AlwaysRemainFree.com

The Personal Website of Jim Salmon

The Way It Was

It was Sunday June 25th, 1950, Fort Benning, Georgia, hot and sticky.  I was sitting on my bunk in the barracks talking to one of the guys who had the bunk next to me.  A guy at the other end of the barracks had the radio turned on; all of a sudden he yelled out, “We got a war, guys!”

Two days later I was on my way home for a 30 day furlough, then to Fareast Command.  The Korean War had started.

I boarded a troop train in Rochester, New York after my 30 days were up.  I had plenty of time to get scared about where I was going.  We picked up soldiers all the way to Camp Stoneman, California.  One of them was Mortimer Walker, from Memphis, Tennessee.  He and I shared many a foxhole; we stayed together all the time I was in Korea.

We were in Stoneman about a week, all jammed in together with nothing to do, except stand in line for everything, shots, turn in foot lockers, talk to a nut doctor (I guess anybody who volunteered for Fareast Command was a little bit nuts). 

Walker told me this was his second hitch, and he had been in Korea and Japan until last April.

This was my first experience being with black guys.  I had been with Indians and Spanish guys, but these black guys were something else, shooting crap was their mainstay.  If it didn’t go right, the knives came out.  I didn’t get much sleep there.

I forgot to say that I asked for transfer to Fareast Command about a month before the war started.  A friend of mine from home who had joined the army after I did and was in Japan, kept writing me letters about over there and why didn’t I come over, so I thought I would.  We couldn’t get any stripes except PFC in Benning; I had graduated from 16 weeks of wheeled vehicle school and was chief mechanic for H Company, 30th Infantry Regiment, Third Division, which was at least a Staff Sergeant rating, but no luck.  There were too many NCOs left over from WWII.

I didn’t realize signing up for Fareast Command made me eligible for a 30 day furlough.  Most guys didn’t get any at all, they went over right away.  I was just lucky, I guess. 

One day, we were all lined up in a field and one guy started calling our names and where we were going.  Anybody going to Korea was “going south”.  I didn’t know what “going south” meant then.

We got on another troop train and went to Seattle, Washington.  It was a nice trip.  I remember going through a lot of mountains and seeing a large forest fire.  We stopped several times for water and coal, and they would let us out for a few minutes.  One time three guys didn’t come back; they didn’t like where they were going, I guess.

Seattle, at Pier 91, was very crowded.  It was where they loaded the troop ships.  I didn’t like the idea of taking a ship over.  It would take forever, and there would be a lot of sickness.

They had mess halls that would seat 2000 at a crack.  We had nothing to do but wait until they decided what to do with us.  If we didn’t walk around all day and stay out of our barracks we would end up on KP for about 15 hours.  It happened to me.  Though, I did get out of it once.  I was sleeping, it was about 2:00 in the morning, and dark in the barracks, some sergeant came in and went from bunk to bunk waking people and asking what rank you were.  Anybody from Staff Sergeant down had to pull KP.  He asked me what I was, I was down in the blankets, and I said Sergeant First Class.  He said, “Okay, Sarge.” (Ha Ha)

The next day they loaded Walker and me on an old C47. What a surprise that was.  It rained all the time we were in Seattle.   more...

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