Everett Kelley

Everett Kelley: I’m Everett R. Kelley. I was born in Miami, Florida in 1966 and I was initially drafted and then I enlisted in January of 1966.

Interviewer: Why did you decide to enlist? Did you rather just pick where you were gonna go?

E: I was drafted and I was given an opportunity to choose an MOS.

I: Oh okay. And what is an MOS?

E: That’s a

00:00:30

E: Military Occupational Skill.

I: Oh, right. Okay so you then enlisted into what branch?

E: I enlisted to go into ordnance into mechanics but it turned out to be electronics.

I: Okay. Was that through the military I mean,

E: Yes.

I: I mean in the Army?

E: In the Army, yes.

00:01:00

I: Alright. Can you tell me a little about your family background? You grew up in Miami-

E: Hm.

I: Are you an only child, do you have any siblings?

E: No, I had six siblings. Two sisters and four other brothers.

I: Oh wow, big family. So are you the only one that went into the military?

E: Oh, no. I had a younger brother come in-go into the military. But I was the only one that made it a career.

I: How long were you in the service for?

E: Twenty-two and a half years.

I: Wow, that’s a long time. Thank you for your service.

00:01:30

E: Thank you.

I: So had you had any knowledge of the Korean War, you know from fifty to fifty-three what was going on prior to your enlistment?

E: Well, not really. I was drafted during the Vietnam era.

I: Mmhm

E: I went to Korea after I had been in the service for a few years.

I: When did you go to Korea?

E: I went to Korea in, I think, August of 1976

00:02:00

I: And where were you stationed at?

E: Camp Carroll, U.S. Military Depot..

I: Do you remember where that was at? What part of Korea?

E: It was a place called Sucheong-dong.

I: So were you nervous to go to Korea by any chance?

E: No, no, no..

I: Where did you arrive at, whenever. Did you fly into

00:02:30

I: Incheon, or-

E: I flew into Seoul,

I: Mmhm.

E: At that airport, there.

I: And how long were you in Korea for?

E: The first time I was there for one year and the second time I was there for two years.

I: How far apart in between the two tours?

E: Two tours, I was there ‘76, um, ‘76. 10 years. And

00:03:00

E: Back in ‘86, or, yeah. ‘86 to. Nope, that would have been ‘85 to ‘87.

I: Ok. Did you request to go back to Korea the second time? Or. . .

E: I, I never requested any assignments while I was in, on active duty. I was always assigned to every station I’ve ever been.

I: What was your first impression whenever

00:03:30

I: You arrived to Korea?

E: Uh, that’s a very difficult statement to make because it’s a very populated area when you first come in there. It seems that there millions of people in Seoul and then when you go through your processing you already know where you’re headed, and you get to your place of duty it’s pretty-the first time

00:04:00

E: in 76 it was pretty isolated. We had curfews, you couldn’t go out after a certain hour of the evening or, if you were out, you couldn’t come in. Things of that nature. So it was kind of-it was different. But it was, it it was something that a soldier could get used to.

I: Will you tell me a little bit more about your responsibilities? What was your main occupation? What were you responsible for?

00:04:30

E: Well, initially, as a Warrant Officer, I was a newly appointed Warrant Officer in the Army. I was a W-1 and then when I got to Korea I was in charge of the, how shall I say, the um, what we call the maintenance operations branch.

I: Mmhm.
E: And I was assigning technical electronic

00:05:00

E: Type of work and if you know anything about calibration we do a lot of work on weapon support equipment-equipment that is all electronic in nature but it has to be set to precision measurements and so that was my job to make sure that those processes were carried out properly.

00:05:30

I: How were the living conditions while you were in Korea as far as food, sleeping, clothing, weather?

E: Well when I was in Korea I must say we lived on the base,

I: Mmhm.

E: Camp Carroll. We had our own individual BOQs. Living conditions were, I would say, kinda isolated and

00:06:00

E: Not a lot of social activity.

I: Do you recall how much you were getting paid?

E: [LAUGHS] Not enough.

I: [LAUGHS]

E: Not really. Go ahead.

I: Were you able to exchange letters back home with your family pretty easily?

E: Oh yes, yes. The mail was going very well at that time.

I: And how was the relationship with other troops that you were there with, including Korean soldiers?

E: We had some

00:06:30

E: Korean soldiers assigned to, they were called, the ROK soldiers and we had KATUSAs as well. And so the relationship they were pretty much they were in their area and we were in our area and when we we would see each other in the gym in places like that, you know. Some of us, we participated in sports activities together, things like that.

00:07:00

I: What were some of the some of the contributions made by the U.S. Military in Korea post ‘53? What were they trying to do, or maintain, while in Korea at that time?

E: I think the main thing we were doing was trying to maintain the peace between the North and the South and make sure that there was a readiness level that was maintained as high as possible, a very high standard of readiness.

I: Did you ever encounter any dangerous

00:07:30

I: Or difficult situations?

E: Aside from nearly being killed in an automobile accident there. Ah, no.

I: What happened?”

E: I was going between Waegwan and Daegu, which is another major military city, there in the central part of Korea, and a Korean bus came around a mountainous road, a curve-ous road, and

00:08:00

E: I was driving a Japanese Toyopet vehicle and the, how shall I say, the vehicle, the bus, took the whole road up so there was no place for me to go. And I was nearly killed in that particular accident.

I: Oh my goodness.

E: Totaled my car, and I can only thank God for my existence, you know? Because I don’t know how I kept from going over that mountain.

I: My goodness. So

00:08:30

I: That was probably one of the most-

E: It was.

I: serious things that you probably remember.

E: It was the most traumatic event that I experienced in my entire military career, I do believe.

I: Wow, um. Did you experience any sort of rewarding or happy memories during your duty?

E: Well I got promoted to W-2 while I was there, that was pretty, a good thing.

I: And then, what is that?

E: That’s a Chief Warrant Officer two. You go from a Warrant Officer, which is the initial grade. Become a Chief after you pass the one stage. So,

00:09:00

E: I was the Chief Two when I left Korea.

I: So, apart from you being hurt and injured in your accident, were you ever wounded at any other point during your time in Korea?

E: Ah, no.

I: Did you being in Korea create, impact your life, in any way, or even, the Korean War itself ‘52 to ‘53, did that impact your life?

E: It impacted my life quite a bit.

I: And why is that?

E: Well, I saw the orphanages and

00:09:30

E: I helped in the orphanages when I was there in Waegwan. I had a male and female child that I would, that I sponsored, and I would, you know do things like buy them toothpaste and soap and toothbrushes, you know things like that to help their quality of life.

I: How did you get involved in doing that?

E: Uhhh, that’s a good question. I, I really don’t remember

00:10:00

E: I think it was in association with some of the soldiers that told me about the orphanage and if I could help, I wanted to help so.

I: Was there many kids that were orphaned?

E: It seemed like there were quite a few, yeah.

I: Have you been back to Korea?

E: I was, I went, I was in Korea twice-

I: Right.

E: once in 1986 and I came back in September of ‘87, and, ah,

00:10:30

E: ‘87, I’m sorry I said ‘86, ‘85 and ‘87,

I: Mmhm.

E: and it’ll be the first time I was there it was in 1976.

I: Right.

E: and I came back in September of ‘77.

I: So have you been back to Korea since-

E: Since then? No.

I: 1985-86?

E: No, I haven’t.

I: Do you have an opinion, or maybe an idea possibly of how we can

00:11:00

I: Officially put a closure on the war? Because technically it’s still, it’s just a ceasefire we’re technically still in war. Do you have any idea on how we can put a closure on it?

E: You have a military solution and you have a political solution. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about politics so I don’t pretend to be political. So, I’m not a negotiator, I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior. So,

00:11:30

E: Basically if it comes to any kind of solution to the Korean situation it would have to be a uniting of the North and the South.

I: Whenever you were in Korea were they still recovering from the war, maybe physically, were they, were there still remnants of, you know, buildings, that had, you know, been damaged or anything?

E: Most of that area was agricultural, where I was actually initially

00:12:00

E: Stationed and, this, the town was, it’s difficult to describe because when you go to different countries, and I’ve been to many,

I: Mmhm.

E: You see the poverty, you see the wealth and there’s a large disparity between the two.

I: So you had no

00:12:30

I: Prior knowledge, really, of what was, what had happened between ‘50 to ‘53. So,

E: No, I knew that there was a war, but go ahead.

I: Yeah. So when did you, or how did you, hear about it, learn about it more, anyways.

E: About the Korean War?

I: Mhm.

E: Mainly through history, TV, things of that nature.

I: So did they teach about it in school at all whenever you were growing up and before your enlistment? Were they teaching it in schools yet?

E: No

00:13:00

E: They weren’t teaching it they were more teaching World War One and World War Two back then.

I: Yeah.

E: Korea was a recent event that happened in the fifties. So,, and I was in school, I think I was in like first grade in the ‘50’s.

I: Do you have any messages for younger generations or do you feel it’s important for younger generations, anyways, to know the sacrifices and contributions made in Korea?

E: I think that there

00:13:30

E: Were sacrifices of many soldiers that are traumatized and still suffering today from that war and all the other wars we fought..

I: Do you think that it’s important and necessary for us to preserve these, um, the interviews of these veterans and their legacy?

E: Very important.

I: Hm.

E: Very important. Yes, I do.

I: And why do you think, in your opinion, the Korean War

00:14:00

I: Is known as the Forgotten War?

E: Well, you know, it was after the big one, World War Two,

I: Mmhm.

E: And a lot of the soldiers that came out of Korea never got the benefits or the just treatment that they should have gotten from being, what they called at that time, battle shock, uh, battle fatigue. I think the military environment

00:14:30

E: Is a great environment, great experience, and I would think every American should, how shall I say, experience it.

I: Mhm.

E: But it is a traumatic experience when you have to go places and experience different cultures.

I: Is there anything else? Um, any other stories or memories, messages

00:15:00

I: That you had during your stay or anything else that you’d like to share to preserve your legacy?

E: I think Korea is a great place.

I: Mm.

E: I don’t regret one moment of my time in Korea. I was, I gained a lot of insight that I would never have received had I not experienced that.

I: I’ve heard some people say from previous interviews that they believe that the draft should be reincorporated.

00:15:30

I: It should be brought back. Do you agree with that?

E: Yes.

I: You think that they should be?

E: Yes.

I: Why, in your opinion?

E: It develops the youth of our country.

I: Alright. That sums up for my questions.

E: Okay.

I: If there’s anything else that you’d like to share, now’s the time to do it.

E: No, that’s it.

I: This is it?

E: Mhm.

I: Alright, well thank you so much for your service. We appreciate you comin’ in and talkin’ to us.