21. My Week in a MASH Unit -- 1951 - Page 1
I Volunteer Sometime in the winter of 1951 we were operating a relay site for the 5th Cav Regiment. It was cold and the path up the hill was icy. One of the transmitters failed at the top and a replacement was required. I volunteered to carry the transmitter to the top. My dad had told me never to volunteer but this was vital. I fell on the trail due to the ice many times with the transmitter falling on me. The last time I fell I couldn't get up. My leg refused to operate. In Korea there is a great shortage of fuel wood so the farmers cut small trees for fuel. They cut them with a knife that leaves a sharp spike about 8 inches long still in the ground. I had fallen on one of these. It penetrated into my thigh quite far.Taken to Medics I'm not sure how long I lay there but eventually someone came looking for me. With the aid of four men they put me on a stretcher and carried me down the hill. We all fell a number of times on the icy steep trail. It was very tough going. My fellow signalmen loaded me into the back of a truck and off we went to a forward aid station. They dropped me off and a doctor looked at my wound. Probing it he said that it was deeper than 6 inches and I was to be evacuated to a rear aid unit. I spent the next few hours in an ambulance riding on a stretcher in the back with some other men. I was deposited at some medical unit and eventually a doctor looked at me.