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...

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…