Gerald Harbach

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Gerald Harbach:         My name is Gerald Harbach. My last spelling last name spelling is H A R B A C H

Interviewer:    That’s a German name?

G:        Yes

I:          So, you are German American?

G:        My great grandfather came from around Frankfurt.

I:          Frankfurt?

G:        Yeah

I:          I’ve been there, have you been there?

G:        Yes, I have, yeah

I:          It’s a big city now

G:        There’s a creek outside of Frankfurt named Harbach Creek

I:          Ah

00:00:30

G:        So that’s where supposedly our roots came from, yeah

I:          And I see that you have a Bronze Star?

G:        Yes

I:          Wow

G:        Yeah

I:          Let’s talk about that, okay?

G:        [unintelligible] And I just learned that I had a stroke here about the end of November.

00:01:00

G:        I learned that I still have a piece of shrapnel in my forehead

I:          Oh really?

G:        I didn’t know I had it, I thought they took it out or, I they asked me if I had any metal and I said, “no” and the doctor said, “uh, you do have a piece of metal on your forehead.”

I:          Oh my goodness

G:        A piece of shrapnel, a small piece so yeah

I:          So, let’s talk about that later, what is your birthday?

00:01:30

G:        April 12, 1929

I:          You were born on the Great Depression?

G:        Yes, yeah

I:          Where were you born?

G:        Here in Freeport, yeah

I:          So, this is your hometown?

G:        Yes

I:          You know many things about this city

G:        Yeah, yeah, this is where I started out and ended up {chuckles to himself}

I:          So, tell me about your parents when you were growing up and your siblings

G:        My father he came from the farm

00:02:00

G:        And my mother she, her parents, her father, was a railroad worker in Stockton, Illinois and my dad, uh, his father was a farmer, uh, at Watergrove that’s, uh, west of, uh, Lena. And, uh, my dad was the oldest boy in the family, and he had, uh, one sister of three brothers and, uh, he became a molder in the foundry

00:02:30

G:        And he learned the trade a molding. And when the Depression came on, why, he didn’t have too much work and working one day a week. His father had a place to butcher, uh, pork on his farm so he started butchering pigs and selling the sausage.

00:03:00

G:        So that’s how we got into the, uh, we still butcher and we, we sell pork and we added beef. We have our own feedlot and we feed beef cattle and we used to feral pigs we now buy feeder pigs.

I:          That’s great, I actually was on the way to the restaurant, and I found your meat place there, Harvard Meats.

G:        Harvard Meats, please, yeah

00:03:30

G:        That’s, uh, my stomping ground, yeah [chuckles]

I:          So, you inherited this business from your father?

G:        My oldest boy, uh, he runs that business now, him and his wife, and, uh, we had, uh, two other boys but the one wife didn’t care for the, uh, farm, and the younger one that he, they think,

00:04:00

G:        He went South to Florida and became a meat cutter down there.

I:          Oh okay

I:          Can you move a little bit your hat? Because it’s a shade here, move it up. Yeah, like that, yes, that’s good, that’s better.

G:        Okay

I:          All right, so when did you graduate high school?

G:        1947

I: And what did you do? Did you graduate Freeport High School?

00:04:30

G:        Yes, yeah, uh played football. I was going to go to college and had a partial scholarship to go to Northwestern State and, uh, and then, uh, was going with, uh, my wife-to-be was from Rockford. And, uh, anyway, uh, about a week before I was ready to leave to college and start football practice, why, I, uh, had a car accident.

00:05:00

G:        And it was the other, another, it was a state Fire Marshal. And it was his fault. And, uh, so to get my car, uh, insurance taken care of, I didn’t go to college then. And I started butchering with my dad, uh, in the wintertime.

00:05:30

G:        Summertime, I did construction work with the Black guy.

I:          I see, yeah.

G:        And then in 1948, then in the fall of ‘48 I married my wife, at that time. And, and so that was uh I butchered wintertime and work construction work in the summertime.

I:          And when did you join the army?

G: Well, I, uh, out of high school I joined the National Guard in September of,

00:06:00

G:        I graduated in June, and September we joined the National Guard and several other graduates did that same thing. And we stayed in the Guard, did a three-year stints, and we go to summer encampment and, uh, made a little extra money that way. And, uh, and, uh, after three years, uh, after two years we had, my wife and me, had a daughter.

00:06:30

G:        And, uh, she was born and, uh, we re-up to the Guard for another three years. And a year into that, just about a year into that enlistment, uh they activated the call.

I:          When was it?

G:        Called it up

I:          When?

G:        They activated it

I:          When?

G:        Called it up

I:          When?

00:07:00

G:        Well, we were, uh, went as a National Guardian. We lived at home and we had meetings, uh, once a week.

I:          So, when your duty was called when was it? 19…

G:        I was, I would have been, uh, when I married, I was 19. Then we had our daughter, I was 20. And then when they called the guard, that I would have been 21.

 

I:          21 is uh

 

G:        20 no 22

 

I:          19…

 

00:07:30

 

G:        22 is when they called the Guard

 

I:          1951?

 

G:        Uh…yeah, let’s see, no, it would have been ‘52. I went in January of ‘52.

 

I:          And when did you leave for Korea?

 

G:        Uh, I went to Weapon’s School and, uh, Leadership School, I, I, was going to go

to OCS,

 

00:08:00

G:        But the black-top work was working pretty busy, and I thought my wife would need more the money. So, we had a child and she worked also, so I called I told them I didn’t want to or I wasn’t going to go to OCS. So, then they, January come and work slowed down to the black-top so then I went to Leadership School and also Weapons’ School and then that was about four months before the rest of the unit had to take off.

 

00:08:30

 

G:        And then after six months, or so, in the States and training, and I helped train our units and then I got my orders to go to Korea then in September of, uh, ‘52.

 

I:          So where did you arrive in Korea? Incheon?

 

00:09:00

 

G:        In September

 

I:          Incheon? Where?

 

G:        I was assigned to the Third Division, Fifteenth Infantry. Yeah, yeah, Incheon.

 

I:          From Incheon, where did you go?

 

G:        Okay, Incheon, uh, they went to supply company for Third Division and then they

sent us to our companies.

 

00:09:30

 

G:        Uh, my company was on Hill 300 in the Chorwon Valley

 

I:          Chorwon Valley

 

G:        In the Iron Triangle and, and, uh, they were pulling a platoon sized, uh, outpost to, um, Jackson Heights.

 

00:10:00

 

G:        Was, was, uh, one of the part of the time they stayed at the in Jackson Heights in the cave at the top and they fought over that cave at night, uh, and it got to be too many casualties so they gave the Chinese every cave at night and then they’d take it back at daylight.

 

I:          Mm-hmm

 

G:        Uh, first day we, we dug trenches in that area for if they had to fall back or anything.

 

00:10:30

 

G:        So, to regroup on some high ground. And, uh, we went from September, uh well, it was really November and then the first day of December we went to, uh, I went out to that, the first combat I got into went to outdoor outpost town.

 

00:11:00

 

G:        And he was simply when I left the assembly area it had been raining and it had been quite mild weather. We didn’t have no winter clothes yet and, uh, we got soaking wet and I was heavy weapons’ platoon so we had trouble keeping up with the. . . We should have led the uh patrol out there because we was carrying the load and the Combat Commander didn’t.

 

00:11:30

 

G:        He ran off and pretty soon we I couldn’t keep up so we set up our own perimeter and caught our breath and then it’s middle of the night and we followed them in the trench to get out there, but the trench is half full of water it was pouring down rain all the time. Well then when we got out where the trench ended by the Company Commander come in and says, “Oh I should have left you guys set the pace.”

 

00:12:00

 

G:        And I said, “yeah you should’ve.” I was sort of disgusted. [chuckles] But anyway, we released King Company shook hands with the guy from King Company and they started shelling us and a round come in and kill the guy that just shook hands with. And, uh anyway, the bunkers were bad, and the guys were taking the body of their mate.

 

00:12:30

 

G:        Uh, removing it because there wasn’t enough room for two. It was only about a tomb size place to for cover and King Company was leaving they had quite a few casualties leaving. Well, the snow turned in well it started to snow then we got it.

 

00:13:00

 

G:        By morning the snow stopped, and it was approaching zero weather and we’re soaking wet

 

I:          Whoa

 

G:        So, for five days and five nights, the only sleeping we did was standing up because we were and, uh, the last day they brought winter clothes up to us.

 

0:13:30

 

I:          How did you survive that weather? With the water in it? In the foxhole?

 

G:        Well

 

I:          In the trench?

 

G:        We didn’t have fox. . . , well we had foxholes as listening posts. Yeah, and that started out the ground wasn’t froze. But the first night you hugged that ground, you’re all wet and then it got colder and colder and so it was a bad night. And, uh, but then sleeping standing up. We just lean against for fear of freezing we had quite a few guys that frostbite.

 

00:14:00

 

G:        They had frozen feet and some guys… I had a frozen ear and didn’t realize that.

Really never did. It’s, it’s like cardboard now.

 

I:          Cardboard

 

G:        Yeah, it uh crinkles, you know, it’s gristle.

 

00:14:30

 

G:        Turned into gristle after thawing. But that’s the…, the worst was going to come later when we got to Outpost Harry. We had three uh, Outposts with Tom, Dick, and Harry and Jackson Heights was part of the, uh, that first morning that we had. It was, everything froze, and uh, we went out to Jackson Heights.

 

00:15:00

 

G:        And we started at a stone fence, and it was about four, ah, probably 300 yards jacked to the base of Jackson Heights. Jackson Heights had three levels, points. We got to the first point, and the, uh, lieutenant said, “Test fire your weapon and test fired the automatic weapons.” Well, that night before the Chinese thought was at the second level and they had dynamited the second level.

 

00:15:30

 

G:        And they set the dynamite off at the second level, but we were only at the first level and they had boulders rolling down that mountain the size of automobiles.

 

I:          Mm-hmm

 

G:        We lost two men from boulder pushed them over the side, they got smashed. And anyway,

we’re lucky we wasn’t up at the second level.

 

00:16:00

G:        They was in the cave at the top and and so and wasn’t too long they bumped out of the cave. But after that we left that area and then we had OP Tom with just a more of a two-squad outpost and OP Harry.

 

00:16:30

 

G:        We got it about third handed and it was getting Spring. Oh, then OP Harry commanded the view, it was the highest thing, it was 900 yards in front of the MLR and I was sending men up to build bunkers.

 

00:17:00

 

G:        They brought us some two-by-twelves. They were about 10 foot long and, uh, we put across. These engineers helped us the first two days and building bunkers and they, uh, brought [unintelligible] bought stuff up, uh, the lumber was brought, uh, they’ve done quite a bit of the haul but we never seen the engineers after two days. We was on our own.

 

00:17:30

 

G:        But we rebuilt the bunkers, and we were digging up bodies that had been the bunkers were, uh, caved in from artillery shells and buried the [unintelligible] guys that was inside. Seventh guys, and seventh division we had quite a few, uh, we probably dug up, uh, eight guys or so it was a couple of bunkers. Other guys don’t know

a different one.

 

00:18:00

 

G:        The bunkers prior to that, they weren’t too good but these bunkers we made with the two-by-twelves they were good bunkers. We used six post six two by twelve spike together for a post and we put our .50 caliber machine gun bunker. And that was always the first thing they went for when they hit the outpost was that .50 caliber machine gun.

 

00:18:30

 

I:          What was your unit?

 

G:        What was the unit answer?

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        It was the Third Division, Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, Second Battalion,

Georgia Company.

 

I:          Second Battalion, Georgia Company.

 

G:        Right. And I was Weapon Platoon Sergeant. We didn’t go on as many patrols as the Rifleman did, but we used to go on patrol.

 

00:19:00

 

G:        We take a mortar with them and not leave the pipe on and, and we use, uh, on patrols it was nice to have the mortar along if we was pinned down or something. A lot more punch there than a hand grenade.

 

I:          Mm-hmm, yeah. How did you get the Bronze Star?

 

00:19:30

 

G:        That was just for …

 

I:          Bravery? When, when, how it happened?

 

G:        For combat experience and mine was, uh, what were they here what are they calling you ready

 

I:          Yeah [hero-ing]

 

G:        Yeah. For teaching combat experience to my platoon and, and because you had a lot of guys when they come up there, they didn’t have no experience.

 

00:20:00

 

G:        But and, uh, it would have been in

 

I:          Push-up. Well with your hat. Push.

 

G:        Oh yeah, I was going to take it off and look at it.

 

I:          Right, yeah, look at it look at it.

 

G:        On the heroic and they have wrote it on the side.

 

00:20:30

 

G:        And the, uh, we were, we got overran in April the third because I almost didn’t make my birthday. We’re overran, fought hand-to-hand and, uh, one of my men you shoot anybody out of a trench. Anybody on the trench line and he was coming. He run from one bunker he was going to try and lift the rounds he didn’t realize they had outnumbered us in the trenches.

 

00:21:00

 

G:        And he was going to try and call in tell them to listen. That they’re shelling us. Well, the reason they was shelling us is ‘Broken Arrow.’ Have you ever heard that expression? They overran us and our own artillery was, uh, throwing shrapnel down and, uh, if you didn’t have head, overhead cover, you were dead.

 

00:21:30

 

I:          Mm-hmm

 

G:        And anyway, he comes out of his bunker to run into where the radio was in the CB bunker and he ran right into the Chinamen. And the Chinamen shot him across the chest broke his shoulder and he, with his good hand and he, he grabbed the burp gun from the Chinaman. And there’s two Chinamen up on the outside of the trench and he’s hanging onto that burp gun and the Chinaman came and chewed the end of his trigger finger.

 

00:22:00

 

G:        [chuckles] Tried to make him let go of that.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        But he didn’t let it go. He hung on for dear life. Rogers was his name. After that night, he had his shoulder broke. I never seen him after that night. He, he got through, yeah. He rotated. If you got a broken bone, you go home.

 

00:22:30

 

G:        Yeah, and anyway he made it. We, we survived that night and we were pulled off the next morning. Another company replaced us. Then, and then it was, there was a big push.

 

00:23:00

 

G:        Three Chinese armies or some said there was only two Chinese armies overran two ROK Divisions or three ROK Divisions and they had 29 miles in one night. That would have been, uh,

let’s see, well that that was after OP Harry the second time. In June we then, we was,

we had to go back up on Harry in June. And then we really got we got assault in June.

 

00:23:30

 

G:        And I told my men, it uh, there was a lot of enemy up there but and we were there was just it was getting dusk and uh I didn’t know how many people was on top. And I told them, I said, “Well the quicker we’re on top, the better we are.” And, and when we assaulted that we started about on a clock

 

000:24:00

G:        We started on like, seven o’clock on the reverse. And assaulted them right not too far from the ridge that went up there. As luck would have it, we were pretty lucky. We, we didn’t, there wasn’t nobody shooting down on us we and our own forces were still up there.

 

00:24:30

 

G:        But they uh, uh, we had a 57 recoilless rifle up there and we had a bazooka

and we had one mortar and we had a .50 caliber machine gun down on the MLR

and, and anyway we got up there, and I would never, I’ll never forget that assault because I was so winded I couldn’t hardly, I, I never so out of breath in my life. [chuckles]

 

00:25:00

 

I:          You were scared?

 

G:        Yeah, we saw it. Just as hard as we could go. Because shells were coming in and the longer you’re in that shell fire though, the less chance you’ve got to make it. So, stuff was coming in, and it wasn’t as bad as later, that one, when the assault that’s worse.

 

00:25:30

 

G:        And uh, but they, our artillery by later they’d 63,000 rounds in that, that afternoon that was the third day of fighting on our military.

 

I:          Wow

 

G:        We lost half of our company, over half of our company that they took us off we didn’t have a company anymore. And then the company they were, they, they went every night for eight nights.

 

00:26:00

 

G:        They assaulted, and the Greeks held it last night. The Greeks had it, that was a Friday night, I think was the last night. But they, they hit her every night for eight nights. And they…

 

I:          Must be a Hell

 

G:        Well, the bodies. Some of those pictures were the bodies of and that night.

 

00:26:30

 

G:        June, there’s a lot more bodies than in April. But there’s a horseshoe and they would all come up in that horseshoe the assaulters. And, and they some of them would get all over the ridges, but they came a lot.

 

I:          Were you thinking that you’re going to be die?

 

G:        Pardon?

 

I:          Were you thinking that you might die?

 

G:        I well,

 

00:27:00

 

G:        I left my camera with the mail clerk because I didn’t think I was going to need it no more. [chuckles] I the pictures of the bodies I got from another guy. Yeah, but, but for the first time in April I had my own camera.

 

I:          Where did you buy?

 

G:        I the, uh, every month we used to have cameras in our supply, uh, like candy bars, . . .

 

I:          PX?

 

00:27:30

 

G:        rations, that we got one. And they’d usually be half the cameras.

 

I:          So, you bought it?

 

G:        I bought one in my camera. Well, I went with a camera, 35 millimeter, Kermit Camera, folded camera. It, I used to carry my chest pocket, and then I got a better. I got a German Tessa that I carry. Still have it, but don’t use the 30 [unintelligible] anymore.

 

I:          So, you participate in a very severe battle there.

 

00:28:00

 

I:          Iron Triangle and Jackson Heights Outpost, Outpost Tom and so on. You survived that. What do you think about that now? Think about it those battles? What do you think?

 

0:28:30

 

G:        Well, we, you know, it’s bad times and it, uh, for the love of country. The, the Koreans

wanted you know they wanted what we had, and they wanted to be free too.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        And I respected that. And we, we had Korean soldiers that was Juno Kim, [unintelligible].

 

00:29:00

 

G:        He was an outstanding soldier with, he was there, with the Third Division right from day one. He started with them. And we, there was another one, that wasn’t in my platoon, Shorty we called him. Uh and uh he was wounded and, uh, I guess he went home, I’m not sure.

But I had a another that came later Hachi Sung.

 

00:29:30

 

G:        And, and good soldier and, and, uh Juno uh, he, uh and after April and Juno he asked me if I would see if he could go to the Korean army because he would be Sergeant First Class then that’s what I was for and uh…

 

00:30:00

 

G:        I asked the company commander about that, and we got him, he got transferred to to the

uh, but I often wonder then we had the big brush with it was either two or three Chinese armies overran in the Kumhwa Valley there and, and that was, uh, that’s where the armistice has come to the July 27th you know and that that was disarray.

 

00:30:30

 

G:        Everybody that was we was they went 29 miles one night and everything was, uh, there was no, uh, everything was muddled. And, and we were short of ammo and that night we moved with walking off of uh to the rear.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        And, and, uh, the artillery going we said, “oh boy somebody’s getting it tonight”

 

00:31:00

 

G:        You know and boy it kept on getting you could tell on, on when we was on Outpost Harry we could see what was going on across the Chorwon Valley in Pork Chop and White Horse. White Horse there wasn’t much fight done during my time there but Pork Chops there was a lot of fighting in Pork Chop. In pork chop it started out being in behind the White Horse Mountain and that was across the Chorwon Valley.

 

00:31:30

 

G:        That Chorwon Valley was seven miles across there. That’s, that’s what we and I got pinned down by a machine gun out in Chorwon Valley three times there’s a wrecked train out there and I don’t know how the guy missed. I had five guys for Recon patrol and they had a,

they wanted to bring two tanks out there on the railroad tracks and shoot up the Chinese Outposts

out for the daylight Recon patrolling the machine gun from …

 

00:32:00

 

G:        He, he was sort of a long shot about 700 yards, I think.

 

I:          Okay

 

G:        Man, he opened up on us. Five guys we have no place to hide. We, we just kept running and he kept shooting and he didn’t hit one of us and we had bullets going past our head and they, when a bullet goes past your head it’s just like snapping a whip.

 

00:32:30

 

G:        When they crack the velocity.

 

I:          Yeah. When did you leave Korea?

 

G:        About a week after the armistice. My enlistment was up, and I got home

late for my enlisted and they I was almost a Civilian Platoon Sergeant because they froze rotation when it that big push happened.

 

00:33:00

 

G:        But I, I was uh, I had enough points. I had 40 points; you could rotate with 38.

 

I:          Have you been back to Korea?

 

G:        No, I haven’t, I’ve thought a lot about it but I, I, I didn’t.

 

I:          Do you want to go?

 

G:        Since uh, well if you could go to Outpost Harry. I don’t know. But that’s out in the DMZ. They, they did took one group up there.

 

00:33:30

 

G:        That was, uh, a lot of guys lost their lives there.

 

I:          Right.

 

G:        That’s all. And the Chinese just, uh, one night they lost three thousand, they said, I know.

I don’t know how I don’t know who counted. But it’s, uh, it’s, it’s not a very good way to settle your problems I’ll say that.

 

I:          Do you know South Korea right now? How they are doing?

 

G:        Oh yeah, I think they’ve done super well, yeah.

 

00:34:00

 

I:          How do you know? What do you know?

 

G:        The news. And, and they’ve done well and I’m glad to see they do, and they’ve been a good ally. Yeah and, and you know, you, I, I’m a little disappointed in this, uh, president taking the money under the table, and she let her people down, didn’t she?

 

I:          Yeah.

 

0:34:30

 

G:        Yeah, it it’s so important to have the honor of your country. And, and we’re having a little trouble with that right now I, uh, it’s just uh, I, I probably shouldn’t say too much about uh, I, uh, Mr. Trump’s got good ideas I, I, I just I was afraid Hillary was gonna win

 

00:35:00

 

G:        Because she scared me. I got no use for her. Yeah, she, I, she scares you.

 

I:          Yeah, are you proud of your service?

 

G:        Yes, very much so.

 

I:          Mm-hmm, why?

 

G:        I [hit] well, that’s part of who we are I had uncles in World War II, uh, they’ve all, uh, I had one in the Battle of the Bulge in the infantry.

 

00:35:30

 

G:        I had another one that was bombardier on a B-24 where he did 80 some, I don’t know not 80. Wait, what was the mission? Twenty, Twenty-eight missions over Germany. On a B-24 Bomber that was before the war ended, he come home, and he did twenty-four missions.

 

00:36:00

 

G:        Uh, but, I, think, uh, if I had to, you know, if I was going to do it again, I don’t think I’d pick the infantry.

 

I:          [chuckles] You had enough, right? You had enough?

 

G:        Yeah, there’s no babies. I, I had 12 close calls. And we was cooking C Rations, one time.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        Five of us a little fire.

 

00:36:30

 

G:        Two rounds, 60 millimeter mortars, come in, wounded one of the mortarmen and we’re heating our C Rations in our fire. 160 millimeter mortar come right down and it lit in our fire.

 

I:          Oh jeez.

 

G:        It was a dud

 

I:          Oh my god, you survived that?

 

G:        Right, right I, I had a guy open up with a, that night they overran us. I had a flak vest on.

 

00:37:00

 

G:        He shot me right over the heart [chuckles]. It just did, just I didn’t even have it zipped up and he just caught a half inch and knocked me down though. I hit my head. Half knocked me out. [chuckles] Yeah.

 

I:          You were very lucky.

 

G:        Pardon?

 

I:          You were very lucky.

 

G:        Yes, I was, yeah. Well with God’s blessings.

 

I:          Yeah, what is the legacy of the Korean War?

 

00:37:30

 

G:        What is what?

 

I:          Legacy.

 

G:        Well . . .

 

I:          Importance of the Korean War.

 

G:        South Korea that, they were supposed to have their democracy and they got their direct democracy. And I think that I’m glad they did, and they have been a good ally and, and, and, uh, it’s uh, you, you like to have those kinds of neighbors.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        That’s what it’s all about.

 

I:          Exactly

 

00:38:00

 

G:        Yeah honor, uh I, I’m a very firm believer uh, do things in a Christian manner. I, I, I, uh, uh, I think without God’s help I probably wouldn’t come through the Korean War because I had a lot of fellow, a lot of friends, that didn’t y’know? I stood beside them when they died, yeah and

it yeah, it was a …

 

00:38:30

 

G:        My uncles and stuff having been in World War II and, and I had a lot of respect for the military.

 

I:          Yeah

 

G:        And they, they and we should have respect but politics, uh, they turn out to be bad things like, you lose your honor, and your honor is lost in politics.

 

I:          Yeah, very good point.

 

G:        Yeah, and shameful

 

I:          Yeah. We have to end the um, but is there any other important point that you want to make?

 

G:        Uh, I can’t think of anything else really.

 

I:          I know you have so many episodes because you fought there in the [triangle, triangle, and triangle] and Iron Triangle region where that was Chorwon and Kumhwa, right?

 

G:        Yeah, it, it’s very surprising on how many, uh, what, what some countries will go through how many lives they’re willing to sacrifice. It’s just like Outpost Harry.  They were willing to sacrifice all those lives. I don’t know how many they lost.

 

00:40:00

 

G:        But that night we was on there, they lost about 3,000 lives

 

I:          That’s amazing

 

G:        It, that went on just about every night. And that eight, eight nights of that it, it, it gets uh …

 

I:          Too much

 

G:        Yeah, yeah you wonder how, uh, that, that’s uh,

 

00:40:30

 

G:        it’s a lot easier to be a General than a rifleman [chuckles]

 

I:          [chuckles] Gerald I want to thank you on behalf of Korean Nation that you fought for us and so that we were able to rebuild our nation. And we want to thank you for your fight.

 

G:        Yeah, we, I was impressed with my Korean soldiers they, they did good and they were out of [unintelligible] and, uh, they hardly ever had a bad, but if ever I had a bad one,

 

00:41:00

 

G:        I, I sent him off to the rifle platoon [laughter].

 

I:          [laughter] It was a punishment

 

G:        But, I could pick. They had to be good for the heavy weapons’ platoon, but they

had to do was a good job.

 

I:          Yeah, right.

 

G:        There was no point of being there [chuckles]

 

I:          Thank you

 

00:41:26 [End of Recorded Material]