Jul/Aug 2006 - Korean War Veterans Association

egan bunching up in one big group. He
sent those with weapons back up the hill to
form some kind of defense line. I don’t
know what happened to those without
weapons. The interpreter said he threatened
to shoot them. I doubt if he did shoot any of
them, but I would guess he got them
weapons and sent them to the front line.
Certain situations in time of combat
require harsh action to maintain discipline.
The idea that the North Korean army was
invincible was a big psychological problem
the South Korean commanders had to overcome.
The South Korean soldiers were
poorly trained, the majority being draftees,
with the minimum of instruction in shooting
before they faced a highly trained enemy.
The policy of segregating them into the
American’ army for the purpose of on-thejob
training in combat was one of. the best
things that happened during the first year of
the war. They would eat, sleep, and fight as
though they were in the American Army. I
had three in my squad all the time I was
with the infantry, and it worked out very
well.
Around the third week of August I typed
up my own transfer to the 27th Infantry
Regiment after talking to Col. Childs, who
was the Regimental Commander. He was a
frequent visitor to the Division G-3 section,
and I got to know him well enough to help
me make up my mind about transferring out
of Division Headquarters. In a couple days,
during morning roll call, the 1st Sgt. called
my name and before I could answer
“Here!” he said, “Ondrish, get your bag and
baggage and be in front of company headquarters
at nine o’clock, and I don’t want to
see your butt in this company again!” Or, at
least he said words to that effect, but maybe
not that nicely.
As fate would have it, later in the autumn
I met that 1st Sgt., now 1st Lt. in charge of
supply. We briefly talked about how things
were going for both of us. After that, I never
saw him again.
After I was assigned to Company B,
daily combat was routine. One early afternoon,
we attacked a hill on the far side of a
small village. The village was in flames as
we moved through it with a frontal tack. We
stopped on the other side where the hill
became steep while the Air Force P51s gave
the hill a good going over. The planes put a
lot of machine gun fire on the enemy positions;
the empty shell casings fell from the
planes onto the friendly troops below. The
trees moved as if in a storm, because the
planes came in so close to the ground.
Overall, there was a lot of noise from the
planes, artillery and mortars, in addition to
our own individual rifles firing. The main
method of control was arm and hand
motions. There seemed to be a lot of confusion,
but everyone understood what was to
be done. Maybe this system wasn’t in the
training manual, but it was adequate to
accomplish the mission.
A few days later my platoon was
assigned to secure the left portion of the
company’s objective. I was with a squad on
the far left of the platoon. The attack began
at nine o’clock in the morning. (For some
reason, nine o’clock always seemed like a
good time to attack, especially after you had
eaten your breakfast.) The sun was to our
back as we moved up the lower part of the
hill.
This company’s objective was to take a
lower hill dominated by a higher hill some
seven hundred yards further away. There
was the usual preparatory firing by the
artillery and mortars. This day we had two
water-cooled .30 cal. machine guns set up to
the platoon’s left rear for close support.
The enemy was sending rifle and mortar
fire onto our company. Because my squad
was not subjected to as much enemy fire as
the rest of the company, we got out ahead of
the main attacking force. The word came to
hold up until the remainder of the company
came up on line with us.
Every infantryman loves artillery support,
but fears a short round (a round falling
short of the intended target). During the
time we were all lying on the ground waiting
for the company to come up on line, one
soldier named O’Rourke just stood up and
announced “I’m getting out of here! “ Just
then a short round came into the pine trees
within our platoon area, exploding at treetop
level. O’Rourke was wounded in both
Certain situations in time of combat require harsh action to
maintain discipline. The idea that the North Korean army
was invincible was a big psychological problem the South
Korean commanders had to overcome.
of his hands and arms from shrapnel. He
looked as if he had chicken pox, bleeding
from the wounds. The medics helped him
back down the hill on foot where he was
taken to the aid station.
The attack got going again, but was
brought to a standstill from heavy enemy
fife. It was hard going with waist-high vegetation
in places and ravines splitting squad
and platoon boundaries. Cpl. Ballesterez
was wounded in one of his legs below the
knee. Sgt. Graham, from Mayville, New
York, was my squad leader at this time and
we helped Ballesterez down the hill a little
ways to where the medics took care of him.
Then we both went back to the squad,
which was in a holding position.
The attack again got underway with a
slow advance toward the top of the hill.
Once again the enemy’s fire held us up. One
of the South Korean soldiers who was put in
our squad had been hit by enemy rifle fire
and was lying on the ground with blood all
over his chest and stomach. To all appearances,
he looked dead.
Because we were not advancing and our
squad was not receiving any direct fire in
our immediate area, Graham decided to
take a smoke break while waiting for the
word to begin the final assault. I was taking
a drink of water from my canteen and talking
to Graham, who was puffing on his cigarette.
The South Korean soldier started to
move his arm. He had heard our talking and
began to regain consciousness. He asked for
water in Korean: “Mesu.”
Graham said, “If I knew he wasn’t shot
in the stomach, I’d give him a drink.” I took
my pocket knife, which I carried in the top
of my 1st aid packet, and cut the soldier’s
shirt from the cuff to the collar. At this time
we learned he did not have a stomach
wound, so we gave him a drink of water
from one of our canteens. He had been shot
through the shoulder, front to back, between
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The Graybeards
July - August A
2006