Would you share your personal experience of life right after the division of Korea and during the Korean War?

I was 14 years old when World War II ended so I had no knowledge of the division of Korea. I doubt I had even heard of Korea at that time. It was certainly not an item of interest.

I graduated from High School in early June of 1950, and the North invaded the South in the latter part of that same month. A number of my classmates were in the Naval or Marine Corps Reserve and they were called to active duty. The Marine classmates were sent to Camp Pendleton for training and eventual deployment to the 1st Marine Division.

I had enrolled in San Diego State College out of High School and started classes in late August or early September. The war in Korea was a topic of interest and conversation especially as some high school classmates were getting ready to ship out. I was becoming increasingly restless in college and at the end of September, I made the rounds of the recruiting offices. I decided on the Marine Corps and signed up on 2 Oct 1950. There were several motivating factors. With the war on, college did not seem satisfactory. There was no deferment for students and I was concerned about being drafted. I had suffered from asthma from the time I was very young, and quite possibly could have been given 4F status, but this was not an option from my point of view. My Country was at war and it was my duty to serve. I did not want to go into the Army. My father had been career Navy and that might have had something to do with my aversion to the Army. As it was, I received my draft notice during my third week in boot camp.

I did 8 weeks of boot camp, had leave and then reported to Camp Pendleton for weapons training. I trained on the 3.5″ bazooka, flame thrower and demolitions for 3 months then shipped out for Korea on the General William Weigel which took us from San Diego to Yokusuka, Japan. It was a miserable trip as we were on a great circle route which took us north with heavy seas and cold weather. We were packed in like Sardines. You had to decide if you were going to sleep on your back or stomach. The canvas racks were so close you could not sleep on your side or turn over. The confined quarters and rough seas caused a lot of the Marines to became seasick. I spent a lot of time on deck because of the foul odors below. At Yokusuka, we were transferred to U.S. Navy attack transports for the trip to Pusan, Korea.

USS General William Weigel (AP-119) - Wikipedia

In Pusan, I had my first look at the enemy. We were being transported in trucks and passed a large group of prisoners of war being guided by Jeeps with machine guns. More than one shook their fist at us which we either ignored or responded with ribald comments.

From Pusan, I, along with others, were flown to 5th Marine Regimental Headquarters. They told us that our objective was the Kansas Line. At an interview where assignments were being made, the officer asked if anyone had training on the flamethrower. I raised my hand and was assigned to Weapons Co. 1st. Battalion. When I arrived at Battalion Headquarters, I was told their flamethrowers were all in the rear, they had no need for bazooka personnel at the moment, so they assigned me to a Heavy Machine gun. It was a Browning M1917 water cooled .30 caliber machine gun. I carried two cans of ammunition for the gun which added 46 lbs. to the rest of the stuff I hauled up and down mountains. In all about 90 lbs. plus.

Browning M1917 in Korea. (M1917 Browning Machin Gun - Wikipedia)

My first night there, we came under artillery fire which was answered by the 11th Marines. I learned to distinguish the difference in the sounds of incoming and outgoing that night. We came under artillery and/or mortar fire a couple of times a day and sometimes at night. More often if the other side was particularly annoyed by the arrival of armored vehicles or in one case the arrival of an Army self propelled 105mm unit. We had been on C Rations and no canned heat for some time before the arrival of the Army 105mm unit. They had a field kitchen so some buddies and I went down to their field kitchen to see if we could scrounge some hot food. The cook said fine after his men had been fed. We got at the end of the line and received our hot food. Just then the enemy decided to shell us. My chow went one way and I dived under a truck. When the shelling finally stopped, my buddies and I retuned to our position and did not venture into their area again. After a few days of their sending and receiving artillery rounds, they departed and the enemy started shelling us again.

A short while later, we entered a village that had been recently captured by our line units. We set up the gun and dug our own holes and had nothing else to do but explore. I smelled something that was completely new to me. I followed my nose and came to an intact house with the front door slightly ajar. I pushed the door open and discovered the rotting corpse of a woman. I quickly retreated and I have never forgotten that smell as I had plenty of exposure as time wore on.

We were inserted with a Line Company to provide covering fire for their attack on the highest point of the Kansas Line. We were next to a 75mm recoilless rifle and we were both providing fire against some bunkers forward of our advancing infantry. Later that day wounded and dead were being evacuated from the firing line and we were instructed to start pulling back to our original positions as the attack had not succeeded. The mountain was covered in dense scrub pine trees and underbrush. I was on a trail following others pulling back when I came upon a short flat section of the trail where I lost sight of those in front of me. A bullet smacked the pine tree about 2 ft. to my right and I made record time getting over the lip of the trail going downward. Back in our original positions, we were told to expect a counter attack. We noticed three bunkers that were downhill from our position. A few of us managed to obtain some wire and with some C-Ration cans proceeded to booby trap the entrance to all three bunkers by inserting a hand grenade into each C-Ration can, pulling the pin and attaching the wire to the grenades. Two were about shoulder height and two about knee height. I kept the pins, and as there was no attack, except for a heavy artillery barrage, we retrieved the grenades the next morning. The Line Companies moved out to the mountain top the next morning and found that the enemy had evacuated the place during the night.

Battle Lines 10 Jul - 31 Oct 1951 (www.koreanwar.org)

After a couple of months, I had a severe asthma attack. The corpsman sent me to a doctor who sent me to Able Med. From there I was sent to Baker Med., Hospital Ship in Pusan, Naval Hospital in Yokusuka and finally to the Naval Hospital in San Diego. After discharge from the hospital, I was assigned as a Drill Instructor, then when they discovered I could type as a clerk in the 3rd Training Battalion at MCRD, Signal School and after answering a notice in the Base Newspaper, the Band at MCRD San Diego. I was honorably discharged on 1 Oct. 1953.