The Graybeards - KWVA - Korean War Veterans Association

Back in the mid-1980s I read an article
in a surveyor’s magazine called,
“Surveying under Fire.” At the time I
worked for a company called Wild
Heerbrugg, Inc., based on Long Island,
New York. I had been with the company
for some seven years by then. My job at
Wild was that of an equipment-systems
trainer for dealer personnel selling the
products and for end-users not familiar
with Wild equipment.
The article reminded me of a time thirty-plus
years before when I surveyed under
fire using similar Wild equipment. It
reflected on the experience and times of
surveying under fire in all the wars up to
that time. The Army Topographic
Engineers (Surveyors) made maps in the
Revolutionary War for General
Washington. Certainly once West Point got
going academically in the early 1800s, the
cadets had to have gotten some exposure to
surveying and mapping techniques that
would enhance their skills as engineers.
Those skills would prove their worth on
the fields of battle in their future assignments.
But this author left out Korea. I thought,
“Here is another writer who just skated
right over us, again.” To understand and
appreciate what units like the 8221st,
Army Unit did in Korea is to look back at
history through the larger end of the telescope.
Fort Belvoir, Virginia served for many
years as the home of the Army’s
Topographic Engineers. Back in. the late
1940’s and in the 1950’s the schools at
Belvoir also turned out construction surveyors
and related tradesmen for the Navy
CB’s, the Marines and Army engineer battalions.
At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the home
of the Field Artillery School of the Army,
there was a school for artillery surveyors
and related technical courses. Fort Sill was
also the home of the 1st Observation
Battalion, which included in its ranks surveyors,
meteorological technicians, and
range and flash people. Those folks were
also schooled and trained at Fort Sill.
Officers from West Point, OCS and ROTC
programs were also schooled and trained at
Sill to be Forward Observers and field
artillery leaders. At Fort Bliss, Texas personnel
transferred to the newly formed
missile and rocket launching units were
schooled and trained in special surveying
The Combat
Surveyor of
Yesteryear
By CW3 Michael C.J. Kaminski, USAR Ret.
and related courses. Anyone in the military
who came out of one of these schools with
a certificate of completion or a diploma
usually secured a good duty assignment
with an established unit on location anywhere.
The really good student graduates
ended up at one of the school as an instructor.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—I did
not attend any school at Belvoir or at Bliss,
but did graduate from the Artillery Survey
School at Fort Sill in April of 1949, while
a member of “A” Battery, 18th Field
Artillery Battalion in 1948-49. I became a
“Topo Man” (MOS 1230) through field
experience with the 29th Topographic
Engineers in the Philippines. My secondary
MOS (1577) was that of an artillery
surveyor. That all happened before the
SFC Mike C.J. Kaminski with Wild T2 prepares
for a Sun Azimuth Observation to
check a line direction (1951).
Korean War started in 1950.
My other claim to fame as far as military
experience is concerned is that I
enlisted in 1947 in the old “Brown Shoe”
Army with O.D. color boxer shorts for
underwear with buttons, no fly zippers or
Velcro on the trousers, the buttoned down
Eisenhower jacket, the balloon pocket
fatigue pants, the old style field jacket with
buttons down the front and on the cuffs,
and the two-buckle top leather combat
boots. Oh! yeah and we had the helmet
liner and piss-pot to protect our heads. It
was used for everything from a latrine in
an emergency to a wash basin in the field.
We cooked in it, hammered in tent pegs
with it, used it as a weapon on occasion,
and even stashed our valuables in it. Yep,
that is another whole story compared to the
type of military clothing and equipment
issued today.
Speaking from experience, I know that
architects dream and make plans.
Engineers dream and build great works.
Surveyors measure and just dream! All
three of the career fields are intertwined
along the way, and each profession has a
working knowledge of the others. At Fort
Belvoir and the other locations the training
and instruction was chain-linked to related
careers, i.e. computing, surveying, cartography,
construction and engineering.
However, like any school, military or civilian,
once you got out and into reality, experience
on the job is the best teacher.
In Korea we all learned some reality
lessons about our career field under
adverse conditions. There was a war on,
not just training exercises. This was for
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The Graybeards