Floyd Hanamann

Korean War Veteran

Floyd Hanamann

00:00 – 00:08              Floyd Hanamann, F-l-o-y-d-H-a-n-a-m-a-n-n

00:09 – 00:10              m-a-n-n.

00:11 – 00:12              Yes.

00:12 – 00:15              So Hanamann is a German?

00:16 – 00:17              I can talk German.

00:17 – 00:18              So it’s a German name?

00:19 – 00:20              German name.

00:20                           Okay.

00:20 – 00:24              Any name with two “n’s” on the end of it is German.

00:25 – 00:28              You make it easy,Hanamann.  Yep.

00:28 – 00:32              When is your birthday?

00:33 – 00:34              2-28-29.

00:35  – 00:41              So your born in the year of the Great Depression. (nods affirmatively)  Great Depression baby.

00:42 – 00:44              I remember it good.

00:45 – 00:47              And where you born?

00:48 – 00:50              Kewaunee County Wisconsin.

00:50 – 00:52              Could you spell it?

00:53 – 01:03              K-e-w-a-n-e-e Wisconsin, W-i-s

01:03 – 01:12              Tell me about your family background, your parents and your siblings when you were growing up.

01:13 – 01:34              I was on the farm with my parents.  The farm was from my grandpa.  Them years they handed farms from one generation to the other and I stayed there till I was drafted in the army.

01:35 – 01:37              So what school did you go through?

01:37 – 01:39              I went until the eighth grade.

01:39 – 01:40              Eighth grade?

01:41                           Yeah.

01:42                           Uh-huh.

01:42 – 01:44              (Was it a) one room school?

01:44 – 01:45              One room school.

01:46 – 01:47              Wow! Tell me about one room school, how was it?

01:49 – 01:50              Very good.

01:51                           Really?

01:52 – 02:15              We all got along good. There was 32 in the school when I was there.  None of them turned out bad.  All good, all got married, jobs, family.  Nowadays no good.

02:16 – 02:22              It’s amazing isn’t it that all the children in the one room school and there’s no problem.

02:22 – 02:23               That’s right.

02:23 – 02:26              and we have a lot of problems now.

02:27                           More than ever.

02:27 – 02:33              Yeah, so tell me did you learn anything about Korea there?

02:34 – 02:39              No.  I didn’t know there was such a country.

02:39 – 02:41              You didn’t know?

02:41                           No.

02:42 – 02:43              Did you know about China and Japan?

02:44 – 02:45              Very little.

02:46 – 02:47              Very little, but you knew it.

02:48 – 02:56              I knew that it was there, mostly about World War One.

02:57 – 03:00              So when did you join the military?

03:01 – 03:08              I was drafted on May 23^rd, 1951.

03:09 – 03:10              23^rdno?

03:11                           What?

03:12                           May 23^rd

03:13 – 03:14              1951

03:15 – 03:19              51, drafted to the Army?

03:20                           Yes.

03:21 – 03:27              And where did you get the basic military training?

03:28 – 03:33              Fitzsimmons Army Hospital, Denver, Colorado.

03:34 – 03:36              Uh-huh, why hospital?

03:37 – 03:38               Hospital yeah.

03:39 – 03:43              So you were the medic?

03:43                           Yes.

03:44 – 03:52              I see.  So tell me about the training that you got as medic?  What kind of training did you get?

03:53 – 04:24              I got training to take care of the psychiatric people and I stayed at Fitzsimmons for one year working in the hospital, taking care of the..the..what would you call them..psychiatric, and I, it was not very easy.

04:25                           right.

04:26 – 04:32              We had vicious soldiers that got hurt in the Korean War up here, (points to the side of his head).

04:33 – 04:38              Tell me about it what kind of symptoms did they have?

04:39 – 04:41              Some of them were completely out of their mind.

04:42                           Uh-huh.

04:43 – 04:57              Some of them were mean, because that’s all they had in…you know…when they got…you’re shell-shocked or and I hopeful think about it today.

04:58 – 05:05              Wow!  So you dealt with a… you dealt with the Korean War veterans who have that disease.

05:06                           Yes.

05:06 – 05:07              Psychiatric problem.

05:07 – 05:12              They called it C-17.

05:13 – 05:14              C-17? Why is it C-17?

05:15 – 05:23              I don’t know. That’s what they called the place where I worked in.  I did my training there.

05:24 – 05:26              Where was it, in November?

05:27 – 05:30              In Denver, Colorado.

05:30 – 05:39              So how many, how many patients did you, I mean did C-17 have?

05:40 – 06:05              There was about 12 of us Corman and we had each had about something like here you know we would have maybe 25 bad ones.  You know it, some of them were in a room and all they had was a mattress.  (If) they had furniture, they’d smash that.

06:06 – 06:09              Uh-huh, uh-huh so that they’d self damage them.

06:10                           Yep.

06:11 – 06:38              It was…the worst experience we had, we took one to Lowry Air Base in Colorado Springs.  Big black soldier, I betcha he weighed over 300. We put him in a straightjacket to transfer him.  Six of us went.

06:39                           Mm-hmm.

06:40 – 07:12              We were scared of him. We gets to the airport.  He breaks the shackles     loose.  Six of us jumped on top of him because he was…he was terrible.  Then we had an extra straitjacket, so we put it on top of him. Then we took rope so he couldn’t. It was terrible.

07:12 – 07:15              You are yourself, you’re a big man.

07:15                           Yes.

07:16 – 07:17              But he was much bigger.

07:17 – 07:21              That’s the reason they put me there.

07:22                           (laughing)

07:22 – 07:35              When I went into the service I weighed 235 pounds.  That’s the reason they put me there.  They always kidded me they won’t be bouncing you around.

07:36 – 07:38              What was your unit actually?

07:39 – 07:42              The 34^thGeneral Hospital.

07:43                           34th?

07:43                           34.

07:44 – 07:46              34^thGeneral Hospital that’s it? 

07:47                           Yes.

07:48 – 07:54              And (did) that belonged to any division or anything like that?

07:55                           No.

07:56 – 07:57              No, it was independent?

07:58                           Independent.

07:58 – 08:00              And what was your rank?

08:01                           Corporal.

08:02 – 08:07              So you were stationed in Denver?

08:07 – 08:12              Denver for 12 months.

08:12 – 08:14              And then from there, where did you go?

08:15 – 08:22              Then we had orders to go to Japan to put up a hospital.

08:23                           Uh-huh.

08:24 – 08:41              We were all happy. We were gonna see the world and about two days there, they came back.  They said we were going to Germany.  We were very disappointed.

08:42                           Why?

08:43 – 08:54              Well in Germany there was, we were supposed to go to Landstuhl Germany and there was nothing there.

08:54                           (laughing)

08:55 – 09:09              They were starting to build it.  We were very disappointed because we were all trained to help the wounded.  We gets over there, nothing to do.

09:09 – 09:11              Why did you go?

09:11 – 09:12              Ask the government?

09:12 – 09:15              So that’s the point that you want to make yeah?

09:16 – 09:28              So they were building the barracks while we helped them, you know, with stuff.  But they gave us 3 day passes.

09:28                           Uh-huh.

09:29 – 09:35              As much as we wanted to go to get rid of us

09:35 – 09:38              Get rid of you, what does that mean?

09:39 – 09:42              I traveled all over Europe.

09:43 – 09:49              Uh-huh.  And where else did you go?

09:50 – 10:00              I went to Paris, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, different parts of Germany.

10:01 – 10:02              Was just travel or was that mission?

10:03                           What?

10:04 – 10:07              Was that only travel or was it mission?

10:08 – 10:09              It was a three day pass.

10:10                           Uh-huh

10:10 – 10:14              That they give us to get rid of us.

10:15 – 10:17              (laughing) They didn’t need you?

10:18 – 10:20              It was very sad.

10:21                           Yeah.

10:21 – 10:27              Well there’s nothing worse when you got nothing to do and you’re young and full of energy.

10:28 – 10:33              Right. So when did you finish that?

10:34 – 10:42              I got called home on an emergency phone call.  Our first daughter had passed away.

10:43                           Your first daughter.

10:44 – 10:45              I’d come back in February

10:45 – 10:47              Were you married at the time?

10:48                           Yes I was.

10:48 – 10:51              And you were not with your family there?

10:52                           No.

10:53 – 10:56              Okay, and what happened to your daughter?

10:56 – 10:58              She was born with an open heart.

10:59 – 11:00              Ah, that’s bad.

11:01 – 11:02              She lived four months.

11:02 – 11:06              I’m sorry to hear that, what was her name?

11:07                           Susan.

11:08                           Susan.

11:08 – 11:48              But, I never got home for the funeral because it was Washington’s birthday and everything was closed.  When I did go, I left Frankfurt Germany on a cargo plane to come back to the United States. I landed in Westover Massachusetts and I flew to Washington DC and then from there to Green Bay.  Then I was home.

11:49 – 11:53              So what ah, so you never went to Japan?

11:53                           (nods head no)

11:54                           So you were very disappointed?

11:55                           Very disappointed.

11:55 – 11:59              And what did you do after you come home?

12:00 – 12:03              I farmed, I’m a farmer.

12:04 – 12:05              What kind of farm are you talking about?

12:05 – 12:08              Dairy farm and I raised some beef.

12:09                           Ahhh.

12:10 – 12:35              I was…my parents were very good to me.  They…well, I was only 24 years old when I came back and they…you say, borrowed me the money to buy the farm.  They put me on there you say.

12:36 – 12:42              Is it hard to take care of cow?  Is it hard, difficult to take care of cow?

12:42                           No.

12:43 – 12:44              Is it easy?

12:45                           Yea it’s easy.

12:46 – 12:47              But you have to squeeze the milk too.

12:48 – 13:09              Well they got milking machines for that.  I grew up on a farm and when I was 14 years old, out of grade school, I took interest in how to run all the machinery.  My dad could see that I was going to be a farmer.

13:10                           Mm-hmm.

13:10 – 13:12              And I liked it.

13:13 – 13:21              So when you were growing up did you have a hard time to find the food, because of the Great Depression?

13:21 – 13:53              Ah, in the start, it got better about 1938, but I can always my folks were on his dad’s farm, but in (19)38 they moved to my mother’s farm.  But there was a time when my mom would say “we got no money.”  But we always had plenty to eat.

13:54 – 13:56              Plenty to eat, okay.

13:57 – 14:12               Because were on a farm we would raise pigs and chickens and butcher them, can.  Them days there was no refrigerator.  You canned everything and we survived.

14:13 – 14:16              And you didn’t use any medicine to raise?

14:16                           No.

14:17 – 14:21              Right, so it was a clean and very good meat right?

14:21 – 14:23              That’s the trouble today.

14:24 – 14:26              What is the trouble today, tell me about it?

14:26 – 14:38              Today they use too much chemicals.  They’re spraying everything.  We never did. I didn’t do that when I farmed either.

14:39                           Mm –hmm.

14:40 – 14:43              Cause that’s a poison.

14:44                           Yeah.

14:44 – 14:56              They spray the apples now eight times and you eat that.  Then someone has gotta to get in there, gotta.

14:57                           Yeah.

14:58 – 15:16              It’s uh, my grandpa and grandma on my dad’s side, they lived to be 93, 92.  I had uncles that got to be 90, 85.

15:17 – 15:29              And tell me more about the Korean War veterans that have a problem, psychiatric problem that you have to address.  How was it and what did you feel about it?  When do you see them?

15:30 – 15:54              I felt sorry for them. The worst was, you know they don’t do that no more.  They had a table and you would lay that person on there, strap them down and give him shock treatments.  His body would raise off the table this much, (shows 3 to 4 inches with his hands).

15:55                           Oh!

15:56 – 15:57              It was terrible.

15:57                           You saw them?

15:58 – 16:12              And we had to be there, and then the alcoholics, they give them enough…they would put something in their drink.  I hate to talk about it.

16:13                           Please.

16:14 – 16:19              They would vomit and they had the diarrhea so bad, cramps in their belly.

16:19                           Uh-huh.

16:19 – 16:29              That was to make them quit drinking.  Then we had to clean the mess up and I just hated that.

16:30                           Uh –huh.

16:30 – 16:31              It was terrible.

16:32 – 16:35              And they are (all) the Korean War veterans at the time?

16:36 – 16:37              Yes, they were all from Korea.

16:38 – 16:40              So they brought back from Korea?

16:41                           Yes.

16:41 – 16:43              To be a…to be treated?

16:43 – 16:46              To be treated at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital.

16:47 – 16:48              What is that?

16:48 – 16:50              They were, they come back…

16:51 – 16:52              What is the hospital name?

16:53 – 17:03              Fitzsimmons. (F)F-i-t-z…I don’t know m-o-n-s.  Something like that.

17:03                           Fitzsimmons?

17:04 – 17:09              Yes.  It was a big hospital.  It’s torn down now.

17:10                           Where was it?

17:11 – 17:12              Denver Colorado.

17:13 – 17:24              Were you able to talk with those Korean War veterans who came back with the disease? Were you able to talk to those Korean vets?  

17:25                           Yes.

17:25 – 17:26              What did they say?

17:27 – 17:34              Nothing made sense, they were still thinking they were in Korea you know.

17:35 – 17:36              Uh-huh.  They thought they were still in Korea.

17:37 – 18:05              Yeah and they would tell us things, well maybe they were true and maybe they weren’t, you know, but…uh…we had to treat them good.  We could not hit them or nothing.  That we couldn’t do.  If we did we could get court-martialed.  We tried to help them.

18:06 – 18:16              So any particular episode you remember, one Korean War veteran who had a problem that you had to deal (with), anything that you want to share?

18:17 – 18:38              Well when they came out of the dining room from eating, we had to search their pockets for knives or forks.  They would try and hide that to hurt somebody you know because in their minds they had…

18:39                           Enemies around them

18:40 – 19:16              to destroy the enemy. It was not very nice.  They’d stand in line sometimes they’d get in a boxing match.  You know, well they couldn’t help it.  They were disturbed and we’d have to go in between and talk to them.  I often think of how I survived.  It was not very nice.

19:17 – 19:19              Was there any fake patient? Fake?

19:20 – 19:41              No.  It was just one of them, that’s and then the bad ones that we could not help they went someplace else, a different place where they tried to.

19:42 – 19:48              Were there any patients who were discharged from that Fitzsimmons hospital?

19:49 – 19:50              Oh yes, some of them got better.

19:51                           Uh-huh.

19:52                           Oh yeah.

19:53 – 19:54              Tell me about it.

19:55 – 20:32              Well when they thought they were pretty good, they would send them to some kind of camp someplace to rehabilitate them you know to relax and play ball maybe or exercise or watch movies or things like that and sometimes some would come back but most of the time they were pretty good.  Yeah, it’s a …they were all young boys.

20:33 – 20:37              It’s so sorry to see them right at young age.

20:37 – 20:46              (Nodding his head affirmatively) 18, 19 years old.  I had one in there he’d always call me “Papa.”  Well I accepted it.

20:47                           Uh-huh.

20:47 – 21:26              Instead of, and we were not supposed to raise our voice at them.  Instead we were supposed to agree with them always.  Yeah, I remember that one he used to give me big hugs and he got…he told me I was his dad.  So what, I tried to help him.  Yeah, good members, yeah and when I joined  not joined when I got drafted, I never thought I’d wind up in something that…

21:27 – 21:28              Exactly right.

21:29 – 21:42              But because I was a left hand man they didn’t put me in the infantry because when we turn around with the guns, mine was in the wrong place.

21:43 – 21:44              (Laughing)

21:45 – 21:52              That’s what they always told me, so I don’t know.

21:53 – 22:10              And you told me that you didn’t know nothing about Korea and now your dealing with the Korean War veterans who came back with the disease. What were you thinking that you are not there but you are still dealing with the problems of the Korean War?

22:11 – 22:36              Well I know it was war and everybody hates war and we felt sorry for the boys and when they come in that’s where they came from and that started.  I first heard it on the radio at that time in June (1950) when they invaded South Korea.

22:36 – 22:38              Oh, you heard that?

22:38                           I heard that.

22:39                           Uh-huh.

22:39 – 22:55              To redo that time, well I was first…I was…I was…I was, World War II had ended six months before my 18^thbirthday.

22:55                           Uh-huh.

22:56 – 23:09              Because I thought I’d be ready to go from 45 to 51 was in between this peace.  51 that’s when…

23:10 – 23:12              50…1950.

23:12                           that war broke out.

23:12 – 23:14              yeah right, no problem.

23:12 – 23:14              50.  That’s right, I’m sorry.

23:15 – 23:53              In June, and I was supposed to go in January, but my mother took very sick so they gave me a 6 months deferment.  So I went in the month of May (1951) and we had our group that left from Kewaunee County. There must have been about 10 of us and you know where did we stay together all the same all the time and most of our unit.  I was a farmer boy.

23:53 – 24:17              We had farm boys from Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and then we had about five guys from Chicago. They were Italians, but they said they were “WOPS” or something like that.

24:18                           WASP?

24:19                           WOPS.

24:19                           Uh-huh.

24:20 – 24:36              But I had two Italian friends.  They were cooks and we got to be good friends.  The only reason nobody ever wanted to do KP, so I volunteered.

24:37 – 24:38               What is KP?

24:39 – 24:40              That was working in the kitchen.

24:41                           Okay.

24:42 – 24:47              And I was always hungry so I thought that’s a good place to go.

24:47 – 24:48              (laughing)

24:48 – 25:34              And they would treat us good and evening when we went back to the barracks after cleaning up, they’d pack us a little bag sandwich or some goodies.  We got to be good friends and our Europe had reunions every two years. The last one we had was two years ago. My grandson took me to the last three of them.  I found out here about a year ago by one of my best friends in the circle we passed away but we always kept in contact.

25:35 – 25:56              So do you know…you are the Korean War era veteran…right you (were) stationed here in Colorado, but you dealt with the Korean War veterans who have a psychiatric problem/mental problem and you didn’t know nothing about Korea, but do you know about Korea now?

25:56 – 25:57              Oh yes.

25:58 – 25:59              How do you know, tell me?

26:00 – 26:19              Our, I call her our granddaughter… Korea is one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

26:19 – 26:20              How do you know?

26:20 – 27:03              From the TV, radio, they have them.  They’re the most prosperous, very good and now that I, oh! Our granddaughter, she went back to Korea two years ago but some kind of an organization so she could see her country.  She was born, that country does not allow a girl to have a child or can’t keep a child without wedlock.

27:04 – 27:05              mm-hmm.

27:06 – 27:28              So she was up for adoption and a colored sergeant soldier 18 years ago brought her to America to California and my daughter picked her up at the airport.

27:29 – 27:30              At what age?At what age?

27:30 – 27:45              One year old she was. He took care of her all the way while on the plane and to this day they still keep in contact.  He took very good care of her.

27:46 – 27:48              So Susan’s, what the last name?

27:48                           What?

27:49 – 27:50              Your daughter’s last name, Susan?

27:51 – 27:52              I don’t know?

27:52 – 27:53              What do you mean you don’t know?

27:54                           Guerzen.

27:55                           Huh?

27:56 – 27:57              Guerzen.

27:57                           Guerzen?

27:58 – 28:00              My daughter married a Filipino.

28:01                           G-

28:02 – 28:08              G-u-e-r-(uh-huh)z-e-n.

28:09 – 28:14              Guerzin, and now how old is she, Susan?

28:15 – 28:17              She’s 58.  She is going to retire in two years.

28:18                           58.

28:18                           58.

28:19 – 28:23              And retire from where?

28:24 – 28:26              She’s a registered nurse.

28:26 – 28:27               In the Army or just…?

28:28 – 28:40              She works at the Sacramento Hospital.  She worked there from (19)86.  That’s when she went to California.

28:41 – 28:44              What else do you know about the modern Korea?

28:45 – 28:57              Well, it’s a process, he’s (Kim) shorter than TV here again because they got that conflict over there now.

28:57 – 28:58              North Korea?

28:59                           Yeah.

28:59                           Yeah.

29:00 – 29:01              It’s a shame.

29:02                           It is.

29:02 – 29:23              I hope they don’t have war because that’s so nice built-up, and well war is war, but I hope it don’t happen.  I pray every night because…

29:23 – 29:24              Are you Christian?

29:24                           Huh?

29:24 – 29:25              Are you Christian?

29:26                           Yes.

29:27 – 29:35              Ahh, I want to give you my book the Gospel, this is my book.

29:36 – 29:43              That’s your book. I read lots.  I get magazines, I read them from cover to cover.

29:43 – 29:47              Uh-huh, can you show that to the camera, the cover.

29:48 – 29:49              Oh, sure.

29:50 – 29:54              That is the Gospel, do you know what is that book about?

29:55                           About Jesus Christ.

29:55 – 30:01              But, please read the subtitle.

30:02 – 30:03              The Gospel.

30:03 – 30:05              But subtitle.

30:06                           Where?

30:06 – 30:09              Right under the Gospel, what does it say?

30:09 – 30:12              Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John in One.

30:12 – 30:18              Yeah, there are 4 Gospels in the Bible.  I put them together as one book.

30:19 – 30:20              You did?

30:21 – 30:22              Yeah!

30:23                           Thank you. So please read it.

30:24 – 30:25              Oh, I will.

30:25 – 30:26              Yeah, and yes.

30:27 – 30:29              I read lots.

30:30 – 30:44              So let me ask this question: There was sufferings of American young men and women during the war and those include those patients that you had to dealt, right dealt with…

30:44                           Yeah!

30:45 – 31:16              Now Korea is one of the largest economy in the world, the 11^thlargest economy in the world.  What do you think about those sufferings and the modern Korea, the people, the Korean War veteran who have a psychiatric problem, psychiatric problem and you have to, you know treated them, and now the Korea is from very miserable country to one of the most prosperous in the world.  What do you think about (the) whole thing?

31:17 – 32:01              I’m glad for South Korea that they’re prosperous, because they would have never started the war. The North was the one.  It showed on TV.  Well I’m, I’m watching it now because of this conflict.  North Korea is so backward.  It’s terrible.  They don’t take care of the elderly.  All they think of is army and I hate, I think of it all the time.  Trump says he’s gonna go there and I’m afraid he will.

32:01 – 32:02              Oh boy.

32:03 – 32:08              Can you imagine he said he’s gonna go with over 500 planes.

32:09                           No.

32:10 – 32:34              There won’t be, maybe the end of the world is coming, but this morning on TV, see they’re afraid they’re gonna hit Guam first but that’s our territory, so there, there, it showed on TV airplanes so oh my God, my God the boats on the ocean.

32:35 – 32:40              Do you think North Korea will hit Guam?

32:41 – 32:43              I don’t think so.

32:44                           Why not?

32:45 – 33:14              Because the American generals and Trump are really telling the North Korean boss (Kim) what he’s gonna get and they’re even talking of hiring somebody cuz that’s it, yeah, so I don’t know what’s gonna turn out.

33:15 – 33:41              It’s just like this, you are right, you are right, I think, I agree with you because North Korea, Trump, and other generals let North Korea know what they’re gonna get after they’re hitting us.  It’s just like this, I, I know that you’re gonna kill me if I hit you in your face.  Do you think I will hit you?

33:42                           No.

33:43 – 33:45              Knowing that you’ll kill me if I hit you, right?

33:46                           Right.

33:47                           It’s just like that.

33:48                           Yeah.

33:48 – 33:51               North Korea is a small country.

33:51 – 34:44              See the people in North Korea, they don’t want war.  It’s the big shot, why what he’s got in his head now.  They said that on TV, he’s worse than his grandpa, or his dad. His dad, they said you could reason with him, but this guy, someday I think, I don’t know, maybe but sooner or later somebody’s gonna shoot him.  It’s coming maybe not right away and those missiles he’s shooting, maybe they’re exaggerating a little bit too. But who knows?

34:45                           Who knows?

34:46 – 35:06              Because a lot of them news commentators, they like to explode.  So I don’t know.  I watch the news because I was a veteran and I feel sorry for them people.

35:07 – 35:16              So what do you think about yourself as Korean War era veteran? How do you feel about it?  What are you proud of it?

35:17 – 35:44              Yes I am.  But here’s one thing I don’t agree (with), we should have never quit the draft, should have kept on even in peacetime. Two years of training, you learn discipline there.  You learn to behave.  Now the country is shoot, kill everybody and carrying guns and robbing.

35:45 – 36:12              Years ago, you never heard of that, never.  When I was in the service we had 200 men in our hospital unit.  Nobody had a gun.  You can go anyplace, have a good time.  When we were in Landstuhl, that was up on a hill.

36:13 – 36:47              We walked down to the guest house and the Germans they treated us very good, because they… we helped them.  Our pastor from the church in Luxembourg, his whole relation was there, sisters, nephews, and he wrote to me if I wanted to see them they were in Wiesbaden.  So I went there.

36:48 – 37:18              Them poor people didn’t have nothing right after the war.  I went with, see when we were in the service we get ration books.  We could get coffee.  We could get whiskey.  We could get cookies and stuff in the PX.  Well when the first time I went there, It was lucky, I could talk German.

37:19 – 37:30              I went with two suitcases full of stuff and the MPs they knew that we were helping them.  They didn’t bother me.

37:31                           Mmm.

37:32 – 37:40              They just, and I went on a bus and you can only go so far.  The bridges were all out.

37:41                           Uh-huh.

37:41 – 38:19              Then you had to cross the Rhine River on a wooden bridge maker or something temporary and you’d go there and the first time I got there I told his relation we’re gonna squeeze me to a peanut.  They were so happy and I gave him all that stuff because we were allowed to buy that but they knew that I wasn’t gonna drink a couple pounds of coffee.

38:19                           (laughing)

38:20 – 38:37              But I was treated very well and I, in fact I worked with a young German boy in the motor pool and I went home with him.  That was the best time I ever had.

38:38 – 38:55              Mm-hmm.  Floyd, what would you say to our young children and students about the Korean War you experienced indirectly?  What would you say to them about the Korean War that you experienced in Colorado?

38:56 – 39:15              Well today I think the younger generation don’t pay much attention.  It’s go, go, go and it’s a fast living.  Maybe I’m wrong.  It was never like it is now.

39:16 – 39:19              About the Korean War what do you, what would you say to young children?

39:19 – 39:38              Well, I went over there to serve my country.  I tried to keep peace and I think of it lots.  Well the World War II veterans, same thing.  It was not very nice.

39:39                           Mmm.

39:40 – 39:59               Korean War didn’t last too long.  World War II did.  I had a lot of friends that were in World War II.  Where I came from, our county, there was at least ten boys that never came back.

40:00                           Mm-hmm.

40:01 – 40:30              Three of my, of our good friends, they were in the Navy.  A torpedo hit the boat.  They went in the ocean and people back home were really concerned.  I mean it was a while in World War II, it was not going very good.  It was when Japan started in.  That was the bad time.

40:31 – 40:39              They, they believed in suicide.  They take that plane and they go right down.  They didn’t care.

40:40                           Kamikaze.

40:41                           That’s right.

40:42 – 41:05              Yeah.  So Floyd I want to thank you for your service in Denver Colorado treating and taking care of the Korean War veterans who have the psychiatric mental problem and that’s your legacy as a Korean War era veteran.  And thank you for sharing your story with me today.

41:05                           Thank you.

41:06                           Thank you.

41:07 – 41:23              Yes, I think of it quite often now with this conflict over there.  I think of it more  and then I have a granddaughter that some Korean that’s worse yet.

41:24 – 41:25              Yep, yep.

41:26 – 41:49              But just that girl, she came here.  She don’t remember her parents or grandparents.  Now I mean that but she’s going to college now and now for the summer, she works at a fast food.

41:50 – 41:51              You mean Susan?

41:52 – 41:53              No her daughter.

41:53 – 41:55              Her daughter, okay, yep.

41:56 – 42:16              And my daughter only had one boy.  They couldn’t have a family and then finally they got this one boy and he graduated now from college, and I call him at least every two weeks and he’s gonna start working next week in San Francisco.

42:17                           Great. 

42:18 – 42:20              He’s 22 years old.

42:21                           Great.

42:22                           He’s                 (END OF INTERVIEW)