EXPERIENCES IN KOREA
Marjorie Norton, who lives in Waynedale, brought in this story written by her late husband Richard. Richard wrote of some of his experiences in Korea. He finished this story on January 20th, 2003 and passed away on February 19th, 2003.
In September of 1951, I received my notice to go to Indianapolis for a draft physical. I decided I didn’t want to go into the Army, so I joined the Marines. I went through boot camp from October 10th until December 10th, 1951. After completing this training, we were sent to San Diego to board a ship to go to Korea.
The trip took about 20 days. I was then assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion of the 11th Marines which was an artillery battalion made up of 105 Howitzers and 155 Howitzers. I stayed there about 1 month and worked in the Fire Direction Center as a radio operator taking messages from aerial observers and forward observers who are up with the infantry. A short time later, the front lines were getting hit pretty hard and they needed to send up another forward operator team and I was the ‘lucky radio operator’ picked. I went up with Item Company 3rd Battalion First Marines to relieve another company already on line who had lost their radio operator due to injuries. When we got up to the main line of resistance, we learned the radio operator was still alive in his bunker. His radio was still working, so he called back to Fire Direction Center requesting VT (a shell that doesn’t have to hit the ground to explode). By doing this, it cleared the North Koreans out of the area and gave us time to go in and get him out. He had some scratches, but that was about all.
Later, when I came back to the States I was stationed at Camp Legune, North Carolina. I was there for about a month and then went aboard a troop transport ship and sailed to the Mediterranean for about five months.
During the time on the Mediterranean Course, we visited several countries and played war games a couple of times. I went to Rome and visited with the Pope along with several others. Later, I went to Munich, Germany at Christmas time. After coming home I was sent to Temporary Added Duty to teach tank commanders radio procedure.
Upon returning to the States, one of the company clerks asked me if I had received my medal yet. I said, “What medal?” A week or so later while having weekly inspections and information, I was called out front and was presented the Bronze Star. I received the Bronze Star for setting up extra communication between the forward operations team and company command post by taking an extra radio to company command post from forward operations position down an open hill and a couple hundred yards along with a forward operations officer. If he had tripped and fell, I would have run over him because the radio weighed 70 lbs. and I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to. The North Koreans were shooting at us the whole time.
During my forward operations time, I was on three different out posts and we manned a fourth out post that was 1.5 miles out in front of the main line of resistance. The last outpost I was at was the one out by Panungjon and our only responsibility was to get brass, who were in there negotiating, out in case of any danger to them. We were expendable. I returned to my old outfit and proceeded to get ready for my release from active duty. I have been married almost 46 years to my wonderful wife Marge, who I met on a blind date. We were married on June 26th, 1955. We have four wonderful children and eight grandchildren.
Years of Service: 1951-1954, Branch of Service Code 1-2531, Highest Rank, Sgt., Unit and Division-I Battery 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines-1st Marine Division, Bronze Star Award-Code 1, Marine Corp Good Conduct-Code 2, All Korean Medals-Code 3, National Defense, Naval Occupation (Europe), Indiana Service Ribbons (10 yr.).
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