This is Marisa Coye interviewing Mr. Rodolfo
Nieto April 9th, 2004 at Mr. Rodolfo Nieto's home.
Are you aware that our conversation will be
recorded and that the tape and transcription
will be placed in the Lee College Library? And
do I have your permission to do that?
Yes, you do.
Thank you.
What is your name and age?
I'm going to give you R.C. Nieto instead of my
whole name, okay?
And age is 78.
What was your rank in the military and how long
was your service?
Well, if you're talking about how long, I
served in two wars.
Actually, the first one, it was a little over
two years. The second one was served.
About 11 months that I served, but all told it
was seven years because I was in the reserves.
How old were you when you went in the reserves?
Well, when I went in the reserves right after
World War II, I was 20.
How old were you when you joined the military?
I was 20.
Well, when I joined in 1944, I was 18.
Why did you choose this area of the military?
I didn't choose. I was drafted.
What did you think when you were drafted? Did
you know before they...
Was there talk about being a draft and then it
just happened?
No, there was a draft going on. Everybody was
going to be drafted at 18, but as soon as you
turned 18, you was gone.
That was in World War II and all that.
What wars did you participate in?
Well, the Europe War, World War II, which was
with Germany,
and the Korean War, which was with the North
Korean and South Korean.
What did you think when you were informed of
the war?
Before you went, did you support what you were
fighting for?
In World War II, I was young, like everybody.
You're ready.
The Korean War, I guess I stayed in, but I
should have gotten out.
What did you think when you were informed of it?
Did you support?
During World War II, I was young and didn't care.
During the Korean War, I thought I got a dirty deal.
I didn't think I should have been called back
because I was inactive,
and there's active and inactive, and I was inactive.
When I went back, you didn't go into the same
service that you were promised.
You got it?
Yes, thank you.
Right there, it was not only me, but a lot of
young guys that were there
were dissatisfied with the way the government
was doing.
Because we were inactive, and we weren't given
the same branch of service
that we were promised.
Because you were promised, if you joined the reserve,
you were promised that this is what you're
going to be.
And you joined the reserve, and this is what
you would not do.
So instead of, like me, I was in the combat engineers.
I ended up in the infantry.
What did you do in the combat engineers?
What was that like?
We built bridges.
In Germany, during World War II, we built
bridges, fixed roads.
Anything, any kind of construction that needs
to be done, you do it.
From, say, roads, bridges, mines, anything the
engineers can do, they'll do it.
What's your call to do it?
And what was the entrance fee like?
Did you, like, were you trained for that at all after?
Oh, yeah.
You have a basic training when you first go in
for the regular basic training
that everybody gets.
Then you take whatever you're going to take in
engineer training.
You take your basic engineer training that you
were trained to build roads, bridges,
pick up mines.
Thinks of that, don't you?
So how did the military train you for, I guess,
for each one?
You can answer one of the World War II and then
the Korean War.
Were they different?
Like, how were they alike and similar?
That's very much different than, say, when I
was in World War II
and I was supposedly in the combat engineers,
and we did that.
In the Korean War, it was totally different
because I went into infantry,
which was totally not what I was promised, so I
ended up in the infantry.
What did you do in the infantry?
In the infantry, they assigned me to a mortars,
which was a good deal,
I mean, compared to being a rifleman, you know, whatever.
Now, I was in the mortars, so we could do a lot
of damage in a safer place,
but if the enemy ever breaks through, which
they do, you're there by yourself.
What were the conditions like that you saw in
each war, like World War II?
Like, how was the atmosphere around?
By atmosphere, you're talking about what?
Where you were stationed.
Like, where you were stationed.
Where were you stationed?
I was stationed in different places.
When I first went to overseas, I didn't stay
long in these places.
At first, I went to Scotland, then I went to England,
and then from England I went to France and then
to Belgium.
That's where, right there's where we caught up
with the troops in Belgium.
That was in December of 1944, which was cold,
cold, cold.
So that was what we, places that we've been,
and then we went to Germany from when the war ended.
That's where I was in Germany. Yes.
And what about in the Korean War?
Like, how, where were you stationed first over there?
In the Korean War, we was moving pretty fast.
They called me.
I went to Fort Hood, which was Camp Hood at
that time,
and then I was sent to Camp Drake, Japan, and
from Camp Drake I went to Korea.
In Korea, you get there one day and you rent it.
As you were fighting, did your perspective
change on the involvement of the war?
No, not really.
The only thing I was not with was the way they
put me from the engineers into the infantry.
That was the only thing that, you know, it was
something that I just couldn't see it,
but everybody was getting the same medicine,
not just me.
There were bugle boys in the infantry and, you
know, things of that nature
that most of them were complaining about.
Hey, you call us in and you're not putting us
where you said,
you're putting us where you want to.
Did they not have enough people?
They didn't have enough people.
That was one of the things.
Another thing, they were getting the hell beat
out of us.
We was always, when I got there, there was
nothing but back, go back.
They had us in the run all the time.
What were some of the experiences that you
remember in World War II?
Let's see.
One of the things that I can remember is like
really when you go into Germany
and build this bridge and dedicate it to Ernie
Paul who was a war correspondent
that got killed that month.
And we dedicated the bridge to him, which was a
Bailey Bridge.
It was a strong bridge, a long bridge.
It could hold tanks.
It could hold a convoy.
But you worked seven days, seven nights.
Everybody pitched in to build that.
How were you able to build it without people
shooting at you and everything?
We were able to build it because the Germans
were in the running.
Once we got to the Rhineland, the Germans
didn't have a way to stop anybody.
They were, that was the last line of defense
right there at the Rhineland.
Once a few troops got across, the Germans were
on the run, just going back, back, back to Berlin.
So we was able, they could fire at us, but
they're not worried about you building the bridge.
They're worried about this guy shooting at me.
And what were some of the experiences that you
remember in the Korean War?
Well, in Korea, that's really horrible.
Since I got there, like I said, it was always
going the opposite way.
I remember getting there and the captain came
to meet us.
It was out in the mountains somewhere.
He came to meet us and said, if we knew what
we're here for.
And we just told him, well, there's a war going on.
He said, no, you're here.
And I'll use the words, we're fighting.
You want me to stop the tape?
He said, we're fighting for our butts.
And we didn't say that because we were going back.
You got your butt towards the end zone.
That's why he said that.
He said, you're fighting for your butt.
We're going the opposite way.
And he told the truth.
That's what it was.
You couldn't run back, stop, hold them for a
little bit,
didn't run back from them.
There were just too many of them.
You couldn't stop them, really.
But that wasn't the war in the Korean War.
The last battle that I was in, in fact, that was,
we had started in advance.
Instead of running, it was going forward now.
But a little bit of time, it was going forward.
And he, when we got to this town, Wonju, which
is a
perfect town, he said, that night we got there,
we was
holding the line there, and he said, we're
going to go to
a place called Hoin Song.
But we didn't, that was supposed to be, the
enemy was
at Hoin Song.
It was 12 miles to Hoin Song.
So he said, that's where we're going.
But it wasn't 12 miles, it was 12 miles where
they were at.
What we didn't know, the enemy had already
surrounded us,
and we were already in a trap, but we didn't
know this.
They're up in the mountains, we're up in the road.
So we got in, left Wonju on the 11th of
February at night,
got to where we was going, and spread out for
an advance.
When we found out, we were surrounded.
So we came in advance.
We stayed there all day, and we had no fighting
going on yet.
We had breakfast, but then as soon as daylight
broke up,
we could see Chinese all over the mountains.
They were all around us.
But they weren't fighting, they were just up there.
We knew they were up there.
So they weren't fighting, so we started
fighting them,
and we started shooting at them.
And at night, they decided, we're going to pull out,
we're going to pull back.
And we started to pull back.
We had a couple of fights with them during the day,
but it wasn't too late.
But you didn't think, at least I thought, this
is it,
this is it for the last day.
I ended up surviving that.
We got in the convoy, started back,
probably didn't go over a mile, less than a
mile, I'd say,
when the first tank was crippled,
you know, the threats of where you can't row no more.
But it was crippled on top of a one-way bridge.
In other words, we couldn't move, we couldn't
go forward,
we couldn't go backward.
And we had a convoy.
Side of the road, the mountain drops,
the other side is the mountains up.
So we just couldn't go nowhere.
We tire up, and the fight broke out there.
And they had us, in other words, where they wanted,
not where we wanted to be, but where they
wanted us to be.
Right there, we can't move this tank,
we can't go backwards because the roads are narrow,
the snow is heavy, because it's during the snow
and the cold was bad.
So we ended up, say, having to fight there.
But then we got the order to each his own.
In other words, get out the best way you can,
but we can't move.
Our convoy's done going nowhere.
So we did, some of the guys started leaving,
others didn't, others just stayed there.
I wasn't going to stay there for days.
We started out with a company.
A company is usually about 150 men, plus support.
I don't know what kind of support we had.
We had tanks, we had artillery.
Part of another infantry, I don't know who it was,
and we started.
Yeah, once we, they gave the order to each his own,
you go out the best way you can.
Where are you going?
You go to that mountain, you can't get through,
you go to this other, you can't.
In other words, they're all around you, and we
knew it.
So the guys started going.
All of a sudden, this guy that was with me,
I don't know who he was because you don't know nobody.
He said, what are we going to do?
I said, I don't know what you're going to do,
stay here because we can't go no place.
There is no place to go.
By that time, I get hit.
Our far power is dead.
We got 25 men defending the convoy from 150 men.
We got 25 left.
I know that because that's how many were
captured there.
So I had a good friend named Jesse Perkins,
and he took off.
Anyway, they got the 25 of us that were down there
defending the convoy.
It was just 25 vehicles, 45 people,
plus all the Chinese that ran us.
We surrendered.
They got us.
They were real good with us.
They said, we're not going to hurt you.
We're not going to do anything.
They spoke good English.
They said the system was going to take us to
the back of the mountain
where they came from.
They took us around.
We spent all night on the side of the mountain.
When we got there, they had a bunch of our guys there.
So I waited there.
We knew what was about to happen.
We were waiting for daybreak.
We were waiting for daybreak because our planes
cannot fly
unless you've got weather that allows them to fly.
So our jets bought permission to put out a flag
that would let us.
Because there was guards up in the mountain,
but down in front of us, there was only three guards.
You can't hold that many men with three guards,
but they were getting ready to do something.
We had to put a flag out, and they said no.
So we looked at daybreak, and pretty soon we
heard a roar.
We knew the jets were coming.
All of a sudden, we see the jets just turning
towards where we were.
And they let napalm drop.
They strafed us.
Everything that they could throw at us.
In the meantime, those that made it from that way,
my friend Jesse Perkins, he was captured.
He was all night on the mountain, and then he
got captured.
He came in.
I said, well, where's the other two guys?
The other two guys, because there was three
that left,
and he came back with one.
He said, well, the other one is coming right
behind you.
They had him back there.
And the third one, he said, we don't know what
happened to him.
We lost him.
So we talked for a little while.
He said, because he was an ex-merchant marine,
they used to sail up there with us.
He said, I'll tell you what, Newton, you know
what's going to happen.
They're going to separate us pretty soon.
If you get out, you get in touch with my folks.
If I get out, I know Baytown, because he used
to come to Baytown a lot as a seaman.
If I get out, I'll see that you folks know what
happened to him.
But we didn't have an address for nobody.
I didn't have his, he didn't have mine, but he
knew Baytown.
It was from Big Spring.
It's a long way from here.
So I thought, well, yeah, I think that's about
all we can do.
We didn't have no pants or nothing.
That morning, before the raid, they took our
wallets, ring, money,
anything you had, they took it away.
So, then after the raid, I would gather,
because since I had talked to Jesse during the night,
I would gather that Jesse didn't get killed at
that raid,
but they'd come up and say, everybody's going
north except the wounded.
Anybody that's wounded can stay, so I stayed.
By the time everybody left, there was 75
wounded, so we stayed there.
Jesse moved to Goan because I didn't see him no more.
So, yeah, I came to, yeah, they came and picked
us up,
but after the raid, they said, we're going to
put you in a building.
After that raid, they put us in a school building.
There, nearby there?
Yeah, nearby, and planes come, they didn't do
nothing to the school building,
so they figured, well, they're not going to
hurt me in this building
because it's a school building.
So there was a village that we had passed when
we came in,
and there was one in front of us that's where
we was going,
so they came and took us out of the school building
early in the morning before daybreak.
We're going to move you guys out to a village,
and they took us down the road to a village and
put us in this village.
Well, everybody knew what was going to happen,
so we was in there, maybe about an hour, here
comes the jets.
Everything was gone.
All the buildings there, they just burned them
all up,
tore everything down.
Then I don't know what happened to the rest of them,
but I know it was six of us left.
Well, I was one of them.
You take 75 people, the planes come and burn you,
and when they gather you, there's six of us.
I can just remember the six of us there.
Then they put us in there, and at night they
would put us
at the side of the mountains where they were,
and in the daytime they'd bring us down and put us
in this one little house that was left.
Then they thought they were going to come back
and finish the job.
I was there in the day, and planes never did
hit that little house.
But they figured if our rescue comes, they'll
get it first
because we're in that little building.
We stayed there in that little building.
In the daytime and at night they would put us
in the mountains where they were.
So they didn't have to pull guard over us.
They just had us with them.
In the daytime, they're not going no place.
So, yeah, we stayed there.
We would see tank patrols coming in for three days.
The patrol would come in, but we were so far
off the road
that we couldn't make a run for it.
And we knew the Chinese were up there.
If we do, they're going to get us.
So we stayed there.
Three days, the first patrol that came in,
they came in, and they would turn down there.
We could hear where they turned back where we
hit the ambush
where our convoy was knocked out.
So they stopped on the way back on the road.
We knew there was a dead body of an American.
You could tell it was a Bolivian.
So they stopped to pick up that body,
and we could hear the tanks.
They said, man, they look good, but they're so far.
You can't make a run for it.
They went back, came back the next day, next
morning again.
We could hear them and see them,
but we was in that little house waiting.
And every time they'd come,
on the third day we'd see them coming.
But when we see that patrol coming,
we could hear a lot of fighting going on
on the other side of the mountain.
Then by daybreak, we saw somebody coming up the mountain,
and we could see the fighting going from
mountain to mountain.
So we sit there.
Somebody is close to us, but we are close to them.
We can get hurt or killed.
No, but anyway, we see them go up the mountain.
We see them come down.
But once they came down the mountain,
we could see, as far as you could ask and see,
you could see a military coming,
whoever, whatever you know.
We could see lines of tanks coming.
We still didn't know who it is.
We just hoped they don't fire at us.
No, a little while later they come,
and we could hear the shooting coming.
We're in front of them.
Here's all the shooting going on.
They shoot at anything that could be cover for them,
like a bush, a hive, anything that's covered.
They're going to use it.
They're going to pull a hole before they get near.
So we knew what was going to happen.
So we said, well, let's just grab the floor.
That's all we can do.
Because with all the fire, you can't hear
what's going on.
And finally we got to probably, from here to
the road,
we could hear them talking.
We could hear the English, the Americans.
So somebody get up and scream.
Nobody would get up because that's right there.
Yeah, so we had a big window you could see out.
Finally, the three of us got up and went to the window
and waved.
And they asked for us to come out.
Because there was no farther ahead to the road.
And we came out.
Only four of us came out.
The other two couldn't even get up.
So he said, how many in there?
Well, there's four right now.
But there's two more left in.
They can't walk.
Their leg was shot off there.
So then he said, well, you report to them.
They're leaving.
Thank you.
The commander was in front.
We went there.
And then they sent us to a field hospital.
And I stayed at the field hospital overnight.
They sent me to a hospital.
Next day, they're in Korea.
And the following day, they sent me to Tokyo,
to the hospital in Tokyo.
But then when I got to Tokyo, they came and
told us,
like me, that I've been over there since.
Oh, they brought you the Purple Heart and all
this crap,
I don't believe it.