Harlan Nielsen

Harlan Nielsen: Harlan Nielsen is my name. And I spell it H-A-R-L-A-N N-I-E-L-S-E-N.
Interviewer: Great. And I’m going to take that from you. For now. Just for the interview.

H: Okay.

H: Alright.

I: Um, could you tell us when you were born and where you were born?

H: Oh, I don’t know. Like I say, I don’t know if I was there. [Chuckles]

0:00:30

H: I was born in Beresford, South Dakota. April 3rd, 1931.

I: Hey, April 3rd’s my sister’s birthday.

H: Really?

I: Yeah.

H: Well, we’ll have to celebrate together. [Laughs]

I: So, tell me about your family at the time.

H: At my time, I was not married. And it was just my Dad and one brother;

0:01:00

H: We all lived on the same farm. And that’s, that’s it. All the rest of the relatives were over in Europe.

I: Great. And, what high school did you graduate from?

H: Uh, Beersford.

I: And when did you graduate?

H: 49, I believe. You’re 51, aren’t you?

Harlans’ Wife: I was 51, yeah. You had a girlfriend when you left, remember?

H: Huh?

0:01:30

HW: I’d say we were engaged when you had to go to Korea.

H: Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, we were engaged then, that’s right, when we went to Korea.

I: Okay, great. So, did you know anything about Korea when you were going over?

H: Not a thing. I didn’t know too much when I come home, even.(chuckles)

I: So what did you think when you knew you were going to go over? Did you were you drafted?

H: Yeah.

0:02:00

I: So what did you think when they said you had to go to Korea?

H: Well, I thought a lot of people went over there, so I might as well go too. If I had my choice, I wouldn’t have went. But that’s so much different now. Everything was sold. All the buildings were blown full of holes. Now it’s all built up.

I: And when were you drafted?

H: April 8, 1952.

0:02:31

I: So where did you get basic military training?

H: Camp Breckenridge Kentucky.

I: And did you go straight to Korea afterwards?

H: Yeah.

I: Where did you land?

H: Where did I end?

I: Where did you land in Korea?

H: Oh, I don’t remember.

I: Do you know when it was?

H: We took a ship over and then,

0:03:00

H: Yeah, I don’t know what they call it. Incheon, maybe?

I: That sounds right?

I: Yes, Incheon.

H: I think that’s right.

I: Do you know when you landed?

H: Oh, not exactly, but it was about, it took us about two weeks to get over there on the ship. We hit a typhoon going over. Kind of slowed things up. [chuckles]

0:03:30

I: So, what unit were you a part of?

H: Second Division. Company B. Ninth Infantry Regiment, Second Division.

I: And what branch of the military?

H: Army, or what do you mean?

I: Oh, no, no.

H: I was in the infantry.

I: Yeah.

H: Yeah.

I: And um, after you landed in Inchon, were you stationed there, or did you move around?

0:04:00

H: No, I don’t know. I don’t remember all that stuff. That’s a long time ago. [chuckles] We went, we was up on the front lines just about instantly. And I didn’t know, you know, where, which way was which and who was where. It was nighttime and the tracer bullets were going over.

0:04:30

I: So what was everyday life like?

H: Well, that’s a good question. I suppose it was different for everybody. We got something to eat anyway. It wasn’t that bad.

I: Did you participate in any major battles that you can recall?

H: Well, we got

0:05:00

H: Blasted a few times there.

I: Do you recall any names of the places you went to after you landed in Incheon at all?

H: No, I don’t. I wouldn’t know that.

I: So what was your specialty?

H: Shoot. [Laughs] That was it. I mean, but then later on,

0:05:30

H: then after things settled down, then I got into supply, so. And ammunition, too. I got into that, too, first.

I: So did you write home to your fiancé?

H: I wrote home, did I?

HW: Every day. [Laughs]

I: What did you write to her?

H: Oh boy, they’re getting awful personal now. [Laughs]

0:06:00

I: I want to know.

H: I told her it wasn’t bad. She didn’t believe me because the trees didn’t have no leaves on them.

HW: He said he wasn’t off on the front lines, and he was. [Chuckles] He sent some pictures and the trees were all shot off.

I: So you didn’t tell her the truth?

HW: No, he didn’t want me to worry.

I: Yeah What was it like having to be in a foreign country

0:06:30

I: When you had a fiancé?

H: Pretty lonesome. But we made the best of it, I guess.

I: Do you have any memories, lasting memories, maybe difficult times that really are stuck in your memory at all?

H: No, I don’t know. Not exactly,

0:07:00

H: I guess. We went on a patrol a lot at night, and that was across the rice paddies. Didn’t like that too good.

I: So what was your living condition like? You said you got food every day, but what else?

H: You sat down and needed it if you had it.

0:07:30

H: There was no living conditions, everything. I never had a shower for two months once. That’s a long time.

HW: You brushed your teeth in beer because the water was no good.

H: Water was terrible over there.

I; Can you say that, (cuts off)

H; Have you not been back?

I: Oh, I have.

H: But at that time the water was so bad. And I brushed my teeth in beer, even. [Chuckles]

0:08:00

I: Did you get any cavities?

H: I ain’t got no teeth. [Laughs]

HW: You got cavities when you got home, yeah. You lived in bunkers too. Tell me about those bunkers weren’t the greatest.

H: Yeah, the bunkers.

I: Yeah, how was it like living in the bunkers?

H: Well, it was pretty bad when they started putting the rounds in on them. But, but lucky to get out of there, I guess.

0:08:30

I: Did you have any combat when you were there?

H: Oh, yeah.

I: Can you talk about that?

H: Not really. I don’t want to say too much about that. That bugs me. I haven’t even told her things. So I soon bypass that part.

I: Okay.

0:09:00

I: Is it because you don’t want to remember or ?

H: No, I don’t know. So many people got blown up, and it just turned me off against it all. So.

I: Do you think that we shouldn’t have had the war?

H: Well, I don’t know. I never gave

0:09:30

H: that a thought, I guess. But putting your war again over there, isn’t there? Just about again in North Korea, that’s kind of troublesome.

I: So, you were in combat and you had landed in Incheon. Um, where else did you go before you left, and when did you leave?

H: Oh ma’am, I didn’t know where I was half time.

0:10:00

H: I didn’t know the directions over there. I never did get straightened up on directions. And that’s something that’s never bothered me like that but.

I: So, what did you do right before you left Korea? What was your last task?

H: My last, what?

I: What was your last task before you left Korea?

H: The war was ended then. It ended in, what, July of ’53, I believe?

I: Yes.

0:10:30

H: July 27th, maybe?

I: Yep, exactly.

H: And I was in supply then, supply. Yeah. So, there’s quite an experience.

0:11:00

I: So you were there when the armistice was signed?

H: Mm-hmm.

I: How did it make you feel to see this war that you don’t particularly enjoy? What was it like to see, to be there when the armistice was signed?

H: Well, that was a pretty good day. Everybody was happy. [Chuckles then clears throat]

0:11:30

I: So after the armistice was signed and you were still in supplies, what did you do?

H: We put ourselves on ash and trash. That’s what we called it. Didn’t do much.

I: What’s ash and trash? Can you?

H: That’s nothing. Anything you wanted to do. After it was over with, we’d been over there and done our duty, and we were just waiting for time to go home. So, by saying ash and trash is, you know what I mean,

0:12:00

H: It just, maybe. We even played volleyball over there when it was over with, you know. Had quite a bit of volleyball. Showed bayonets on our toes. See how close we could come. And different things like that. There wasn’t too many things to do. Drank a little beer.

0:12:30

I: Were you able to enjoy yourself?

H: Yeah, we got. We did pretty good after it was over. Everything was, everybody was in a cheerful mood. A couple of my buddies come over to my area from a different, they were in the same second division, but they were in a different company. So,

0:13:00

H: we made the best of it.

I: So when did you leave Korea?

H: Let’s see, I think I got home in January 19th, 54, and it must have been 20 days or so before I left Korea.

0:13:30

I: What was it like leaving this country that you had just fought for?

H: I was ready to go. [Chuckles] I had to get home. She was waiting for me.

I: Your fiancée was waiting for you? Yeah.

H: So that was pretty happy days.

I: Were you discharged as soon as you got home or did you continue?

H: Yeah, pretty quick. Wasn’t it? Yeah, I think so.

0:14:00

I: And after your discharge, what did you do?

H: Farm. That’s it.

I: Did you leave the memories of Korea in Korea, or were you still haunted when you came back?

H: No, I didn’t.

HW: I had to be careful. If I’d make a loud noise or something, he’d hit the floor.

H: Oh yeah, at first, but I don’t do that anymore.

HW: One time I was going to scare him

0:14:30

HW: Just to be silly, you know. And I said, boo, and he dived from the floor.

H: That’s pretty touchy.

HW: He says, don’t you ever do that to me again. [Chuckles] He was pretty touchy that way.

I: Yeah

HW: He was used to the bombs, and if they went off, he was used to hit the dirt over there, and any
loud noise here, whammo. [Chuckles]

0:15:00

I: How did you, how did you overcome that?

H: I don’t know

HW: Gradually, you gradually got over it.

H: That took a long time though.

HW: It did.

H: It really did.

HW: He got back in January and we were married in June.

I: Wow.

H: Somebody would have shot a firecracker. I suppose the night we got married, I might have took a dive. [Laughs along with his wife]

0:15:30

I: Wow. So all of this hardship and even afterwards, the mental kind of turmoil that you had to deal with in Korea, do you think that your service was worth it?

H: Well, yeah, I think so because it got things settled a little bit. But then pretty soon they start up someplace else.

0:16:00

I: Are you proud of your service?

H: Yeah, I am.

I: And you know that Korea is now the 11th largest economy in the world.

H: I know that, really.

I: And a model for a democratization in Asia. How does that make you reflect upon your service?

H: Well, good. It makes me feel good that we’ve done something for somebody. And they were.

0:16:30

H: Always, I didn’t see many, many of them, mostly just the army people we’d seen, but once in a while you’d see some pretty nice people there. Once in a while you’d find somebody stealing your stuff too. That wasn’t so nice, but the Korean boys.

I: Would you do it again?

0:17:00

H: Would I go over there again? Not now. at 85, I wouldn’t want to go.

I: Oh, so you haven’t been back to visit the new Korea?

H: No. No, I haven’t. I haven’t been back there since, but I see pictures and different things. I know they’re all built up now.

I: So what do you think came out of your service?

H: Good question.

0:17:30

H: I don’t know. You know what it can be like if it gets tough. You know what it can be like because there were things that were not very nice.

HW: But you’re proud that they’re built up now, right? You’re proud that they’re all built up.

H:Yeah, that’s what I said. I know it went to a good cause,

0:18:00

H: because they’re all. You’ve been over several times then?

I: Yes, I have yeah. What kind of impact did the Korean War have on your life?

H: Good, I think. Like I say, I’m proud of what I did. And what more can I say? [Chuckles]

0:18:30

I: Great. Is there any other last message that you’d like to leave with us?

H: No, I don’t know. I suppose that’s the same as everybody else, huh? [Chuckles]

I: What is that?

H: Just the afterthoughts, I mean.

I: So what’s your afterthought?

H: Well, it was a good experience.

0:19:00

H: That’s good for, to have a reference so you know what niceness is. Good things over the bad things, you know.

I: Well, I want to thank you for your service and thank you for talking to me today about your experiences. And again, thank you for being here.

H: Thank you.

I: Thank you so much.