Joseph P. Ferris
Bio
Joseph P. Ferris, born in July 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951 after graduating from high school. After completing a year of communications training, he deployed to Korea in April 1952. At Kimpo Air Base, he actively maintained and repaired communication systems for a squadron of B-26 aircraft. Upon returning to the U.S. in March 1953, he pursued a degree in electrical engineering. Subsequently, he worked for New York Telephone for 20 years until a strike ended his tenure there. Following this, he shifted careers and joined the New York Fire Department, where he served another 21 years before retiring. Throughout his life, Ferris consistently applied his technical skills with purpose and dedication, thereby making lasting contributions to both military service and public safety.
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Traveling to Korea and Assigned Duties
Joseph P. Ferris enlisted in the Air Force fully aware that the war was underway. After completing his training, he promptly deployed to Korea and served at Kimpo Air Base. There, he actively maintained and repaired communications systems. Moreover, he clearly remembers his duties and fondly recalls the respectful, positive interactions he shared with the local Korean people throughout his service.
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Spam, Spam, and more Spam
Joseph P. Ferris remembers when North Koreans poisoned the water near Kimpo Air Base, which quickly disrupted the food supply. Consequently, the cooks served Spam day after day with limited options. Nevertheless, Ferris recalls how the troops found humor in the situation, joking about the “Spam meal of the day” and sharing laughs despite the hardship.
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Kimpo under Air Attack
Joseph P. Ferris vividly recalls the intense tension of enemy air attacks. For instance, during one assault, a newly arrived airman panicked, overwhelmed by the chaos. Furthermore, in another incident, Ferris watched a pilot return from a mission seemingly unharmed—until he pulled off his boot and discovered it filled with blood, only then realizing he’d been shot.
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Orphanage at Yeongdeungpo
Joseph P. Ferris praises the U.S. Air Force’s strong performance during the Korean War and takes great pride in their efforts. Moreover, he fondly remembers his unit spending time with orphaned children in Yeongdeungpo, reflecting on how those moments of kindness brought much-needed joy and meaning amid the hardships of war.
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South Korea Rebuilt
Joseph P. Ferris compares South Korea’s rebuilding to post–World War II Europe, highlighting the stark contrast between the two. While Europe recovered slowly over many years, he marvels at South Korea’s rapid redevelopment. Having visited both regions, he particularly admires Korea’s impressive transformation, especially considering the severe devastation it endured during the war.
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Video Transcript
Ferris, Joseph P.
0:20:25
Transcription Revised by Jennifer Morgan 9/27/25
[Beginning of Recorded Materials]
Joseph Ferris: My name is Joseph Ferris. I was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933 July, and I went to school at Lady of Perpetual Help School, and then I went to Manual Training High School. Then I joined the United States Air Force.
Interviewer: When was that?
F: In 1951
I: 51, you join the Air Force?
F: March 1951. IMarch 1951. I joined the Air Force. I did my basic up at Sampson, New York and I went to Scott
0:00:30
Air Force Base, Illinois and did a year’s schooling in radio repairs and communications. After I was sent over to Korea to Kimpo Air Base
I: When did you arrive for the first time?
F: I got into Korea about April, beginning of April
I: Of?
F: 1952 and I left in about March of 1953. And I came back to the United States and got stationed at Pine Castle Air Force
0:01:00
Base which was a Strategic Air Command, and I flew out of thereat the end of my tour to England for
90 days. We were in B-47s. Then I came back and I got discharged. After I got discharged, I came home, got a job at the New York Telephone Company, went and worked there went to college at night for electrical engineering. After 20 years,
0:01:30
what happened was we went on strike for eleven months, so I took a test, city test and I went on the New York City Fire Department. After 21 years, I left the telephone company and I retired about 18 years ago
from the fire department, and now I’m doing charity work around here in Staten Island, the Notre Dame Alumni Association and other organizations. I enlisted in the Air Force knowing that the war was on and when I was sent there
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I didn’t know what to expect, but when I got there and we spent a year there, I got to know some of the people in the village, in Kimpo village. They were wonderful, and of course, the enemy was attacking us almost every night, sometimes for 12 hours continuously. That I wasn’t too happy with, but you live under those conditions
I: Did you know about Korea before?
F: No, never heard of it. We went on ship by, I went up in the Hase
0:02:30
and came back on the Mann, uh, troopships. Going across, we stopped in Hawaii and the surprising thing was they say they were going to pick up, I shouldn’t say this, but she’s still going to pick up pineapples. And I says oh good we going to get fruit, but in those days before it was a state they called pineapples Hawaiian troops. We were picking up troops to come over with us. And so we got into see Hawaii for a day and then we pulled into Japan.
0:03:00
Yokihama and from there we went by train to southern Japan. I don’t even remember the name of base, and from there I flew over to Seoul.
I: Oh, you flew over to Seoul
F: And from Seoul they went up by car, ah truck, to Kimpo Air Base and that’s where I stayed for the next over 10 months. My main mission was to take care of the B-26’s radio and communication systems on the plane itself
0:03:30
that was our main mission, but also while we were there, we had to pull guard duty of course so when we weren’t working on radios, we pulled guard duty on the base to protect it.
I: Was there, were there any North Korean or the Chinese attacked to the air base there?
F: Well, we did have a situation where the North Koreans come down and poisoned all the water
0:04:00
so we had no water at all to drink, so what happens was they started bringing small quantities of water and
our cooks could only serve one type of food, and that was Spam, but they were very, very smart. One day you’d have Spam. The next day you’d have baked Spam. The next day you’d have Spam ala Spam. Every day they had a different name for it until the water came back and they started to be able to cook again. But this was funny because the guys are looking at every day
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what’s what they going to call it today
I: So you’re sick and tired of Spam?
F: I still eat it.
I: It’s delicious.
F: Oh, it is.
I: Yeah. So enemy was all over around the Kimpo area?
F: Well, we couldn’t tell the enemy from the friends, so we had to be a little careful as to when we went out on patrol or anything like that, and we were told to be polite to people that were with
0:05:00
the people in the Kimpo Village, and they were always very, very, very, very, very nice to us, so I couldn’t tell you if I met any or not in the situation. Oh, we had two main wings, we had the F-86 where most of the main jet fighter heroes came from, the most decorated. In my outfit, we were photo and weather reconnaissance outfit. We were flying B-26s. We’d fly alone
0:05:30
unarmed and unafraid. That was our motto of the Blackbirds, and we flew all the way up to the Yalo River, all the way around getting weather reports and stuff, and come back, and then we passed it on to our military. And then we had day flights that were also going out for different things, and at night we also had photo reconnaissance where we’d go out and take pictures at night and when you go out and they would let their bombs go
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big flashes. You could see it from miles and miles and miles away, and they’d come back with some great pictures, so we could see where the enemy was and what they had, so on and so forth.
I: How many F-86 were there?
F: Oh, I don’t know. That was the wingers on the other side of the base, so I don’t know exactly how many he had, but we had about it was 25, I think was 25 B-26’s that I maintained and took
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care of
I: And they every day they flew back to North Korean region and they
F: At night. We flew at night.
I: At night?
F: We flew at night. They had F-80’s and 84’s, and we, our wing was the last wing use the F-51’s reciprocating engines. We were the last ones to use guys in combat. Nobody after that we went into strictly jets in the Air Force.
I: I heard the North Koreans were really afraid
0:07:00
of the UN’S Air Force
F: Well, put it this way, our fighter, men were well-trained and they were very good with what they had, so we had a lot of bases, which means that they knocked down more than five planes, and so on and so forth, so it’s a great honor to say that our Air Force was very good.
I: Was there any dangerous moment during your service in the Air Force Base? and
0:07:30
you share some of those anecdotes or events that occurred.
F: Well, I remember one night this one fella had just come in, first time he’s ever been in Korea, and
we had, we were being attacked at night and we all ran into the trenches that we had and we jumped in
I: Who attacked? North Koreans or Chinese?
F: I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you, but assume it was North Koreans, but could have been Chinese. I don’t know.But these are planes were being attacked by air.
I: Oh!
0:08:00
Attacked by air?
F: Attacked by air. Yeah we were about 10 miles from the front lines at Kimpo Air Base. What happened was they attacked us. Since we were jumping in trenches, and we were kind of used to it after a while because it happend so often. And this one little guy was down at the bottom and somebody says I think I stepped on somebody. He says no. The other fellow says yeah I think I stepped on somebody. Then we got a couple of about half hour later we got an all clear.
0:08:30
So we come out and this guy got up. He said I was so scared I couldn’t talk. But that went on for almost 10 hours that night. After that time he was calmed down, well used to it by then. But that was some of the times that we had. Some of our attacks at night with just one plane coming over and either dropping a hand grenade or a mortar shell or something like that trying to hit something. We called that Bedcheck Charlie. Bedcheck
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Charlie’s here tonight again. Other nights we’d have heavy bombing. I’d say about 10 hours on and off, 10
hours. A lot of never got through it. It would keep going with through. We had tremendous stations all around the base to protect us.
I: There were many casualties?
F: Not that I know. Not on the ground.
0:09:30
We had casualties of pilots and radio men who went flying at night and stuff. I remember one case it was was funny. He came in and I met him at the night and picked them up. He was in my tent. I drove him back to the tent and then when he took off a shoe he started bleeding like mad. He had shrapnel that went through the plane, went through his shoe, and he didn’t even know he got hit.
I: Oh!
F: So, I grabbed him fast and brought him down to the field hospital and
0:10:00
they took look and his foot turned black and they sent him to Japan. About two and a half months later, he was back again flying. He was alright, but the surprise even know he got hit. He didn’t feel a thing. Surprised me too.
I: How to assess the role and the contribution made by the Air Force during the Korean War?
F: Oh, I think that the Air Force did a marvelous job of protecting the troops on the ground and also
0:10:30
hitting major installations in the north to stop the North Koreans from coming down. I know they came down the first time and second, but as we built up and our Air Force and so forth, it became very good. My biggest thing too, was not only with the Air Force, but we had a little place in Yeongdeungpo, an orphanage and the priest
0:11:00
was our chaplain used to round up fewer the men whoever we could get, and we would go over there and we would bring food and so forth on to the Yeongduengpo orphanage, and those children were so grateful. They were wonderful. Ahh, we had a great time playing with them and getting around. Every time we go to leave they’d all line up outside and sing Irene Goodnight.
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I: What do you mean?
F: That’s the song. [Sings] Irene Goodnight, Irene Goodnight. So every time I hear that, even today it always reminds me of the children over there, so that’s one of the things I brought back with me that I cherish very close. The Korean people outside of Kimpo Air Base they were growing rice. They were surviving by growing rice, and the men and women were working in the fields and
0:12:00
Yeongduengpo was south of Kimpo, and we used to go down to Yeongduengpo and then go north to Seoul but that’s a . . . there was too much in Yeongduengpo. Was more like the main route from the South came
through Yeongduengpo to the front. So Seoul was not much there, all the buildings were gone. I think there was one building standing and a few other little things and the markets
0:12:30
the people were still trying to sell their productson the market there in the streets which we went up and down looked at. I enjoyed watching because the situation that they were going through and how hard they were working to stay normal was just unbelievable.
I: Were there any KATUSAs or Korean boys as like a house boy, busboy. . . in your base?
F: Oh, yes, we had house boys that would come in
0:13:00
and take care of the tents that we were living in and then we had Korean civilians who were going around and doing odd jobs of cleaning up, older people cleaning up the base and or anything else or anything like that, but they were very, very good. They were. . . we’d leave stuff down, they never touched anything. Nothing was ever missing so that’s one of the nicest parts about the Korean people in the way they treated us too.
0: 13:30
I: Have you been back to Korea recently?
F: Yes, I was back. It was quite a few years ago, and I couldn’t believe Seoul. It was all built up. The whole place was built up. The places that were selling goods there they were all modern, was nothing. . . and I looked around and even thought what surprised me too was Kimpo Air Base
0:14:00
They were using it as an international airport. There’s no longer a military base, so when I got there and I said I was looking around, I couldn’t see a thing I knew in Kimpo, and then they said Yeongduengpo became part of Seoul, so I looked at this and so my God what a change in a few years. Everything was built up. The whole area has been changed. All for the best. All for the best. It was a marvelous site to see. The people from devastation and what they came through because I went in
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later on I went through Europe and some places from the Second World War they hadn’t built up yet, but the Koreans were there. No, they didn’t ask for nothing. They went to town, and they really did some job building their country up. Very, very happy for them, very, very happy.
I: Why do you think it’s unpopular and some say it’s forgotten?
F: Well, one of the things was we entered the Second World War just stopped and when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, the UN
0:15:00
was the one that sent or condemned the North Koreans for the in invasion, so what happened was when the UN condemned and the Americans sent troops in and the other nations around the world, Turkey and Greece and everybody said troops around they called it a police action because there was a police action from the United Nations. Now they call a forgotten war because after this was over
0:15:30
Vietnam War started and that was a even, another big war, so we were in the middle of two wars and it just sort of like put us aside, but to us Korean War vets it will never be put aside. It’ll always be remembered and one of the best things that I can remember from the Korean War is that during the Second World War,
0:16:00
the American troops went to different countries and freed them. During the Korean War, we went in
and we freed the southern part Korea, which we were happy to do, but the Korean people who have come to the United States are the only nation that I know of that appreciates us, treat us like kings, no matter where I go. I can go get my laundry done in the Korean church, Korean cleaners
0:16:30
and what they’ll do is they’ll give me a discount. Unbelievable! I’ll go over to another Korean business, they see I’m a Korean Vet it can’t be nice enough to me to go out of your way to please and the Korean churches here in Staten Island especially treat us like kings, and it’s just long marvelous. I look around, I say there’s no other country in the world that the United States went to that I know of that treats us a good as the Koreans and korean people do.
I: It’s very gracious comment
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and this is the New York Korean Evangelical Church, and since when did you have you gathered here in this place in this church? Your chapter . . .
F: We’ve be here for quite a few years now. I’m not sure when we first started coming because when we
first started we were having meetings in another part of Staten Island just a small group of us. But as we got bigger and increased
0:17:30
with quite a few hundred men now, the church opened their doors to us and it allows and they can’t be
nice enough. If there’s a function going on here in this church that the Koreans, a show of any type, they invite us all. Please come, and it’s just wonderful. In fact, the Korean people invited us to Carnegie Hall. They had some Korean singers coming over so we all went, quite a few of us went.
0:18:00
And I was expecting to hear everybody singing Korean songs that I didn’t understand, but we went. To my surprise, all the Korean singers were singing Italian songs, all operas in Italian, and they had the most marvelous voices you have ever heard. Now I know because I sang to ten years with the Village Light Opera Group in New York. Well, I can tell a good voice from a bad voice and when I heard these people I was marveled.
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It was fantastic. It was beautiful. I thought that was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. We have the Korean Memorial in Washington, DC which is a beautiful, beautiful memorial, a great tribute to Korean War Vets. That’s something that will be there forever, so people who go in the United States to Washington can go and see it. That’ll remind people that we had the Korean War and that we fought in the troops. As far as
0:19:00
memories go back, I really don’t know.
I: And everybody from anywhere at any time and can have access to it.
F: That’d be great!
I: Yeah, so this is what Korean War Veteran Digital Memorial is doing right. No, no not in 20th
Century
F: Well, you could consider that all depends why you consider the Irish are still not not 32 counties you know,
I: but it’s not like
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the Korean War. Right?
F: No, it’s not. Well, it’s a fight for freedom.
I: Right. So, if there is a petition to replace the armistice, sixty-year-old armistice, with a peace treaty, would you be willing to sign it?
F: I would sign anything that would bring the Korean people together, but the North Koreans would have to stop their silliness with the new man we have up there now I
0:20:00
don’t know. He may not be as tight as his father was. I hope he isn’t, but we just keep our fingers crossed and say a little prayer someday that the whole nation can be united and strong, and I know they’ll be better off for it, especially the people in the North where really what I can read and find out are starving to death. That’s a shame to keep an army up and let the people stop.
[End Recorded Material]