Soldier's experience at a Korean War MASH unit

Korean War

Life as a Soldier in the Korean War

Life here in Korea has been unbearable and exhausting. I enlisted prior to the outbreak of war and had been stationed in Japan on security detail. The work was easy and had not prepared me for my deployment to the front lines. As an 18-year-old private first class, I witnessed heavy fighting and the kind that seemed never to make a dent in the morale of the North Koreans. And especially with the dispatching of their Chinese allies by the thousands in the later part of this year, the task for fighting them off became and endless test of our endurance.

It is also intolerably cold here in the winter. At its worst, the temperature was so cold that our guns jammed and our cannons cracked. The ground was so frozen over that we had to use grenades to make foxholes for warmth. On occasion, we were also warmed by the relative accessibility of Japanese beer and Canadian rum. These spirits did help to raise morale, but we were also frequently set back in this regard by the day-to-day trauma of war.

I watched my fellow soldiers take sniper fire from a distance and bayonet piercing from up close. I have witnessed the deaths of friends in ways that are unimaginable. Even worse than that, though, has been the aftermath of the brutality demonstrated by the North Koreans. Their war crimes have left an indelible impression on me and show a level of depravity that as a young man I never knew was possible. In my short time sweeping through the villages at the front lines, following a trail of destruction wrought on the South Korean civilians by their northern neighbors, I would see the charred, wounded, dismembers and violated bodies of men, women and children. This was an endless horror that I know will haunt me for the rest of my life.

And with every village that we passed through that had seen the devastation brought about by the North Koreans, we would find orphans left behind, wandering the streets or hiding from the enemy. It brings me a great deal of sadness to think of how many Koreans will grow up as orphans and with these horrors as their earliest memories. Part of me is troubled by the thought that we have a part in this destruction too.

In spite of this doubt though, I believe in the cause of this war. It is the duty of the United States to fight on the behalf of democracy wherever we are called to do so. With the spread of the Soviet and Chinese influence comes the spread of dictatorship, oppression and the scourge of communism. And as this spreads throughout the world, it threatens our cherished freedoms and way of life. As Americans, we have a duty to see that the South Koreans are given the same freedoms that we enjoy and to do this even at the cost of our lives. With all that I've witnessed in fact, my resolve has only been strengthened to help drive back the North Koreans and the Chinese. Now that I have seen firsthand the types of atrocities of which the enemy is capable, I believe more than ever that democracy, freedom and personal liberty are rights to be defended with all of our resources.