12th Cavalry Regiment.
Well, tell me a little bit about what it was
like when you went up there.
In the 1st Cavalry?
Right, 1st Cav.
Well, I got there on the day before Christmas, 1942,
I was pretty disappointed because I thought
they won't send horses overseas, and I wanted
to go overseas.
We rode the horses from then until sometime in February.
They took the horses away from us and made
infantry out of us.
We already used infantry weapons, so all you
had to do was just make us walk into the riding horses.
So they trained you on horses even in 1942?
Yeah, early 43.
Uh-huh, and then they finally took them away
from you and
you trained as infantryman? Yeah. What were
you, a rifleman or machine gunner?
I had an automatic rifle, they call it BAR. Oh
yes. Browning Automatic Rifle. Very
effective, very effective. Yeah. In fact, they
usually put the best shooter on the
BAR, did they not? Oh, they picked me because I
was the biggest man in the
squad and that was the biggest weapon we had,
so they thought I would be more
able to carry it, I guess. Do you remember how
many rounds a minute that that thing
Oh, they said 600. That's right. That's pretty
slow in this day and age.
That's right, but as some of the guys can't
remember, but you remembered
exactly. It was 600 rounds a minute. Highly
effective machine. Yeah, it was a good
weapon. Well, after you finished your training
there, John, where did you go?
I went to Camp Stoneman, California for about
three days. We left Fort Bliss on May
20th, 1943. Then we went to Brisbane, Australia.
We got there on June 19th, 1943.
Do you remember the ship you were on, John?
Yeah, it was the Maui, after the
Hawaiian Island, you know, the Maui? It was the
USATS, U.S. Army Transport Ship.
Maui. Do you remember, of course I know you
didn't count them, but it was a troop,
Was it a troop ship and was it loaded? Yeah.
We were, most of the division wasn't along with
us, but they sent what they called the
advanced detail.
And I don't know why they did that because they
used too many to put on one ship maybe,
I don't know.
But they sent us out ahead and the rest of the
division didn't come over maybe until
a month later.
But I was one of them that was selected to go
on the advanced detail.
You went to Brisbane, right?
And then where did you go from there?
Well, they had this camp outside of Brisbane a
little way, they called it Camp Strathpine.
And so, shortly after we got there, they sent
some of us to an Australian jungle school
where they sent their troops just before they
went up to New Guinea.
So, they sent me and several others there for
four weeks of intensive training, jungle
training with Australian instructors.
had been in New Guinea and so we felt like they
were really way ahead of us
because they'd been in combat and we hadn't.
Let me ask you this, I ask all the
fellas that have been in Australia, what do you
think of the Australian people? Oh
they were nice, hard to understand, but they
were nice. They talk funny don't they?
Yeah. Well after you finished your jungle
training and what did the jungle
training entail? What did you learn how to do?
Well, the thing we did the most of was walk.
They said that's what you do mostly in the
infantry anyhow, is walk. So we did a lot of
that but we took
bayonet training and hand grenades and pretty
much what we'd had before but we were just
doing it
under there. Under jungle conditions? Yeah. And
we did a lot of walking as I said before and it was
cross-country and pretty rugged terrain. We had
to climb a lot of steep hills on these hikes we went
on. Then after supper every night we'd go on a
hike for another hour or so just to
limber us up I guess so we could sleep good.
Sure, sure. Well after you
finished that and then what did you do? Then we
went to New Guinea. We went
there to Ora Bay, which is where the Battle of
Buna was fought.
Right. And we went there, well got there on my
birthday the 26th of January. And how
How old were you? Forty-four.
I was twenty-one. Twenty-one.
Were you an old man considering the age of some
of the other guys? No.
Others were a little older than me, quite a few
of them, most of them, I guess.
Well, of course, a lot of them were seventeen
and eighteen, too.
Yeah, but we didn't get many of them until
later on. Right.
At that time, these were old Army men that had
been in there since back in the thirties sometime.
So I was one of the younger ones, and I turned
21 on that day, the 26th of January.
Now when you went in to Buna, was Buna taken or
was it already been taken?
It had been taken, and we got to a little
exploring around there, just on our own,
and I found one place where there had been a
machine gun set up.
They had about half a bushel of empty rounds
there where that machine gun had been.
couldn't be and they'd been firing a lot of
ammunition well I don't know if
you're aware of it just a little aside this
tank we have out here yeah I saw
that it's from it was from Buna uh-huh sergeant
Lattimore tank but it was
knocked out on Buna well after you went to Buna
and you didn't went you didn't
go there right at the time of combat but did
you get into combat shortly after
Well, we was there for about a month, from the
26th of January until the 3rd of March,
I guess.
We went to the Admiralty Islands.
Well in this time period, what did you guys do?
Well we did quartermaster details, we went on
they called them, well like a stevedore,
we unloaded ships, just something to keep us
busy until we could go do what we called for.
That's right, did you play a lot of cards at
the time?
Oh, well, I used to go swimming some.
I wasn't much of a swimmer, but it was a nice
place to cool off.
It was pretty hot.
Especially working the hulls of those ships.
Yeah, I remember one detail.
I was on where we carried dynamite that had got
wet in a can of a tent.
And it got wet, and they said it was dangerous,
and it wasn't fit to use.
So we carried it out into an open field and set
fire to it.
You have to be careful carrying these cases of
dynamite because if you fall it might be
an explosion there.
So I walked pretty carefully.
I imagine so.
Well after you finished this and then you went
into the Admiralty, were you in on an
invasion or?
The division was, but the 5th Cavalry Regiment
made the initial landing and then we went
up, they landed on the 29th of February, 1944.
We didn't get there until about the, we
went up on the LST, it took us three days, so
we got there about the 6th of March, I
think. But there was still fighting going on.
Yeah. They'd already had their beachhead
and so on. Yeah, but there was still fighting
to do, patrols to make, and that was the
worst thing. Mm-Hmm. But when you went out on a
patrol, how many men did you
usually have and did you have one BAR or yeah
tell me exactly as you remember it
what kind of setup did they have for one of
your patrols well sometimes there's
only a squad of eight men but sometimes there's
a platoon where it'd be four
squads or three squads I mean depending on how
far we're going what the deal
was what was expected of us did you usually
have an officer with you yeah
usually. And then you had a squad leader which
was a sergeant or something?
We had a scout that was an important man in the
platoon he or squad he would go
ahead and and be able to find your way back
through that trackless jungle I
don't know how they could do it but some of
them could. Did you get any into any
firefights when you were on a patrol like that?
No not when I was on patrol I
I always thought we would, but we never did on
that island.
So were you in any battles in the Admiralties?
Yeah, we had a skirmish or two.
Did you advance? Yeah.
Can you tell me anything you remember in
particular about one of your engagements that
you had?
Well, the first time that we actually came in
contact with them, we had to go along the
shoreline over to another point on the island
where another regiment was located.
We could see them across the water, but we
thought we could go along the beach and get
over to them.
But that's not a good policy to walk right next
to the beach.
You can't go that way and you can't maneuver
the other way either because it was high ground
there and jungle.
But that's the way we tried to do it.
We got into Japs there and we exchanged blows
there for a while and then we had quite a
bunch of them.
And finally the captain radioed to the colonel
asking permission to withdraw because a short
mortar round fell in among us and it wounded
eleven and killed, I mean a total of eleven casualties.
There were at least one killed and maybe more
than that.
And so he finally asked for us to withdraw, so
they set a boat over there to pick us up,
or pick them up, the wounded, and the rest of
us walked back to where we were that morning.
Well, did you end up getting with that group at
any time? Yeah.
They picked up the wounded, and you went back
to your original base camp, I guess you'd
call it.
Well, it was where we had been in position for
several days. Right.
You sat there for a couple more days or what
did you do?
Yeah, something like that and we went by boat
over to this place we tried to go by land.
Did you take that group of Japanese out at any time?
The ones we hit that first day? Yeah.
No, we kind of left them there.
You just kind of cut them off.
Well after you met your other group then where
did you go then, John?
Well, pretty shortly after that we went over to
another island in the same group called
Rambutio, don't ask me to spell it, but that's
okay, and that wasn't
supposed to be much. I said there's only I
thought about 15 Japs over there, but
they had a radio station and they wanted that
knocked out. So we went over there
to do that and I don't know sure whether we
ever did or not. While I was there I
contracted shingles and had eruptions under my
arm where the pack trap would
and I showed it to the officer, the medical
officer, who was a dentist really, but he was a
medical officer.
And he said, I don't see how you can carry a
pack like that.
So he sent me to the hospital.
And that ended my career on that island.
And they treated them.
They were shingles.
I didn't know what they were.
They called them vegetable poisoning of unknown
origin, but I learned later it was shingles.
How long were you in the hospital, John?
Oh, about a couple of weeks, I think.
Until they felt you were ready to go back. Yeah.
How'd you feel about going back into combat?
Oh, not too good.
But you knew you had to.
Yeah, but I didn't really see any more combat
on that island.
Then we went from there to the Philippines,
but you'd be not ready for that yet.
Well, no, I'm with you as long as you just
take me where you want to go.
We stayed there in the Admiralties for about
six or seven months, I guess, waiting for
the next place to go.
We had all kinds of rumors going around.
One day we might be going to Alaska and one day
to Australia and one day it might be Panama
and Philippines, China, you name it, we were
going to go there.
It hasn't changed. No.
It hasn't changed.
Finally one day that the colonel came out with
the official
Dope we're going to go to the Philippines to
island of Lady. I'd never heard of it before
But I learned to know it look better later
Well now, how did you go? Did you go by LST or no?
We want a regular trip transport the Navy
transport this time called the LaSalle
Okay, you got on the sal and they went directly
to late a yeah and we landed there on the 20th
of October that was
D-Day in the Philippines.
And did you go right into combat?
I mean, were you in the landing force?
Well, there wasn't no opposition when we landed.
Surprising to everybody.
But then they had decided from past experience
that it cost them too many casualties, the Japs did,
if they tried to defend the beach.
So they're going to pull back and let us come in,
and then engage us.
That's right.
That's the way they did it.
Do you remember how many days after you landed
that you got into some heavy fighting?
I think it was about the third day.
As a combat man with a BAR, what did you think
of the Japanese as fighters?
Well, sometimes I didn't think they were very
good, but really I think they were.
They did some things that we didn't, but I
think they were pretty good soldiers, really.
Pretty good fighters.
Did, in your advance, would it take you days to
advance a number of yards, or- Sometimes.
-get buried? Yeah.
When we got up in the mountains, which was
going to be our task, to cross over this range
of mountains.
When we got up in there, well, then the
opposition stiffened, and it took us longer to
go a few yards.
There's one hill we were trying to take on the
side of the mountain, and I don't
I don't know, it took us about four days, I
think, to get up that little knoll.
You took quite a few casualties then, did you? Yeah.
Do you remember how many casualties you took, John?
No, not exactly, but I remember this one man
from Texas named Simmons, Dale Simmons, he
was also a BAR man, and he got shot up there
and we could hear him telling us to come help
him and he wasn't in the same platoon I was and
I didn't go didn't go to help
him but finally two men did go up and bring him
out but he died after he got out.
Now when you're a BAR man who calls the fire
for you? Do you just fire on
your own will or does the squad leader ask for
tell you where to fire?
Usually it pretty much works out just doing it
when you see them. When they're in
front of you right? Yeah. So what do you
usually, the BAR has a couple of
riflemen on each side of you kind of, is that
the way they set up? Well we have a,
each one has what they call an assistant BAR
man and he's with him all time but
then there's others, anybody in the squad is
supposed to be able to carry that
weapon to get the most important one in the
squad so if nobody else, if I'm
knocked out and the assistant is, well somebody
else will take it. Well it's
It's the most effective weapon you had in your
whole squad, huh?
And it's kind of, you asked about assignments,
well, if we're going to withdraw for some
reason whether it be our man is supposed to be
the last or not, but he's supposed to kind
of lay down a field of fire there to help the
others get out. Right.
That wasn't too much fun, was it?
Well, usually worked out pretty good.
Well, let me ask you this.
Were you subject to any bonsai charges? Yeah.
Yeah, they did that once on this hill. I'll
tell you about it. It didn't take us so long to
get there.
The day we finally took it, our squad was in
front. We didn't always have the same squad in front.
They'd take turns on this because that was the
most dangerous part, being on the front, the
first one.
So it was our turn that time to go up there.
And we got up there and the artillery that had
been blasting it before we went had done a real
effective job
I was scattering them out and knocked them out.
So we didn't have any opposition until we got
through the position where they had been.
Then all of a sudden they charged us from
somewhere all around there and throwing hand
grenades and yelling, Banzai, and really put
the fear in us.
Well, you put the fear in them too, though,
didn't you, with that BAR?
I ducked in a foxhole to take cover when they
did that, and I had my head and shoulders
out of the hole and rifle and something hit
just outside the hole and put fragments in
my cheek and eye and I thought it was just a
bullet that hit out there and threw dirt
in my face.
And I don't remember what that's what it was,
but anyway blood began dripping down
off my face and onto my hand and then we were
pulling back out of there for anyway and the
The medic treated me and sent me to the
hospital, and it turned out there was something embedded
in my eye and two pieces.
And I don't know whether it was pieces of rock
or whether they had been-one of those
hand grenades had a fragment from there or what
it was, I don't know.
But something got in my eye and they had to dig
it out and they kept me in the hospital
for a couple of weeks, I believe, until-because
they had to put those things in my eye that
dilated the pupil.
They didn't want me to go back in combat until
I could see good, so I was there a couple
of weeks.
Did you get a Purple Heart out of that?
Yeah, I did.
I don't deserve it, but I got one.
Well, you gave blood for your country.
Not much blood that shed there.
Well, yeah, but it's more than I shed.
Not to moan, but anyway, well, after you got
out of the hospital, John, what took place then?
Went back to the outfit again and we finished
up finally going over that mountain range.
We came down into Ormoc Valley on the 19th of
December, 1944, and that I guess was the
hardest day that I ever had in the Army
because, well, they had artillery down there.
They made a lot of noise but they weren't
really hurting as much.
They couldn't get their muscles down low enough
to hit us.
They were going over our heads and hitting
behind us.
But there were machine guns and rifles in
there, too.
And we had three men killed there getting those guns.
And then that night, after Dark-it wasn't late
yet, but
it was after Dark-a reconnaissance platoon that was
attached to us that afternoon decided to go try
and take
another gun.
And so when we went, they did this, and then
they called us for us to come help them bring
the casualties out.
They had some pretty bad shot up.
And we were carrying-I was helping carry one man.
I couldn't see him because of the darkness, but
he kept saying, don't let my arm hang out.
Don't let my arm hang off.
And somebody said-he said, don't let my arm
hang off.
I said, he ain't got no arm.
But the part that I thought was so bad that day
happened just before dark.
We took just one gun-artillery piece, I
mean-and one of our-man happened to be
one of my best friends-was shot through the body.
What was his name, John?
His name was Eutemio Valdez.
Came from Colorado.
And he was such a good man.
So he took a wound in the stomach?
Yeah, and another friend bent over him and
unbuttoned his shirt, trying to see what he
could do to help him.
And one of these men that was in the
reconnaissance platoon that didn't know us,
he thought that he was looking for souvenirs on
a dead Jap.
He thought this man was a Jap.
And he said, wait, he's not dead yet.
And he stuck his gun barrel down there and shot
him right through the head.
Shot his own man?
Just because he was a...
Well, apparently he was Hispanic.
He couldn't talk by his voice, so he sounded
just like anybody else.
Then the fellow found out and he had to live
with that the rest of his life, didn't he?
I'm afraid so.
We heard that he was killed the next day, but I
don't know whether that's true or not.
That's definitely unfortunate.
So we finished our service there on Leidy about
the last of the year and we went into
camp and had our delayed Christmas dinner
because on Christmas Day we had a K ration.
So we had our turkey and all the trimmings meal
on-early in January, maybe it was New
Year's Day, I don't know.
And then we-
That was quite a feast, wasn't it? Yeah.
And they had landed up on Luzon, the 37th
Division, and I'm not sure how many other
divisions, the 25th maybe.
And we went up to reinforce them, and we got
there at Lingayen Gulf on the 27th of January, 1945.
And then we got orders from General Swift, who
was our division commander, that he'd
We'd got orders from MacArthur to get down
there to Manila quick and rescue the prisoners
from Santa Tomas University and from the prison
they had there.
And they wanted them to do that because they
had heard that the Japs were going to kill
all the prisoners.
And I wasn't in on that fast detail that went
down there because our regiment was in
reserve at the time.
We had a lot more casualties on Leyte so they
had us in reserve on Luzon.
And so we brought up the rear, but we got there
on the 12th of February, 1945.
And when we went in, I had to cross an open
field to get there, and I thought we probably
won't get across there without getting shot.
But then we saw Filipino civilians standing out
there waiting for us and cheering us on
so we didn't think we'd had too much problem.
We didn't have.
They were standing there waving bottles of
stuff at us.
And I'm not a drinking man, so I didn't drink
any of that fire water they had.
But some of the men did, and my squad leader did.
And he was normally a pretty meek and cautious man.
But when we got-after that stuff began to work
on him good, he was as bold as a lion.
And he'd charge across the street and he'd say,
come on, Skirvin.
And I'd take out after him and we'd run across
those streets and that's the best
way to cross streets, go fast.
It's a wonder we didn't get shot.
We went downstairs into the basement and, come
on, Skirvin, I don't know why he was
so bold that day, but if he wanted to be a-
You weren't thinking clearly, was he?
I don't think he was.
You still had your BAR with you? Yeah.
Was there any house-to-house fighting at that time?
Well, not while we were doing our two-man
charge, there wasn't, but shortly thereafter
there was.
They had-it seemed like every street and alley
and walkway or anything was covered
by machine guns, and you couldn't hardly walk
without being shot.
That was in Manila? Yeah.
But they had walls all around every lot or
house, and you couldn't go over the walls
and you couldn't go down the street, so we
couldn't do very much good.
And it was in one little narrow place there,
and I heard a Jap machine gun, which I couldn't see.
It sounded like it wasn't more than ten feet or
fifteen feet away from me, and it fired
a burst, and I heard this man on the bar say,
oh, somebody help me quick.
And he'd been shot through the legs high up in
his-almost in his groin, and he bled
to death in the hospital-in the ambulance on
the way to the hospital.
Do you remember his name, John?
Yeah, Lawrence Skaggs.
He was my squad leader on Leyte.
But on Luzon there he was acting-he was
assistant platoon sergeant and got promoted
before we came to Luzon.
And so he died and then we had another man that
took his place and then the next day-how
much of this stuff you want me to hear-the next
day we wandered around until we got down
to the-next to the beach and we could see
sunken ships out there with-but they still
had guns above the water.
And I saw those guns, we were out on the open,
and I thought, if they've got guns on those
ships, I mean, if they're operable, we might be
in trouble here.
And about then they opened fire on us.
We ran back to the houses, to the buildings
where we could get some cover, and we made
it back without anybody being hit.
And then, I think it was the next day, we got a
tank assigned to us, and that was a
great lifesaver.
We could push the walls down and go across lots
instead of trying to follow the streets
and alleys.
And we were able to make better progress then.
And we finally, at the last of the day, just
about dark, we came to La Salle University
and there was a high wall around this place, a
cement wall, and a tank pushed it in so
we could get through and when we went through
there was women and kids all
over the place. They mobbed us. They were so
glad to see us. They were being
held prisoner there and a lot of them were
Catholic nuns and this one woman
carrying a baby in her arms and she said she
had a wound bandage on her arm and I
said, are you wounded? That's kind of a stupid
question I guess but she could
have had a bandage for some other reason. She
said yes but that's all right now
Now everything is all right now.
Can't you just imagine how happy they were? Yeah.
And then we dug in there and that was outside
of that place.
And then the next morning we moved up to this
other-well, I don't know what the building was.
It was part of the university yet or not, but
it was a high building so you could see
over the wall into the Rizal Stadium.
And we didn't get up on the wall, but we were
waiting to go in.
Our platoon leader, whose name was Lloyd
Gilmore, from Abilene, Texas, close to Abilene, and
he was going to lead us in there.
And the commanding general, General Mudge,
Burne Mudge, came down-He'd been up on
top of that building.
I don't know why that division commander was up
there in front of everybody else, but
he was up there.
He came down and told him, he said, are you the
patrol-the platoon leader that's going in?
He said, yeah.
He said, well, you don't have anything to worry about.
He said, the Japs are all confused in there and
many of them don't have arms.
He meant weapons, of course.
When he first said that, I thought about him
being without arms, but that wasn't what
he meant.
And he said, there, you don't have anything to
worry about.
So we went in pretty soon and they had a wall
around it, of course, a wall around everything
in Manila.
But a tank destroyer, they told us that's what
did it, had blasted a hole through it
big enough for men to crawl through.
And we crawled through and went inside the
stadium and we hadn't gotten in there very
far until there were some steps that went up to
just an outdoor place or I don't know
used to-a place to go to get out of the sun or
what it was for.
But anyway, it was an elevated place and had a
top over it but no sides to it and it wasn't
a building, it was just like a sunshade.
And we started up them steps and we came under
fire and we stopped there then and just laying
all sprawled out on the steps and they were
shooting at us but nobody got hit right then.
And I happened to see this guy, this Jap, in
the upstairs window, probably two hundred
yards away.
And he was lined up at the corner of the
building, and there was another window behind him.
Therefore, when he'd come to the window to
shoot out at us, well, he was skylighted against
the window behind him.
That's why I was able to see him.
I don't know.
I can't tell.
But I shot at him.
He didn't come back no more.
But he wouldn't have.
He would have known that we had seen him, so he
wouldn't have come back.
So I don't know whether I got him or not.
And when I did that, a chap pretty close to us
there tossed some kind of an explosive
charge out.
I don't know what it was.
Maybe it wasn't quite as big as a football but almost.
Kind of a dirty yellow color and it made quite
an explosion when it fell.
So I took a shot at him but I knew I was going
to miss him because I wasn't expecting to
be there and didn't have time to fire or to aim.
So when I fired then that got their attention
to me and they-somebody threw a grenade
out at us, but it didn't come close enough to
hit me, but another man in our same platoon
saw it coming and he got up and tried to outrun
it and it hit him in the knee.
And then shortly thereafter they told us to
withdraw out of there, I don't know why,
but they told us to come out, so we went out
through the same hole we went in at.
And that night we were digging in for the
night, and it was getting almost dark, and
our foxholes were getting farther apart every
night because of the casualties we were having.
It was pretty bloody there in Manila, a lot of
people getting killed and wounded.
So I was digging away there, another man and
two of us digging together on the same hole.
And I stood up to straighten my back and look
around to see how far the other foxholes were
from us.
And something hit me in the belly.
And I went, oh!
It kind of surprised me.
I felt foolish and ashamed of myself for making
that noise.
It didn't hurt all that bad.
It just took me by surprise.
Sniper hit you? Yeah.
So I jumped in somebody else's foxhole that was
already dug.
wasn't yet. I ducked in there and then another
man came and put a first-aid kit
on me and he said, where you hit? And I told
him it was getting too dark to see. I hit
my stomach. I thought it was right here where I
thought I was hit, but that's
where it came out. And he said, did it go clear
through? And I said, no. So he put
the bandage on there and then I arched my back
so he could put it under my
back to tie it. And he said, it did go clear
through, Scriven, there's blood all
over your back and then he said oh no here the
other hole is down here and so
it was down down here just above my belt and so
that same bullet it went through
there I felt it hit my arm first and that's
where it went out at you hit hit
down above my belt and came out up here top my
stomach and hit my arm as it went
out my right arm. So you had three holes in you?
Well just that one on my arm just grazed me, I
just put a
band-aid on it. It almost missed me. And then
they took me back to the-well, they called
for the squadron or Battalion, squadron
headquarters for somebody-to send somebody up
with some
men up with a stretcher to get me. And when
they came, the Jap shot at them and they said,
Hey, hold your fire. And this man that had put
a bandage on me, do you want his name?
His name was John-I'm sure I knew his name, now
it slipped me.
I don't remember where he was from.
Yeah, he was from Goose Creek, Texas.
John K. Morrow, that was his name.
He just escaped me for a moment.
And he said, well, hadn't you heard there's a
war going on?
He said, that was a Jap that shot at you.
They took me back to the squadron Headquarters
and I got back there and they said, when we
got up there they shot at us.
And I said, they didn't shoot at you, that was
a Jap that shot at you.
I don't suppose they'd believe me.
They still probably think if I was alive today,
they'd still think we shot at them when they
came to get me.
And then they-
Eilerton Did you go to the MASH unit or-the stretchers
got you.
Take me through what happened after that.
Schoke Well, they put me on the back of a weapons
carrier and took me to the hospital, to the
First Cavalry Field Hospital, I guess you
call it, First Medics, is what we called it,
and got there and they said it was half dark
by then, of course.
And then after we got there, well, they got me
ready to be operated on because they thought
that's what you'd have to do.
And they had me there on the table and had
given me a tetanus shot and shaved the area
around this bullet hole and said,
we've called Williams, that was our regimental surgeon,
John Williams, somewhere in Texas,
and said, we told him we had another belly case.
So he came in after a while, said he'd just
gone to bed.
He came in, he said, well, did they get you or not?
Now, I don't know yet what he meant by that question.
It was obvious they had hit me.
But it also obviously didn't kill me.
So what do you mean, did they get you?
I don't know.
So I said, well, they tried anyway.
And I just thought that was near as I could come
to answering his question.
Was that a stomach wound?
Did it get your stomach?
No, it didn't need to have surgery.
He probed around with the probe a while
and finally he pushed a little bit harder
and it went in his top hole.
Then he finally pushed a little harder
and came out down here in the bottom hole.
And he said, there you are.
Well, I still didn't know if that was good news
or bad news.
I was kind of hoping it was good news,
but there you are, what would that mean?
So they put him, he tore a thin strip of gauze
and pushed it through there
and then tied the two ends together.
That kept it open.
And then it took me to, off to a room somewhere
and I spent the night on the stretcher on the floor,
which was a good place, a lot better than the
hole I was expecting to be in. And-
Eilerton Did you get another Purple Heart for that
Gilbert Oh, yeah.
Well, at least it had some blood to show on
this one, but then they-I was in that hospital
for probably ten days or so and they did a
little surgery on my belly there, just kind
of cleaned up the wounds.
He made a better looking scar out of it, he
made a better looking hole, he cut the trimmed
edges of the scar or the holes and then they
evacuated to another hospital up close to
Clark Field.
They flew me up there on a C-47, first time I'd
been on that kind of a plane.
I'd always been getting seasick or airsick on
small planes but this plane was big enough
I made it on a short trip, probably the reason
I didn't get sick.
Then they took me to a hospital up there, and I
was there for probably a couple more weeks.
And then they flew me to Leyte to a hospital on
a C-46 this time, and I was there, I don't
know how long, probably another two weeks.
Then they flew me to Biak on a C-54, the planes
kept getting bigger, and I got down there
to be at.
Stayed there for longer than you'd expect.
I'd been there for three or four weeks and
finally they dismissed all of us out of the
hospital and sent us to a camp close by and
then the next day they loaded us on a big
transport and we went back to Leyte.
Stayed there for a week for another-well, I
went through for a physical.
I don't know why, because I already said on my
orders, return to unit.
But they put me through this with some other
man that was going to be reclassified.
And I got to the last officer, the last medical
officer, and he said, Do you know any reason
why you shouldn't go back?
And I said, No.
He said, Well, I guess we'll have to send you
back then.
And so I went, got back on another troop ship
back to Manila, and then they trucked me down
to southern Luzon, to Lucena, where our camp
was, and I finally joined up with the same
old bunch again.
Okay, we'll commence, John.
Before we get into your other action, tell me
what you think of the Army nurses and the
Army doctors.
What's your opinion of them?
Oh, I had great respect for them, for all of them.
They treated you well?
Oh, yeah.
They were really concerned about your welfare? Yeah.
Now, once they considered you fit to go back to
the front line, so to speak, you went to
Luzon, did you say?
Atencio Yeah.
EILEEN HURST Okay.
Take it from there.
Tell me what happened.
Atencio Well, our outfit had just come in from somewhere.
I don't know exactly where they were, but it
came in the day I got there.
We stayed there then for maybe another week or
two, and then they sent us out on patrol.
And this was the first I'd done for two and a
half months because at the time I spent
in the hospital on troop ships and I was pretty soft.
We had to go climb a mountain to look for a Jap general.
They said he was hiding up there on top of that mountain.
And we went out by trucks to the-about to the
base of the mountain, and then we went
to climb up there the next day and come back.
So we finally got up there, but it was awful
hot and awful thirsty, there was no water.
There was water down at the foot of this place
where we dug in the first night.
And before we left the next morning to go up
the main part of the mountain, I went down
to that water hole and filled up my helmet with
water and carried it back to our outfit
and filled my canteens and the rest-gave what
was left to some of the rest of the men.
And so we started out with two full canteens of water.
But we got up to the top of the mountain
finally about noon or thereabouts, but I was so thirsty
by then all that water I'd been drinking was gone.
And they said, we've got five minutes to eat
your dinner.
And I made a big mistake, I took a bite of
cheese and a bite of a cracker from my K rations
and I chewed that for the five minutes it was
time for us to go and then I spit it out
and we left.
I didn't have no water to wash it down with and
I didn't have no saliva in my mouth to
swallow it so I just had to spit it out.
We started down the mountain and we made the
wrong-turned down the mountainside and we stopped.
Okay, so you tried to eat crackers and cheese
and no water, okay, let's go from there.
So we had learned that the Japs had been there,
all right, we could see evidence that they
had been on that mountain, but they were none
there then, or at least they were off in the
brush and we didn't see them, they could have
seen us and we did not see them.
We turned back down the mountain, but the man
in front took the wrong trail and branched
off to the left and it was going to take us way
out of our way, so we had to turn right
and walk over what seemed like endless miles to
get over to where the trail we should have
been on.
And it was up one steep incline and then down
another one, and down the other side and up
another one.
And the ground there was soft and like walking
in sand back at Fort Bliss, it kind of seemed
like the same thing.
And I was so tired.
I never had been so tired before I guess.
I couldn't fall out of no place to-nobody
behind me to pick us up, and so we had to
keep going.
And we finally got down to-after dark we were
down to where we found some water.
And I filled up my canteens and filled up
myself, and that water did so much good.
I started feeling stronger and better in every
way just right away.
I drank all I could hold and there was one man
at least behind me somewhere that drank
too much.
I guess I could hear him throwing it up, but I
kept mine down and it did me a world of good.
And we walked that night down at the foot of
the Hill, the mountain, and then the next
day we learned that we were going to have to go
back up that same mountain again because
was-well, for some reason they thought we
needed to go back because we didn't find
the genital, I guess.
And I just knew I couldn't go back up there,
the shape I was in, but I didn't have nothing
to show for it.
I had one little puny blister on one foot and I
showed it to the medic and he said-I
said, I don't think that's good enough, you know.
I'm sorry, John, I can't keep you out for that.
And then we started walking back to our-to go
back to our camp where we started from,
back by Lucena.
And we learned then that the F Troop had got
that assignment and they were going to go
up the hill instead of us, up the mountain
instead of us.
That was the best news I'd heard in a long time
because I knew I couldn't ever make
it up there and back.
And then we began training to go to Japan for
the invasion, and we were on a troop ship.
Well, after-was the-did the combat kind of
dwindle down after you-this mountain climbing
that you had to do? Yeah.
We went on patrol two or three more times, and
then we got word-this is real good news-that
those of us who had enough points to come home
wouldn't have to go on any more patrols.
I had enough points to come home, so that meant
I didn't have to go on patrols anymore.
And then we began this training to go to Japan,
working off of an American troop ship, climbing
down the sides and getting in little boats and
storming the shore, doing all that stuff
we'd done so many times before.
And when we came in off of this maneuver, one
of the guys went down to regimental headquarters
We came back with a list of names of men that
were going to be going home.
We knew we had enough points, but we had to
wait until the others ahead of us with more
points went.
So they came back with this list of names and
my name was on it, I was going to be going home.
So I left on August 11th and the war ended I
think August 15th.
I wish ever since I'd waited and come home from
Japan to leave in there, but they send
us out.
The order's already cut.
So I went home and I got back to the States.
Took twenty-eight days on the troop ship to go
from Manila to Los Angeles.
It was the longest ship ride I took, I guess.
Let me ask you this while I'm thinking about it.
Did you ever catch malaria while you were over there?
I didn't have it while I was over there, but I
contracted it while I was there.
After I got home I quit taking Atterburn and
then I got it.
We took Atterburn one pill a day, a little
yellow pill, and it would turn our skin yellow
and the whites of our eyes yellow and it looked
like we had yellow jaundice, but it was just
from that Atterburn we were taking.
And after I quit taking it, then the malaria
that was in my blood, it came out.
I mean, I got malaria after I was home,
several-maybe a month before I got it. EIBURN.
And after you hit stateside, did you ever go
back in the hospital, or did you get discharged?
Tell me-tell me what you did after you took
that long boat ride home. WEEKS.
Well, we got to Los Angeles, and we went out to
a camp called Camp Anza, A-N-Z-A.
I never had heard of it before.
And we stayed there just one night and got on a
troop train to go to Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas to the separation center for people in
that area of the country.
And I went there with a man named Jack Hopper
from Oklahoma City and neither of us had any money.
But when we got there he telegraphed home for
some money.
They had some back pay coming though, didn't they?
Yeah, but we couldn't get it before we left.
And we got there to Fort Leavenworth, he
telegraphed home for money and they sent him
some and
he loaned me $10 and then I got some back pay
of my own there from Fort Leavenworth.
They found out I did have money coming so they
gave me some.
I still had more after that that came after I
was home.
And I stayed there then until I got some dental
work done.
And then I went home, went home on a bus, and
was home for-I joined the Army Reserves
the day I was discharged on October 9, 1945.
And I was home for five years and then I worked
in a factory close to home.
If I might, what was your rank, John, when you
were discharged? PFC.
Still PFC? Yeah.
I didn't want to be responsible for anybody
else's life.
I was afraid I'd make some decision that would
cost somebody their life and I'd rather just
stay with my PFC rank.
I was offered Sergeant Stripes before we went
to Luzon, but I turned them down.
So you went back home and you joined the Reserves?
Yeah, the day I was discharged.
And you worked in the factory for a while and
then what happened?
Well then they called me back when the Korean
War started.
So did you go back in as a PFC again?
Well by that time I was down to private because
during the two wars they had for some reason
reduced everybody in the enlisted reserves,
they had reduced them one grade.
Well in your PFC and you reduce one grade you
don't have much left.
That's right.
So I was down to private again.
Now did you have to go through basic again or
did they send you over real quick?
They sent us to Fort Hood, Texas for two weeks
of-they called it intensive training.
I don't think it was really all that bad.
We'd had that bad and worse in World War II.
But anyway, we went there for two weeks to
renew our acquaintance with the Army, and
then we went back to Camp Stoneman again like
we did in World War II, and on over to Japan
this time and to Camp Drake.
We stayed there two nights and went out to the
firing range and tested our rifles.
And we went to various classes learning how to
wear winter clothing and how to try to
take care of our feet to keep from having
frostbite and trench foot.
And they showed us films of men that had
frostbite and how they pulled these toes off, a terrible
sight to look at.
When did you go to Korea then?
We got to Korea on the 6th of December.
We got there the day before on the 5th, but we
didn't unload until the 6th because we
had to wait for the tide to come in.
Do you remember?
What year was that, John? 1950.
See, this was at Inchon.
If you remember from reading the history about
the Korean War, the Marines in the 7th Division
landed at Inchon and they had to wait for the
tide to be right because of the mudflats
that were there.
So that's why we had to wait until the next day
to go in there.
So it was on the 6th of December 1950 that we
unloaded off the ship.
And then I was assigned to the 25th Division.
So there was a truck there to pick me up and
several others that were going-some of the
men were going back from the hospital.
They took a truckload of us back anyhow.
Were you still a BAR man then? No.
Were you still a B.A.R. man then? No.
But then after we got there to the L. Company
of 35th Infantry, well, they had to make up
a new squad.
They'd had too many casualties.
Some of them had been taken prisoner of war,
but they were missing anyhow, so they had
to form a new squad.
And one of the men with me was a sergeant, and
they made him squad leader and made me
assistant squad leader.
I still just had my rank of private, but at
least I didn't have the VAR.
We were in North Korea at that time, and when
we joined them we were overlooking the main
highway, North and South Highway in North Korea.
That highway was just choked full of refugees
all the time, all day.
At night we stopped them because too many North
Korean guerrilla fighters could go through
with them, but we didn't want that.
One train went out after we were there and
going south and it had civilians on it, on
all the flat cars, they had them on the
locomotive, it was everywhere except in the smokestack
I think.
I don't know how so many people could get on
there, but they were running for their
our lives, you know, trying to escape the war.
And we-first night in that foxhole in North
Korea, I could hear the people down on the
road below us when I got to the tank that was
stopping them.
There was a tank down there with some infantry
with them, with the tank.
And they stopped the civilians, and they were
bunched up down there trying to find someplace
to spend the night.
And I could hear one group right down below us,
and I couldn't tell the number of them,
but I could hear several people there.
And I heard one voice raised above the others
like he was talking to them.
And then after he had a short talk, well, then
they began to sing.
I couldn't understand their words, but they
were singing, Nearer, My God, to Thee.
That's the song they were singing, and no doubt
of that.
So there must have been some Christians there
somewhere in North Korea even though it was
a communist-controlled country.
And then we stayed there two or three more days
and they loaded us on a tank and took
us south of the 38th Parallel across over the
Imjin River and went a mile or two down
south of there to a place where there was a
crossroads and also a railroad track went
through the crossroads.
And we prepared a defensive position.
We were going to try to hold that when they
came through.
And we put up barbed wire and the engineers put
mines in that railroad tunnel and then
we put booby traps, hand grenades in the
crotches of trees, saplings, small trees where
we could
reach them.
We'd pull the pin out of the grenade and plop
it in there with-holding the handle
down and put a trip wire on it so they'd trip
over that wire and pull the grenade out of
the tree and it would go off, hopefully, and
damage somebody.
And so we thought we could probably hold them.
We had a tank with us, too, to help us.
And then on the 31st of December, New Year's
Eve, they called our platoon to get on a truck
and go up to the north to the Imjin River and
overlooking the river and some high ground there.
And then we were to stay there all night as a
regimental outpost.
And so we stayed there all night and we could
hear noises, a lot of noises down on the river.
Part of the noises we heard might have just
been the ice cracking, I don't know.
But we could hear some voices and so we didn't
know whether they were coming across-the
Chinese were coming across the river at us or
not, but we began hearing a lot of small
arms fire from far off on our right.
And finally maybe two, 3:00 in the morning we
heard motors start up, trucks or
tanks or both, and so they were pulling out
over there.
And we-next morning we got orders to dig in and
the ground was frozen that night.
We got there after dark, we couldn't dig in, so
they told us to dig in and be ready to
spend the day and the night there.
We went to some-some of the men went to
civilian houses to look for mattocks to get
unpicked, to get through the frost, to dig
holes, and then we got another order from them.
They said, come on back.
We sent a truck up to get you and come on back,
said the Chinese have broke through
the rocks at the Republic of Korea on your
right and said we'll be cut off if we don't
get out of here.
So we left that defensive position that we
spent so long preparing, we left without firing
a shot.
Kind of hated that.
And so we kept on leaving there and traveling
mostly at night.
We didn't ride trucks all the time, we walked
part of the time, and we kept on moving south
until we finally got down to a place where they
decided we'd stay a while.
We stayed there a while and then the situation
got good enough they thought we could move
north again, I guess, and we started going back north.
But this was after General-that first
commanding General over there had been killed
and General
Ridgway had taken his place.
Who was it?
Walker, wasn't it? Walker.
General Walker.
Thank you.
And Ridgway was quite a fighting man, I think,
and so he wanted us to move north, not just
sit still.
He wanted us to move north.
So that's what we did.
And we went up to Osan and relieved the Wolfhounds.
That was the 27th Regiment of the 25th Division.
I was in the 35th Regiment.
We relieved them there at Osan and we stayed
there for, I don't know, possibly a week.
We sent out one patrol that was supposed to go
out one night and come back the next night
and they never did come back.
One of the men there had been a member of our
squad from Del Rio, Texas, and he was
taken prisoner.
I've met him since the war, but he didn't get
out until the war was over.
He was a prisoner in North Korea.
And finally it came time for us to make this
river crossing, the Han River, and this was
done on the 7th of March, 1951.
And we made the river crossing without a whole
lot of trouble.
We had one man killed out of our platoon, and I
don't know, maybe there might have been
some others in the company, but one man out of
our platoon was killed.
But it went amazingly smooth.
And the following day we just moved up a little
way and dug in again and then the next morning
I thought we were going to stay there another
day, but right after breakfast this former
squad leader of Mine-he was now a platoon
sergeant-his name was Woodruff from Decatur,
He said, Scurvin, you want to go on a patrol
with me?
Well, no, I didn't want to go on patrol with
him, but I didn't want to say so and make
him-didn't want to say I did and be a liar, so
I just said-if I said no, he'd say,
well, you're going anyway.
So I didn't-I said, oh, might as well, that's a
pretty good answer, because I might
as well go.
I'd have to anyhow.
I figured-we went on this patrol, and the
patrol leader, the lieutenant, was with us,
Freeman, he told us, now this is not a combat
patrol, we're not going out to fight, we're
going out to try and learn a little, gain a
little information.
He said those foxholes up there on the hill in
front of us, he said, we've been watching
those ever since we crossed the river, on
river, and we haven't seen no signs of activity.
We think the holes are empty, but we're going
over there to find out.
And he said, if we have to withdraw, well,
we'll do so by fire and movement.
Fire and movement means that part of the detail
will fire while the others move back, and
they will fire while those in front move back.
It can be done, if it's done right, it can be
done without anybody getting hurt.
He didn't tell us that.
He just said we'll withdraw by fire and
movement, but I thought we all knew what that was.
When we got onto a little hill just above the
foxholes, I looked at him a while and
couldn't see no signs of movement, and he said,
I think we might as well go down, don't
And I said, yeah, might as well.
And I don't know why he asked me, because he
just wanted to see what I thought, I guess.
I agreed with him, we might as well go.
We got down there and the scout was out in
front of me, and he had got past this first
hole and then I saw movement in the second hole.
They had brush stuck up around the hole for
camouflage and I could see that brush moving.
I knew there was somebody inside the hole.
And I remembered he said, withdraw by fire and
movement, so I sat down and started firing
over the top of the hole, laying down the fire
while the rest of them moved back and
yelled at them to go back and they did.
And I kept firing over the hole until-excuse
me, stop-I kept firing over the hole until
I ran out of ammunition and had to reload.
M1 holds eight rounds and I guess he must have
known that because as soon as that eighth
round was fired he raised his head and
shoulders up out of the hole and started firing back
at me.
He knew it would take me a while to reload.
And he had a burp gun, that's a little
automatic weapon like a Tommy gun.
And he wasn't able to hit me and I couldn't hit
him either.
It was two of the poorest shots in Korea met
there in that one place.
And it was only about probably twenty-five
yards apart, maybe twenty yards.
And we kept firing at each other until my M1 jammed.
A live round was trying to enter the chamber
before the empty round got out.
So I had to pull that out and get the live
round in and it didn't take but seconds.
But by that time he took advantage of that and
he got out of his hole and started running
up the hill behind him.
Another man had joined me by that time.
We were both shooting at him but we still
wasn't hitting him.
We were kicking up a duster around his feet but
we didn't hit him.
And when he got over the hill, then we went
back over the little hill that we came from,
where the rest of the patrol was.
And we got over the hill there and I turned
around to look back because there were still
two men behind me, the lieutenant and the
sergeant Woodruff that had me go on the patrol.
They were still behind me.
So I turned around and looked back and that's
when I got shot and I didn't realize what
had happened.
I just-I knew I was on the ground and I was groaning.
I don't know why I was groaning or why I was on
the ground.
I knew I was about to be getting out of there.
But I felt terrible, terrible tired.
And pretty soon this Woodruff said,
how bad are your hips, Kervin?
I said, I'm not hit, I'm just tired.
Where did they get you, John?
It hit my head.
He said, yeah, your head.
He said, you got shot through the head,
maybe in the arm, too.
So I don't know why he thought I shot in the arm.
Maybe I had blood on my sleeve from my head, I
don't know.
But anyway, he said, you've been shot in the head.
And I didn't feel no pain.
And they couldn't quite reach me from their
side of the hill,
and they wanted me to roll over, ask if I could.
Well, that doesn't seem like asking very much
of me,
but it took all the strength I had to turn over.
I had to do it three times to get
to where they could reach me.
They drug me the rest of the way then over the hill
and where the medic could take care of me.
And when he began taking care of me,
why, I felt pain on the inside of my right leg,
up pretty high on my leg.
And I knew then that I had been shot,
and I felt relieved to know that I had,
because up until this time, I thought I was,
I would just, they thought I was just putting
on an act,
and I wasn't really shot.
So we're glad to know that I didn't have a wound.
And they looked, they tried to figure out,
trying to figure out how to get me out,
and they finally made a makeshift litter
of two rifles and a jacket or two, I think, to
use between the rifles and carried me out
on that until we got out to where we met a stretcher.
They had telephoned back for them to send a
stretcher, and I rode the stretcher then
until we got to the ambulance and made two or
three stops before we got to the last ambulance.
It was a liturgy first, I guess, before we got
on the ambulance.
Then I got on the ambulance while the driver
was trying to see how fast he could get me
there to the hospital.
I probably thought he had a dying man on his
hands and he wanted to get me there quick,
but he was bouncing around so much I thought he
was going to kill me.
I kept telling him to slow down, slow down.
I said, I'm trying to get you there as quick as
I can.
He said, well, you're going to kill me doing it.
And finally we got there and I wanted to ride
home right away so they would get word from
me before they did from the War Department,
saying that I'd been wounded, I wanted to
write home and tell them about it, and the
nurse said, well, I can outwrite for you,
and I saw her reach for her shirt pocket and
her pen and her shirt pocket, and then I don't
remember anything else.
I guess I passed out about that time.
So then they took me to the-on a train to
another hospital at-oh, now that name-Tajon.
They took me to a hospital there, and they were
going to do surgery on my head.
I was thirsty, awful thirsty, and I kept asking
everybody to come along, how about give me
some water to drink.
No, you can't have water until you've had your surgery.
Next time I'd come along, I'd ask the same
question, they'd all have the same answer.
Not until you had your surgery.
I thought I was going to die of thirst before I
had my surgery.
And finally they took me to the operating room
and then, of course, I don't know what
happened after that.
I remember them shaving my head, getting ready
to do the cutting and chopping, but after
that I don't know.
I didn't know what happened until I was back in
my bunk coming to.
There was a nurse looking me right in the eye.
She didn't have bars on the bed, didn't have
that kind of bed, it was just a canvas cot,
I think, or maybe not a canvas cot, but just a
cot with no bars anyhow.
And she was sitting down there right at my eye
level, and she called me by my first name,
John, John.
And she was trying to get me to wake up.
I wasn't in too hurry to wake up, I guess, I
was sleeping pretty good.
And it was just about breakfast time, and I was
asleep, I didn't even know what I was eating.
But she told me it was-I forget what I thought
it was, but she said, No, that's bacon and eggs.
And so then she said, now you can have your water.
She said, we didn't want you to drink water
before you had your surgery because you might
get sick when you're under the anesthetic and
you'd drown in your own vomit.
You wouldn't want to do that, would you, Johnny?
I said, no, sure I wouldn't.
She said, well, then are we forgiven?
I said, yeah, you're forgiven.
And that's it.
How long did it take you to recover, John, from
that wound?
I was there in the hospital in Korea for about
two weeks, I think, and then I went to-they
flew me to Tokyo, Tokyo Army Hospital.
That's the only Army hospital that had a name
as far as I know that I was in.
The rest of them had numbers, but this one had
a name, Tokyo Army Hospital.
I was there for, I don't know, two or three
weeks, and then they flew me back to the States
to a hospital in California and then to one in
Kelly Field, or Lackland, they said.
They said Kelly Field nurse did when we got on
the plane in California, but when we went
to leave there they were talking about
Lackland, so I'm not sure which one it was.
And then I ended up in Fort Campbell, Kentucky
in the Army Hospital.
How long did it take you to recover totally?
The wound paralyzed my left side, my left arm
and left leg.
I couldn't move either of them in the start,
and then I got to where while I was still
in Korea I could move my left leg a little bit,
but I couldn't move my arm or hand,
but I still can't.
But I got-I was in various hospitals for nine
months before I came home, and before
When I left there I was able to walk around
with a cane, but I couldn't use my left arm.
And so I finally got home on the 15th of
December of 1951, and they retired me from the Army
on the 31st of October of 1951.
I was in the Veterans Hospital then at
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
And then from there I went home on the 15th of
December and that was all the-well, I
went back for hospitalization the following
summer in 1952 to Veterans Hospital in Iowa City.
Then when we-to take more therapy, try to gain
use of my arm and leg, but I was there
for probably a month, but I didn't see-couldn't
see any improvement.
So that's your military career?
That's about it, I guess.
Well, what did you do after you went back to
Iowa, John?
Did you go to work somewhere? No.
I was classified as 100% disabled and pretty
hard to find work that you could do
with one arm and one foot and one leg, so I
wasn't gainfully employed after that.
You did your part for them?
I used to work some around the home there in
the garden and things like that that I
could do at my speed with one hand and one arm.
Q. The next question I was going to ask you,
did they have to put a metal plate in your head?
A. Yeah, they did that in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
They cut in there and put in a tantalum plate.
I read an article about it in the Reader's
Digest a short time before they put it in
in there. And they said it was a friendly metal.
They could put it inside your body
and it wouldn't have no adverse effects. They
could make wire out of it and use it
to repair hernias, just leave the wire in there.
And so they put this in my head and
it stayed until-from then until, well,
forty-seven years later, I guess. It must have
been 1998-well,
I began to drain there on my head where that
scar was, there was a little bit of stuff
seeping out.
I showed it to the doctor in the Veterans
Hospital in Kerrville when I was there on
the checkup.
He got real excited and he called Brody Murphy
Hospital just right away and told them what
he had there and they wanted me to come in
right away that very day.
So it was Friday afternoon, VA is kind of
closing down by then because Saturday and
Sunday they don't do much, and Friday afternoon
it's tapering off.
But the doctor was there to see me when I got
there, and they ended up having to have
that plate taken out and have the infection,
which was staph infection, cleared up.
They gave me antibiotics for ten days, thinking
that it could clear up that way, but they
didn't realize at that time that it was staph
infection, so they were giving me the wrong
kind of antibiotics and when I went home and it
kept on draining I went back to
the hospital again and then they learned it was
staph infection. That's when they
operated and cleaned it up and gave me the
other kind of
antibiotics and so they put a different plate
in and I guess I'm about as
good as new now. Well have you went through an
airport with that new plate
in your head yet?
A. Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't think so, but I used to with the old
metal plate and I'd get through all right
with it.
But this metal leg brace would always throw them.
That leg brace down there would always make
things, alert them.
Q. Oh, so the new plate is kind of a composite
type of plate rather than metal?
A. I guess so.
I didn't tell you how I met my wife, did I?
Well, I learned back in 1985 that they were
having a reunion-you got room?-they were
having a reunion of the 1st Cavalry Division at
Fort Hood or Killeen, Killeen-Fort Hood.
So I went down here and when I was there we had
a banquet.
Well I'd better back up just a little bit.
I'd been reading their 1st Cavalry Sabre and
there was an article in each one of them
written by an old army sergeant and it was called
A Day in the Life of a Horse Cavalryman,
or Life of a Horse Cavalryman, something like that.
It was written by Sergeant Richard Looney.
So I was sitting at the, close to the front desk
when a man came in and said, I'm Richard Looney.
So I stood up and introduced myself to him,
told him I'd been reading his column in the Sabre.
His wife was with him and so then at the banquet
on a Saturday night, they seated us at the table
according to regiment.
So when the ushers saw I was in the 12th Cavalry,
they seated me at the corner of the long table.
And the next ones that came in that were seated
next to me
were this loony couple, Sergeant Richard Looney
and his wife.
And his wife was seated next to me
because ushers are women on in first.
You don't let the man trail long behind.
So she was sitting next to me and she tried to
carry on a conversation.
I was still a backward country boy and didn't
have much to say.
And she did real nice.
And I went home and told him about the nice
lady I met down there.
That was in August of 1985.
Our next reunion was held in Las Vegas in 1986.
And I went there, thought I might see them
there, but they wasn't there.
and I learned later that he had died in April
of 1986.
But in that 1987 I went back to Fort Hood again
to another same First Cavalry reunion
and there that woman was again that I'd met two
years ago.
And we ate together that night at the banquet
and I was here every two years.
I saw her again in 89 and again in 91.
And then finally, in 92, the reunion was out
in Billings, Montana, and she went there, too.
And so we got, that was a little bit closer
than two years, one year apart at that time.
We were writing letters by this time,
and it seemed like kind of a poor way
doing a courtship by letters.
So there at that reunion in Billings,
I told her I thought we ought to get married,
and she agreed to it.
So I've got a wife and five kids, the two of
them are with us.
Well, it's the shy ones that get the
good-looking women.
That's what they say.
At least I like to think that way.
Yeah, at 70 he became a father of five, never
married before.
Well, John, I want to shake your hand and tell
you thank you
for what you did for me as an American citizen
and for America too, John.
It's guys like you and young men over there
right now that keep our country going like
it is.