DEAFNESS IS BLISS

Orace L. Edwards, Cpl.

Korea 1950-1951

Orace L. Edwards, 1070751 Combat experiences in Korea with George Company, 3rd Battalion, 1St Marines from 15 Sept 1950 to 30 Nov 1950 (Three battles – Inchon, Seoul, Chosin Reservoir

September 15, 1950

I was a member of George Company 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Platoon, 3rd squad – under Sgt Vernon Kent, and was in the 1st fire team. ( David Martinez – Rifleman, Gene “Red” Myers –BAR man, and myself asst. BARman. I joined this fire team on the 3of August, 1950 as G-3-1 was formed. I was a young Marine that should have been finishing my last year of high school in Texarkana, Arkansas, But my Reserve Unit was activated on 27 July 1950. The Marine made the decision that anyone that had two summer camps were “combat ready”. I traveled to Camp Pendleton aboard a train. After G-3-1 was formed, we went to tent Camp II at Camp Pendleton to train. We were there until we left for San Diego and loaded on the troop ship USS Simon Bolivar Buckner. We departed San Diego on the 12 of August and landed in Kobe Japan on the 28th I got intensive training on the ship going over. We trained at Camp Otsu Japan until we boarded an LST (USS 1045) on the 10th of September. I felt I needed all the training I could get and was taking in all I could get, especially from the World War II Vets. I made the Inchon landing on the first wave with the 1st Platoon, G-3-1 on the 15th of September. As I was digging in it seemed the ground was moving back and forth like the LST had been moving in the ocean. I was “volunteered” for a recon patrol the first night on the beach while I was still digging in with people I really didn’t know. We were to make contact with the next company on line. I have subsequently talked to Jack Dunne and found out that Sgt John Malnar was leading the patrol I was in. (I’m still not sure how I wound up on a patrol with marines from the 2nd platoon). Since I was new, I was not familiar with all the people in George Company, but I was trying to learn them fast. I knew the people in 1st Platoon and I very well knew M/Sgt Zullo with that thunderous voice – it seemed to vibrate the Quantsi hut roofs at Pendleton, and I very well knew Captain Westover with his long legged marches that we took at Pendleton and Camp Otsu and he never seemed to tire. Most of the other personnel I knew were in the 1st platoon. During the landing I remember that Pfc. Ralph Murphy and Cpl Albert Barnes were killed. I knew Murphy about as well as I knew anyone else. And had seen Barnes and been around him.

September 16, 1950

My fireteam was assigned to protect the right flank of the company as we moved toward Seoul. We were advancing through a narrow field of peas that was on the bank, about 30 feet above a narrow part of the road the company was traveling on. The peas were very dense that reached up to about your waist. We couldn’t see the ground or if anyone was in the pea patch or not. We spread out with three to four rows between us to try to encounter anyone that might be hiding. Our weapons were raised high enough to clear the top of the pea stalks. I remember them being so thick you couldn’t see the ground or what was on the ground. Red Myers (our BARman ) was walking in one row and stepped on a North Korean that was hiding and trying to lob grenades down on the company. I think they had already thrown a couple. He motioned for him to get him up, then told him to get up, but then he made a move like he was going to toss a grenade at us, and Myers shot a burst into him. His grenade went off but I think it was so close that it only hit him. We had ducked when the grenade went off and somehow it missed us completely. It did clear a path in the Pea patch rows so we could see them. There were four of them scattered in the pea patch, next to the road trying to lob grenades. Myers got two with his BAR, I think I got one and Martinez got the other. None survived or escaped.

September 17, 1950

We Advanced with the Tank Column toward Seoul. I believe this was the day a motorcycle came speeding upon us. The motorcycle came at a fast speed meeting our column as we advanced toward Seoul. He had a side car that looked like an officer was his passenger. I believe he fired a shot from a pistol or something, that was his mistake. He was immediately taken care of and they crashed swerving to their left off the road. Neither survived.

September 18-20, 1950

We advanced by walking (Mostly running) and riding on DUKW’s toward Seoul.

September 21, 1950

Sgt Binaxas and Cpl Haber were killed while handling and interrogating some prisoners. They were WWII vets and had helped me on the ship trying to teach me the ropes of combat tactics.

At the Dikes we got in front of our Air Support and had to pull back to keep from getting strafed by our Corsairs. At Yongdungpo some Marines had gone into a brewery to secure the area. They got a hold of some green beer that made them sick with dysentery after we got on board LSTs going around to Wonson and waiting for the minesweepers to clear the harbor they also got seasick to go with that. I didn’t drink beer so I was spared the misery.

September 24, 1950

We crossed the Han River in DUKWs by doing a zigzag pattern crossing the River. Their mortars were hitting the zigzag pattern where we weren’t.

We took to high ground and Dug in.

September 25, 1950

We moved up Ma Po Boulevard during the day and fought our way to the roadblock. Sgt Lilly was killed across the street from me during the day from a sniper, (He was beside Lt. Carey).

We had a calm period in the evening and were waiting for a recon patrol to return with information on what was out in front of us. I believe we were possibly going to move out.

Oscar Weeks and I were assigned to take up an outpost position out in front of the roadblock and look for the enemy approaching and also to keep an eye out for Cpl Collins patrol that was supposed to return at any time. We moved out in front of the roadblock and took a position on the left side of the street in a hole next to a schoolyard wall, approximately 100 or so yards out. The time was somewhere around midnight, when Weeks ask me if I could take the watch while he rested his eyes. I said yes and watched for quite a while. It was dark and I could hear motors running in the distance. I then noticed some people on the opposite side of the street advancing toward the roadblock, but still a good half block or so from us. I told Weeks “I think I see the patrol coming in”. He said “ how many made it back” I started counting one, two three . . . when I got to six he jumped up and said “that’s too many”, we then looked on the schoolyard side and saw a long line of people approaching us on the schoolyard side next to the wall. He immediately fired into the line on the schoolyard side and I fired at the line across the street. They were surprised and started scrambling for cover and doing a lot of jabbering that I couldn’t understand. Then someone from the roadblock hollered “Don’t fire that’s the patrol coming in” I hollered back “There’s too many of them” then they hollered “pull back”. Weeks said “you go first and I’ll follow”. I could hear a Tank coming up closer as I started to run back, as I ran down the street toward the roadblock, I could hear automatic weapons firing and see sparks from bullets hitting the street surface around my feet, and made me run faster. I ran over the machine gun emplacement that had sand bags stacked around it, just in front of the roadblock and stumbled on top of the machinegun gunner. He said “Hey I’m on your side” and we both laughed. As I walked around the telephone pole to behind the sandbags of the roadblock on the schoolhouse side, the tank fired a round that came so close to me that the wake knocked me down. Then someone (I believe Cpl Fry or Sgt. Hancock) said you need to go up to the command Post and report what’s going on out there to Captain Westover. He is concerned about Cpl Collins patrol that has not returned yet. I said OK and then ascended up the hill, that was on the schoolhouse side of the street, to where the CP was and found Capt. Westover and M/Sgt Zullo. I described to them the situation about the line of troops that Weeks and I had encountered on both sides of the street and the tank, but that we had seen no sign of the patrol. Capt. Westover thanked me and dismissed me to go back to my unit. I then descended back down the hill from the CP and back to the roadblock area at street level, where I saw a Marine that was hit “by what I assumed was from the tanks 88 gun. He was decapitated”. I thought it was Weeks. I then went back to my squad that was positioned at the canal on the opposite side of the street from the schoolhouse and told Sgt Kent “ I think Weeks got it”. He Said “That’s what he said about you”. He was okay and had made it back to the squad while I had gone up to the CP. The remainder of the night was an intensive counter attack mounted by the North Koreans. It was quite an intensive battle (Better described “all hell broke loose”). We wondered why they wanted us to be pushed back so bad, until we found out later that the school had a cache of arms stored in it. It was believed to be what they were trying to get to. They didn’t make it and were eventually pushed back.

September 26, 1950

Our roadblock held up during the night and the North Koreans finally retreated. After daylight, our Tanks began advancing through the roadblock and up the street. One tank ran over and exploded an anti-tank mine out in front of the roadblock and wounded approximately 10 Marines standing nearby. I was standing closer than the others but it all somehow missed me. One of the wounded was Red Myers, my fireteam’s BARman. I was then given the assignment as the BARman and his BAR. Joe Bell was re-assigned from another fireteam as a replacement to be my assistant BARman to the third squad, first fireteam.

October 28 1950

When we landed at Wonson, the ROK marines had already taken Wonson and Bob Hope was putting on a show their. We didn’t have time to see it we were assigned to go into the mountains west of Wonson to a little village of Majon-ni an secure the area. Our first assignment was to escort a large Caterpillar bulldozer that was used to carve out an airstrip for supplies, evacuating wounded, etc.

A Sergeant in the Engineers operated the large “cat” that had a max speed of about 3 miles an hour and made an enormous amount of noise. During the trip, which took all day, small arms fire seemed almost constant. It was returned and little pockets of resistance were over run.

But the big “cat” never had to stop. It clanged and plodded along with small arms fire ricocheting off all parts of the cat and by the driver’s head, but he went on even when the fire was extremely heavy. Of course we would take cover, but the cat kept going. The Sergeant was an inspiration for all of us to follow.

We finally got into Majon-ni late that night and the Sergeant shut down the cat. Someone went over to tell him how brave and fearless he was. He looked up and said what did you say? He was deaf and couldn’t hear a thing from all of the noise the cat made.

We stayed there until around the 15th of November 1950 and were relieved by the Army. We then began our trip north toward the Chosin reservoir by train first. The train engine was located in the middle of the train in case the track was mined it would suffer less damage and could reverse and salvage what it could. Fortunately no explosion occurred. We had our Thanksgiving dinner enroute on the 23rd of November 1950.

November 29 & 30, 1950
(I was wounded)

We had fought the Chinese at Telegraph hill at Koto-ri that morning where SSgt Tillman was killed. Later that morning we were assigned to take a convoy through to Hagaru-ri to reopen the road between Koto-ri and Hagaru-ri (as the Chinese had closed it). The convoy was referred to as “Task Force Drysdale”, -- Derived from British Royal Marine commander Col. Drysdale that was leading the Convoy. The 11 miles from Koto-ri to Hagaru-ri was referred to as “Hell’s Fire Valley”. We started fighting our way toward Hagaru-ri about mid-morning and didn’t get there until about midnight. We would advance to where the Chinese had a road block set up and be pinned down until it was cleared out before we could advance further. About three quarters of the way to Hagaru, my feet were found to be frost bitten and I was told to hang onto a truck until we got to an aid station. I hung onto the left side with my right foot was on a rail on left side (behind the rear wheels) with my left leg dangling out over the side of the truck that had wounded Marines inside. When it became dark, the trucks in the convoy were intermingled with tanks in between, i.e. one tank, then two trucks supposedly to draw small arms fire from their noise and allow the trucks to pass in the dark with less risk of drawing fire, from the Chinese in the darkness. As we approached Hagaru-ri the truck was blown up and I felt a sting to my left knee from something from the explosion. I bailed off the truck as it was going over the embankment and I tumbled down the mountainside, going over toward the left side, I was afraid the truck would roll over me while it tumbled down the mountainside or I would hit a tree. The truck and I finally landed in a frozen-over stream below and broke through to water. I was still close to the truck. The truck hit the bottom, I believe, but did not submerge completely. I had on four layers of clothes, plus the Parka that I had on and I guess that helped me survive all the tumbling. As I fought my way out of the stream, ice was freezing on my clothes and really all over me (It was reported to be between –30˚F and –40˚F). I tried to standup but my left leg wouldn’t hold me up. I didn’t feel any extreme pain and I didn’t think I was wounded that bad. I crawled around in the snow and looked for my rifle, finally finding it with stock broken off and my rifle was in two or more pieces. I thought, I’d crawl back up the mountain to the road and try to connect back to my company for help, but I wasn’t sure it was still up there. It was pitch dark except from the occasional light from tracers and I believe the truck was on fire in the stream. Then I saw silhouettes of two people crunching in the snow coming toward me and then looking me over. My first thought was “I’m captured” (there were Chinese all around us and they were supposed to have control of the road that we were traveling on), then one of them said, “bring a stretcher here is another one”. Boy you can’t believe how really relieved I was. They gave me a shot of morphine, then placed and strapped me on a stretcher and took me back up the hill feet first (On my head, but I didn’t care). Then, the stretcher, I was strapped on, was fastened onto the hood of another truck (just like the one that had been blown up). I remember looking up and seeing tracers going over me and saying to myself “There is no way I’m going to make it out of this”. (Tom Powers at a G-3-1 reunion in Reno in 2002 said he was in the truck right in front of the one I was on. He said he watched it rolling down the mountainside totally engulfed in flames, he said he didn’t think any one could have survive that. I said I did! He asked if anyone else had survived and I said I didn’t know because I couldn’t walk, but I was sure that the people that put me on the stretcher had checked the area for other survivors. He said he watched the Chinese throw explosives, he thinks satchel charges, under the truck and blew it up.

I also talked to Rayburn Blair at a North Texas Chapter Chosin Few meeting. He said he thinks the truck I was on was possible the same Truck his best friend Leroy Storey was on. (Leroy didn’t survive) Rayburn said he descended down to the truck and helped pick up survivors and take them back up and place them on a truck that was the last in the convoy. I said I heard a report that Royal Marines may have picked me up. He said Royal Marines were all around. I don’t know who to thank, but I sure am grateful I wasn’t left.

We proceeded on into the defensive perimeter set up at Hagaru and I was placed on the ground in a medical tent with several rows of wounded marines on stretchers. My parka and other clothes were cut off with a pair of large scissors so the medics could look at and tend to my wounds. My knee had a hole in it about the size of a half dollar and had now swollen almost as big as a basketball. Both groins were swollen up and now I couldn’t sit up. I was now hurting pretty bad and couldn’t wait for the next shot of morphine (Only allowed one every 4 hours). That night mortar and other explosives hit outside the tent and one person in the tent was wounded again. The next morning the light showed that the tent was shredded like a sieve with holes all over it. Two days later I was evacuated on a C-47 to a Hospital in Hungnam. Don Perry, “G” Company mortars, was from my hometown and awaiting orders to return to the USA, came by as I was being loaded on the plane. I told him to tell my mother when he got back to Texarkana that I was OK. He said “you’ll beat me home”. But since, I was separated from my unit, during the truck incident, and my unit didn’t know where I was, my parents received a telegram from the Department of Defense stating that I was missing in action. That shook my mother up a little. I guess that was finally corrected when I got to a Naval Hospital where they could access my records, and could identify me and correct my status. Then, my parents got a later telegram stating that I was wounded in action and now recuperating in a Naval Hospital.

I then traveled on a stretcher from Osaka to Yokosuka by train, (to A Naval Hospital) where I accidentally knocked off the black tips from the tip end of my right two frostbitten toes that had turned black. I was trying to use handrails on the train to navigate a short distance while swinging my feet. The skin underneath looked O.K. and looked like skin underneath. From Yokosuka, I flew to Midway, then to the Tripler Hospital in Hawaii (where I received my Purple Heart from Gen Sheppard). Then, Mare Island, and to San Antonio where I saw Darce Odom (my hometown buddy) who was stationed in the Air Force at Lackland. He came over to see me. Then finally to the US Naval Hospital at Pensacola, Fla where I was finally treated for my frostbite. The treatment I received was a shot of Old Methuselah whiskey three times a day from the nurse and something they were putting into the spine. I also received whirlpool bath treatments and physical therapy for my left knee until I could walk almost normal again. I remained there until I was released to limited duty in March 1951. I received a guard duty assignment to NAD Shumaker Arkansas, until it closed in Sept 1951, I then transferred to Lejeune, then back to Pensacola Fla. for a guard duty assignment until I was released from active duty in Jan 1952 and was discharged from the Marine Reserves in April 1952.

G Company, 3^rd Battalion,
1^st Marines.Korea 1950-1951