My Week in a MASH Unit -- 1951
I VolunteerSometime 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. He used some surgical scissors and cut through my belt, pants, long johns and examined the wound. He then ordered me to be evacuated to a MASH Unit.
While I waited for evacuation I closed my eyes and just rested. I was dead tired from working on the station and hadn't had much sleep. While I was lying there two men came in and saw me. I could hear them talking but just kept my eyes closed because I was so tired. One said, "He has a watch, I get it." The other said, "I want his fur-lined parka." I opened my eyes and said they would have to wait until I was dead. They fled in haste. I reported the event to an officer and I later learned they had been arrested for looting the dead and wounded. How low can a man get?
At a MASH Unit
Eventually I ended up at a MASH Unit where I recovered after a week or two. After I recovered, I was sent to a Repo Depot. That is where soldiers are sent after they recover and then are sent back into the line. In most units such as Infantry, they send you back for hospitalization with your personal gear and keep all the rest, which they put into their quartermaster for reissue. At the Repo Depot they then issue you a complete outfit of clothes, weapons and gear. They issued me a complete outfit. I knew that my team would keep my gear so I just mailed the entire duffle bag full of gear home.
Stuck at the Repo Depot
Every day trucks would arrive from the various Infantry Divisions to pick up men to take back to their division. They would call out what unit they were picking up and those men would get on the truck and off they would go. Because my team was only five men I eventually figured out that no one was coming just for me and they didn't even know where I was if they wanted to come. I really didn't know where I was for that matter or where my relay site was either.
I Join the Infantry?
I finally figured I would have to make some decisions or I was going to stay there for a long time. Because I knew we were operating our relay site for the 5th Cav Regiment I decided to catch a ride with the next 5th Cav truck. A day or so later one came and I got on it for the ride. After a while we arrived at the 5th Cav headquarters. I tried to explain that I was with a Signal Corps Unit but they told me I was in the Infantry now. That afternoon a couple of trucks came in full of dead frozen bodies and that scared me. I was assigned to go to the front the next day. I had to escape this madness. They had issued me a M1 Rifle, mittens with a trigger finger and they were serious about my being an Infantryman. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost admiration for the Infantry, I just didn't want to be one. I had to do something and quick.
I Escape
That night I was assigned a 16 by 32 foot squad tent to sleep in. It was bare except for a foot of straw on the floor. There were perhaps 6 men in the tent. I waited until dark and burrowed out the back of the tent and escaped. I crawled on my stomach for about a half-mile scared to death what would happen if I were discovered. After that I got up and ran. By daybreak I got to a road and hitched a ride with a truck to their unit. I called on the phone and signaled my relay site where I was and someone came to get me. I was so relieved to get back. I never told my story to anyone.