Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Donald Wierenga was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
This is December 15, 2004. I am interviewing Donald J. Wierenga at his home in [redacted], Michigan. He lives at [address redacted]. Don's date of birth is July 23, 1932. My name, as interviewer, is Wallace Erichsen. The relationship between myself and Don Wierenga is that our wives are first cousins. Don's wife, Arlene, is a first cousin of my wife, Carol. Don, what branch of the service did you serve in?
I was in the US Army.
And where did you serve; which war?
I served in the Korean War in 1953.
What was the highest rank you attained?
Sergeant, E-5.
Were you drafted, or did you enlist in the army?
I was drafted.
Where were you living at he time, when you were drafted?
I was living here in Georgetown Township, Jenison, Michigan, and that is where I was born, too.
Where did you initially go; where did you initially report for army duty?
Well, I went to Grand Haven to the armory to catch a bus, which took us to Detroit at Fort Wayne and there we were inducted.
What did it feel like, the first few days in the army?
It was different, and not knowing what was going to lie ahead. But I was willing to serve.
So, you spent a few days at Fort Wayne before being transferred onto your first duty station?
Yes, not a few days, it was just over night. We got there in late afternoon, and that night we could roam the streets. The next morning, we had a short physical, and then we were inducted. And from there we were loaded on the bus and went to Fort Custer, Michigan, at the army base there.
What did you do at Fort Custer, and how long were you there at Fort Custer?
We were there about five days, I would think. There we received our clothing and got rid of out civvies [civilian clothing] and thing like that, and did whatever pre-programming they had to do.
This is Fort Custer, near Battle Creek, Michigan, is that right?
That is right.
Where did you go from there?
There they loaded us on a bus and we went to Fort Knox, Kentucky. We stopped for lunch at Camp Atterbury, just south of Indianapolis, and we arrived kind of late at night in Fort Knox.
And that was where you took your basic training, is that right?
Yes. I took my basic training there at Fort Knox, at Charlie 509. That was the company that I was finally assigned to after a week of different things.
Tell me about your boot camp and training experiences, while you were there in boot camp.
Well, that was quite something. We had a Field First Sergeant that was a very young guy; young and small, and he did not have a high rank, but he was an acting Field First, and I will tell you, especially if we were too noisy when we went in to eat, which was just about every time. We had to stand up and eat. And then on weekends, there was no passes ever. And then, if you stayed around the barracks on a Sunday, he would have you out in the middle of the street marching and doing things like that. I can remember when we finally graduated, he said "If you guys are the sharpest guys out on the field when we graduate in our ceremony with these other companies, I am going to give you all a three day pass, because we would have to be in the company over the weekend yet before we shipped out on Monday." So we went out, and we walked all the way over to the parade field, and we paraded there and came back and he said to us, the Field First, he said, "You guys were definitely the sharpest group there that marched today." He said, "I promised you all three day passes to you recruits." But he said, "You know what, you are no longer a recruit; you have graduated, so you are going to stay here."
Don, do you remember your Field First's name? Do you remember the name of your sergeant?
No, I do not. I cannot recall. Maybe I could look in the book there and find out who he was, but he was tough.
How did you get through basic training?
Very good. I did not receive any gigs for; I take that back. One gig everybody got. We were on a maneuver all day, and we came back in late at night, and everybody put their stuff away, and before we went to bed, they said, "We were going to have an inspection in two hours. I want everything clean and put away proper." So about 2:00 in the morning they came in there and in the inspection they found everybody with greasy mess kits, and you name it. And because of it, he said, "Your are going to fall out." And we had to fall out on the company street. We had to take our footlockers. We had to turn our footlockers upside down on the company street. He said, "Put them down. Now go back in and we are going to have another inspection of footlockers." So, he came back in and inspected our footlockers, and that was quite something.
Did you do the manual of arms with the footlocker?
You bet! You bet, we did. [laughter]
What war did you serve in?
I served in the Korean War; it was toward the tail end of it, when they already had their main line of resistance pretty well dug in.
Where did you go after Fort Knox basic training?
I came home for a furlough, a short one; caught a troop train out of Chicago, a three day, three night deal to Camp Stoneman, California. And from there it was just a processing place to load onto the boat at San Francisco. We took a barge down from Camp Stoneman after about five days or a week, probably a week, and we loaded on the General Gordon.
Was that a troop carrier, is that right?
A troop carrier. And we headed for Yokohama, Japan.
How long did it take to sail that far?
We were on the water just about a week and a half to get there, I believe. A week and a half to get to Yokohama. And then from there, we loaded on a train, and went up to Camp Drake at Tokyo and there we got rid of all of our belongings and received our fighting fatigues and clothing and M-1 rifles in Cosmoline.
So, from Fort (sic) Drake you shipped out...
Yes, we were at Fort Drake probably a couple of days; right back to the ship by train; got on the same General Gordon again, and with our duffle bags. And then we headed, I believe about a three-day trip to Inchon, and there we parked out in the old harbor there to unload. We parked out and they loaded us on LSTs and run us ashore in Inchon.
Do you remember the date you arrived in Inchon, or even the month and year?
I can remember not the exact date, but it was about the first part of May of 1953.
And where did you go once you got ashore in Inchon?
Well, we loaded right away on a train that was waiting for us, and we already had our rifles and that, and then they loaded the ammo on the train in the back in case we needed it. And then we waited until dark to pull out. And I can remember that they gave us C rations to eat that night for supper. And as we pulled out of Inchon, headed probably for Seoul then north, the kids would run along the train hollering "Chop Chop." They wanted the food, our C rations that we had, or K rations, whatever they called them.
What unit were you with at that point then, Don?
When I went from Japan to Korea I was assigned to the 45th Division. And when I landed at Inchon, they called off people for the 25th Division, and no one moved. And they said, oh, by the way, your orders have been changed to the 25th. So I served with the 25th Division.
I see; was there a sub-unit, like a battalion?
Well, as we moved forward, they brought us up to the Division headquarters, and there I learned that I was assigned to the 35th Infantry Regiment, Company K. Just before I left, my brother just got out of the army, and he was with 35th Regiment, but he was with Headquarters Company, and he just got home from there, and I went over.
What was your assignment with Company K?
When I arrived at K Company, I was a rifle infantryman, and they assigned me to a platoon of infantry guys. And in our platoon, too, we had some ROK [Republic of Korea] soldiers that were in our platoon, too, that fought with us.
I see. Now earlier you said that this was King Company?
Yes
With the phonetic alphabet at the time; which we now call Kilo Company.
Yes, I am not familiar with that, but it was K Company, that was Able, Baker, Charlie stuff.
Where did you finally wind up on the ground in Korea?
I was in the Munsan-ni area, which overlooks the Panmunjom corridor.
Did you have a regular camp there, or did you have to set up tents?
In that area there, we were on the main line of resistance (MLR) and we lived in bunkers; everything was in bunkers, sand bagged. Where we slept, and where we ate, and where we went to chapel, and everything, that was in the dining hall.
Had the armistice been declared at that point or not?
No, the armistice was declared, I believe, on July 27 of '53; so we had May, June, and July of fighting yet, and which we did not know when the armistice was going to be, but one of our duties was there to, in case the peace talks fell through, we had to get our delegates out.
The front line moved back and forth to some extent, was that right?
Not so much, we held what we had. And it was pretty much a stand-still; there was a lot of patrolling, going out, making contact; there was different patrols out just searching, destroy and other things, but we were just doing that. There were some battles, and we pretty much held what we had. We were not trying to overtake any land of theirs. We were just trying to hold what we had.
Don, did you see combat then during that time?
Yes, I did. I received the Combat Infantry Badge, which requires three month of being under fire.
And I understand that you were out on a listening post for several days, or several nights.
Yes, well, after I got to the company there, they sent me, after a couple of weeks; they sent me out to the outpost, which was two outposts our company had. Our company had an outpost called GINGER, which they named after Ginger Rogers, and also ESTHER, which was after Esther Williams; our company had them. Well, when I went out to GINGER outpost, I spent a month out there. And from that, at night, I would go out on a listening post off the finger down near the end of the rice paddy, as close as you can get before you climb the hills the other way to the Chinese, or the Koreans that had it. I spent many a night there.
So, you would spend the night, then, on the listening post, then come back to the outpost during the day?
That is correct; in the day before it got light we would come back to the outpost. What we had for communication was a sound-powered [telephone]. With the wire out there, I would take a sound-powered, click into it, and then I could communicate with the main communication center of our company.
This is a field telephone that is powered by sound, and not batteries?
Yes, just like a telephone with clip-ons. We did not use radio, because they could pick up the radio signals, but on patrol we always carried, we put three rolls of comm wire on a chogie board [chogie is a Korean local laborer who carried supplies; hence a chogie board is a backpacking board for carrying supplies] and used the sound-powered, and only when we absolutely necessary ran out of wire, we would use the radio.
I also understand that you became a wireman later.
Yes, probably, that happened sometime later. But I should probably tell you that I spent that month on the outpost, and while I was there, the chogies, we had chogies, that were Koreans that brought food out to us during the night. They would bring some cold pancakes and we put jam on the pancakes and then we would have something there. Otherwise we were strictly on C rations for the one whole month I was out there. And that whole month I never had a shower or anything like that. And, finally, they brought me in after a month and I was able to go back to the shower point on the Inchon River to have a shower, and turn in my cloths and get all new clothing. And what I found out the next day when the next group came in for a shower, they said that the patrol I was supposed to be on that night; they had picked me to be on a patrol, but they sent me back for a shower, instead. That patrol was hit, and out of the 13 guys just about all of them had shrapnel.
Wounded severely, then?
Yes
Don, did you have many casualties on other patrols, and also on listening posts during the night?
No, on the outposts, I cannot remember anybody having a casualty. I can tell you one story about what casualty I had on the outpost. It was nothing to do with the war, but it was a place that was infested with rats because of the C rations that we did not eat and threw out in there. And the rats were very big and prevalent. And everything was dirty, not showering for a month. Also, what happened was there were bugs and stuff. And one night, during the middle of the night, I had a hard-shelled bug on my neck that bit me in the neck there. And, I reached up and grabbed him, and I threw him down on the ground or whatever; threw him out someplace, and I do not know what it looked like, but it was a hard-shelled bug. It seemed like it shot into my system some poison. And because of it, I broke out in boils all over my body. In fact, I was running around there without a flak jacket for a while because wherever anything rubbed it would create boils. And I suffered with them for probably six months where they kept breaking out, and it probably was a combination of that poison and rubbing dirt into certain spots that these boils were. All these boils had cores, too. Finally I got to the aid station, and they tried to poke them out of there, and did not give me any medicine to really cure it. But I wrote home to my dad, to send me some raisins, because they said that my blood needs purification, and I figured raisins might be the best thing. So he sent me a whole carton of raisins that I ate, and finally it seemed to straighten out.
Were you ever a prisoner of war?
No. I do not know of any of our men that were taken prisoner.
Were you awarded any medals or citations?
Well, just the Good Conduct Medal, I got that. But the Combat Infantry Badge is the one that I prize the most.
That is the highest medal you received, then?
Yes. I think that is still in the army one of the prized possessions of everybody who wears it; the infantry badge. I see generals with that one on the top.
What is the criteria for issuing the Combat Infantry Badge?
You are supposed to be under fire for three months; that is one of the criteria, I think; there might be other things, I do not know.
Don, I understand that you had a helmet, of course; what other personal protective armor did you have?
Well, we had flak jackets, they called them, and we wore them all the time.
Were they heavy and cumbersome?
Not really, they were just like a nice vest, really. But, what my problem was, with that bug and the boils, was dirt, and not being clean, would rub at a certain place, and I would break out in boils all over; that was my problem. For some time I did not wear them because it just irritated things and made things worse.
What other memorable experiences did you have then, in Korea? I understand that you fought with the Turks, also.
Yes, the Turks were just to out right flank. They occupied the outposts just to our right flank; it would be to the east of us.
Do you remember their unit designation? Were they the Turkish Army?
They called themselves; this was the 3rd Turkish Brigade. They were tough guys, and they were big guys, and they were good guys to have next to you. They served right along side, in reserve with the 25th Division. One battle that they had at the end of the war, I was on the outpost and that listening post at night, watching that battle. It started the night of the 27th of May [1953], and it lasted for 26 hours, into the 28th of May. The enemy suffered real heavy casualties, I believe that they had over 3,000 enemy that were killed, and just over 600 of the Turks were killed in that battle. I felt that I had a ringside seat watching the two battles there. During that 26 hours of continuous combat the Turkish artillery battalion fired over 40,000 rounds of ammunition, which was considered to be a record. The battle ended on the 29th of May and the enemy had fired 107,000 rounds on defending friendly troops. They figured this was the highest figure in the 33 months of the Korean War. Of these 107,000 rounds fired, 65,000 of them were fired on the Turks. Like I said, they had over 600 killed, and about 3,000 Reds were killed.
Don, I understand that you also had a tank that was shooting at the enemy near you.
Yes, after this battle here, and sometime later when I was off of the outpost, we fought at night usually, and in the daytime, in the mornings, different ones manned machine guns or snipers. I was that day a sniper on a machine gun, a .30 caliber, and things were pretty quiet that day until that [US Army] tank moved up into position up above me in a dug in, where he had just the barrel sticking out. He was firing rounds at the North Koreans. I think they got a little irritated, because they started firing everything they had to try to knock that tank out. Everything they fired at him never even hit near him, but it hit near me where I was. At one point I left my bunker position [where I was] firing that machine gun, and I went into the ammo part of the bunker, where the ammo was kept, and I got on my hands and knees and prayed. It really changed my life, that certain incident.
Were you a squad leader then at that point?
No, I was just a Private, Private First Class at that point, or maybe not even that at that point. I just got to Korea, and I was just a regular part of a platoon that was the infantry.
Were you eventually promoted to Corporal and then to Sergeant?
Yes, I was promoted to Corporal in Korea. I later got into the commo [communications] section. After the war ended, we pulled back and we dug into positions on different hills. I might tell an interesting story when we were doing that, digging in on this one hill overlooking this one whole valley. We moved over into another area, I think it was near the Chorwon Valley. There was a great big rock that had to be hundreds of tons and it was just teetering by a little bit. We figured that if we dug in that rock, if we could take some of these tools and knock that thing loose and sent it down the hill that would be a lot of fun. We worked about two days at it to bust that thing loose. Before we busted it loose, the Republic of Korea soldiers, the ROK soldiers that were with us, they were just beside themselves. They said, "The rock is going to sayonara [goodbye], disappear, and you will disappear just like that. You will sayonara." They just did not want us to knock that thing down. And we let that thing finally bust loose, and down the hill it went. It was just like a tank going down the hill. Whatever was in the way, brush, trees, whatever, it just flattened it down. It went down that big hill and finally stopped at the bottom. That was a pretty good experience.
So you did not take out a Chinese battalion.
No, no, no one was around; we just had a lot of fun. It was one of the fun things we did there.
Don, I understand that you were not actually wounded in enemy action, but you were wounded in a training incident. What happened there?
That is true. When I was on the move, moving up to the front line, when I finally got to our regiment, the next night we would be on the front lines. That first night at Division [headquarters], we could see all the fire in the sky, and the sky was red. And the guys said, "In a couple of days you will be up there where that fire is, where that booming and bombing and everything else is." Then I got to Regiment and in the daytime they wanted to show us how to assault a hill. With the sergeant we went out. We were right near Freedom Bridge I can remember that. Freedom Bridge was the bridge that the soldiers that were let go from the camps; we had a prisoner exchange. They came through Panmunjom and they came down through the corridor and there was a bridge, probably over the Inchon River, I am not sure, and we were near, we could see that bridge. There was a hill there, and we were assaulting that hill. The sergeant had...
This is a training assault?
Yes, this was a training assault with the guys that would be moving up with me the next night on the line. What happened is, the sergeant had a concussion grenade, and he pulled the pin and he threw it and it landed right beside me. I guess that the remainder of the pin part came out and hit me in the left arm, in the muscle part. They called the litter jeep, which was what they used in Korea, was a jeep with two litters on the back where you could lay. They took me to the aid station. When I got to the aid station, they kind of made a little fun of it and said, "Man, you are not even in battle yet, and you get the Purple Heart." I said, "I do not want a Purple Heart." I said, "First of all, my dad does not know that I am in Korea yet. And second of all, it would be a very cheap Purple Heart, and I do not want it. And besides, my dad does not need any more grief, as we had just lost our mother before we left."
Was your unit in one fixed location throughout the time that you were in Korea, Don, or did you move at all?
No, they changed the divisions around a little bit. I believe it was a couple of week prior to the war ending that the 1st Marine Division came up and relieved us on line. From there we pulled back a few miles into reserve at what was called Camp Casey. We spent a couple of months there at Camp Casey, and then from there we moved over into the, I believe it is the Chorwon Valley, somewhere toward the middle sector of Korea. We dug in on different...rather than having a main line of resistance, what they had then was main battle positions. They selected certain hills that would be good to dig in, in case there was renewed fighting or anything. With the Armistice, we had to pull back a mile, and with that our trenches and everything we dug in was gone. So then we worked on these different hills. From there, it seemed like we went back to Camp Casey for the second time, because I rotated out of there home.
So, when you rotated you came home basically on your own, with your unit remaining there?
Oh, yes, definitely. They had a point system. If you were in combat, the war zone, you got four points. And if you were behind the lines, in the war zone, it was three, and then two, and probably one, well I do not know where that would be, but... I was there, I think, in Korea, by the time I landed in Korea to the time I left Korea; I was there 12 months. Just about every month I got four points. I rotated with, I think you needed 36 points in nine months, I rotated out of there with 36 points within a year. Then I came home, and I cannot remember anybody else I knew that came home with me.
Did you come home by ship?
Yes, I was on the USS Marine Lynx [T-AP-194]. We loaded back on LSTs in Inchon Harbor. I got on the Marine Lynx, and then we took the northern route going home. We did not have to stop in Japan. On the way over, we took the [General] Gordon and went south of Hawaii. This time we went way north, and came along the Aleutian Islands, and I can remember seeing whale along there. And then we came back into Puget Sound, Vancouver there, and came into Seattle, Washington, past Whidbey Island. We docked right downtown in Seattle. I can remember us loading off the boat onto busses, then going up to Fort Lawton. As we went through the streets of Seattle, people were waiving and cheering. It was quite a feeling.
A victory parade, basically.
Yes. I was at Ft. Lawton about three days, processing. Then we caught a train out of Seattle to Denver. At Denver they pulled into the station, they put another engine on the other end, then they pulled us backwards out of there, then we went to Chicago. I am trying to think of the place just north of Chicago that we processed through. [Ft. Sheridan] I was there probably three days then came home to be reassigned.
How long were you on leave at home before you went on?
Well, they gave me a 30 day furlough because I had a lot of leave time coming; I forget just how many days you got per year, and I had enough accrued for a 30 day furlough. And that is usually one that they give you. And I was reassigned back out to Camp Carson, Colorado.
How long did you spend at Camp Carson before being discharged?
Well, I arrived out there about the 1st of July. I remember that first weekend was the 4th of July, and we had off. And I went to Denver to see some relatives. I drove my car out there, too. I did not take public transportation. I had my car out there. I got there about July 1st. I was discharged on November 17 of 1954.
What were your duties at Fort Carson; where were you assigned?
When I came there it was Camp Carson, but that was about the 1st of July. That is where I was assigned. And when I got out there they had a ceremony, I think about the 1st of July, that they made Camp Carson into a Fort, a permanent army base. And what happened was, the Dixie Division, the Alabama and Mississippi National Guard, was located at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, just south of Indianapolis. They were closing that camp. They closed the camp there, the Dixie Division; they took all the personnel, and all the vehicles and everything, moved everything out of there and moved it to Camp Carson. The 8,h Division was located in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. They took the colors of the 8th Division and moved them to Camp Carson. The guys with the Dixie Division were guys that were done with basic training; they drove all the vehicles over there. Some of us veterans from Korea, that had rotated out of Korea with time to serve on our two year commitment yet, and I had about four or five months to go. They put us in charge of leadership roles of a fighting division. Our job was to be platoon sergeants and what have you. During that time, too, I had the opportunity to serve a couple of days as Field First Sergeant and also First Sergeant of the company, too, for a few days. Some of the guys that were in charge re-upped [reenlisted] for three years, and they went on home on furlough, and I took their place while they were gone for a few days.
So, you were in a training situation there?
Yes, we were a ready combat infantry outfit. If they needed somebody someplace, they could have just moved the whole division right out to any spot in the world.
What was the nature of your duty, and what was the duty like at Camp Carson?
Well, you known, when I got to Camp Carson, and when it turned into a fort, the other guys from the Dixie Division were already there a couple of weeks. And you know, in Colorado that was awful thin air, and when I joined the company like that one of the first assignments was that we were going on maneuvers. So, not having a very good chance to get used to the high altitude there, we went on a march in the middle of the summer, like July. It probably was a 15-mile march, and what we did, we carried all of our equipment, I know we had to carry the .30 caliber machine gun, and that breaks down into three parts, the tripod, and the barrel, and I helped carry part of that machine gun 15 miles. Not being used to the air and the lightness of it, and the hotness that we had, I knew we started out in the morning, and we did not get there until night, and they would not let us drink a lot of water, just our one canteen of water that we had, and I would say a third of the company passed out as we were marching and I made it all the way to there, but when I got to the place that we were going to camp out that night, I fell down with my helmet and everything, and I never took my helmet off, I laid right in the helmet, with the helmet liner, and that is the way I just laid on the ground and slept that night. I was just bushed. During that time, that maneuver, or one of the maneuvers that we did, probably not that particular one, where we assaulted hills and did different things and located enemies that were planted and stuff like that, the company commander called me in and he said, "The whole division has been trying to locate this one enemy, and they said that they have sent out different patrols from all the companies in our division, and I am calling on you to find it." So, he picked me and some other guys to go on this patrol, and I was the leader of it. And as we went out, it was not an hour that I was out and I found the enemy and located them. I called in and told them that we got our objective. And he called me back in and he called the battalion commander and said, "Well, I am so proud of these guys." So, they tried it again, about two days later. And the battalion commander called down to the company commander and he said, "I want that same young Corporal to lead that patrol to find the objective on this enemy again." So, we went out again, and it was not even another hour and I called back in that we had achieved our objective. And the company commander called the battalion commander and he called me back and he said, "I want you to come right back in, the battalion commander wants to see you." So I went in and talked to the battalion commander and he told me, he says, "The next drop of rank that comes through," he says, "You are going to be a sergeant." From there we would have a briefing always after these maneuvers. Our company commander was so proud, his name was Richardson; the battalion commander was. Let me get his right name. First Lieutenant Raymond A. Richards, not Richardson, Raymond A. Richards. And he was pretty proud of what we had achieved on that different thing there, and he was in the same 25th Division I was in Korea, and also the 35th Regiment when he was in Korea. He was boasting a little bit to the other guys in our company that it took a 35m Regiment, 25th Division guy to accomplish what no one else in the division could accomplish. He had a nice new Oldsmobile that he was driving around, and because of that I got a lot of perks, you know, I got to serve as First Sergeant, First Field, and come pay day, he would have me ride shotgun with him, with the pistol; everybody was paid in cash, and different things like that. Then also, they had a new thing going at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. They were changing the K ration to C ration, or trying to find out how much nourishment it took to do different things. So, I was sent up to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital for two weeks to run tests for the army on finding out how much nutrition it took to do certain things. I had my full backpack and all my rifle and gear. I had a monitor thing that I put in my mouth as I walked, and they had a guy follow me and read out the output. We did that for two weeks. That was a pretty neat experience to go up there and do that. And also, we had a guy that was in our company at one time, and he was a habitual AWOL [away with out leave]. And finally, they caught him, and he was in the stockade. He had to be transported from Fort Carson to Camp Crowder, Missouri for six months hard labor and a bad conduct discharge. He picked me and a young little Private to go along to take him down there. And we had to go by train. We were taken to the stockade and they gave me his records. We had .45s on our side. We went by public transportation; we caught a train right in Colorado Springs. We took off at night in a regular passenger train, with the prisoner handcuffed to myself. We sat in one seat, and the young Private sat behind us with a .45. It was an all night train ride and half a day into Kansas City. There we had to make a transfer. Then we transferred to another train, and finally that day we brought him down south to Camp Crowder, Missouri, south of Joplin. There we turned over his records, turned over the prisoner, too. Coming home, after we got to Kansas City, they gave us a sleeper car that we could sleep in overnight coming back into Colorado Springs. So, there were a lot of perks that I received from our company commander. Because of that I think he got an additional promotion. He was a First Lieutenant, and got to be Captain. [END TAPE ONE, SIDE ONE] [BEGIN TAPE ONE, SIDE TWO]
This is side number two. We are interviewing Don Wierenga on December 15, 2004. Don, were you actually discharged then at Fort Carson, Colorado?
Yes, that was a kind of happy day and exciting day. I had my car there, and I had to drive 1250 miles or more, 1300 miles home. I came by the way of Terre Haute, Indiana because a buddy of mine that was in Korea with me rode home with me, and we stopped there on the way home. I dropped him off there.
What was your date of discharge?
November 17, 1954.
Now let's back up a little bit to your days in Korea, I understand that you became a Field Wireman after a while.
Yes, and that was probably one of the best things that happened to me while I was in Korea. My two good buddies that went into the service at the same time I did, that I met on the boat, Delvin Otto [from Brighton, Colorado] and Bob Nelson, Robert Nelson [from Glydron, Minnesota] both took training together, and their training was the specialty of being in communications. When they got to Korea they probably, in our company did not need anybody in communications, and they put them in the infantry. They were in the same company I was, and we were together all the time. They were the ones that ran the patrol that I was supposed to be on, because I did not have a shower for a month, they sent me back, and they were wounded. So, I figured that the Lord was really watching over me. But later there was an opening in the communications division, in a section in our company where we manned the switchboard, taking calls, plugging them in with the old switchboard that we had, the field switchboard. And then we also had radio communications. They got called down there because of their MOS [military occupational specialty]. Once they were in there, they thought about their old buddy on the hill that was out in the cold; he would be good to be a field wireman. So I got into be a field wireman. I am looking back on that, when it was coming into winter where it got to sub-zero temperatures, I would go on the hill and see some of these guys in sleeping bags or nothing out of the bag that you would even known, but you knew that somebody was in there, it was so cold and they had no heat. They had to get their cloths on, or they probably slept with them on in there. But we had heat in the communications center, which was at the command post below the hill. Many a night, just about every night, it seemed like the tanks would go out. The wires were not strung up on high; they were laying on the ground a lot of places. Quite often the tanks would tear them up, and we would have to go out and find them [the break in the wires]. My good buddy, Del Otto, and I we went out many a nights fixing these lines. It was a good place to be when it was cold.
How many months did you spend as a wireman?
I think I got in there just prior to it getting cold in November, and I rotated out of there in May. It was almost six months.
Let us move on to Segment Four, Life in the Military. To begin, let me ask you what the food was like.
I never complained about the food. The only time that the food was bad was when I had cold pancakes on the outpost. I was just glad, that was really a meal outside of the C rations or K rations, what ever they called them. It was either corned beef hash or hashed corned beef. When we were on line, or even in basic [training], I always thought that the food was good. Especially on Sundays, some guys could sleep in; I never would. I would get up and go to the chapel service, then go to the mess hall. I could have as much as I wanted. They had eggs; I just loved eggs; I would have a lot of eggs. I enjoyed the food. The only thing in basic training; we stood up to eat so long; it had an advantage standing up to eat; you could double your reach. Whatever you needed, you did not have to have anything passed to you. You could just reach everything by standing up.
Did you have plenty of supplies?
Yes, there was always plenty of ammo. It seemed like the food on the main line or in reserves; there was plenty of it. They had a good quartermaster that took care of everything. I had no complaints with anything like that.
Particularly in the winter, did you have good winter clothing?
Yes, we had these boots, Korean boots, I guess they called them Korean boots, them big old rubber...
Mickey Mouse boots
Mickey Mouse, yes Mickey Mouse boots. They were warm, they kept you warm, and we had some good overcoats with furry collars. During the winter I was in where it was warm, because we needed heat to run the switchboard. I slept warm every night.
Don, how did you keep in touch with your family when you were overseas?
The only way you could keep in touch was through mail and it was usually one to two weeks out; you would get a letter and it would be that old. That was the only communication. Although, on Christmas; it was Christmas; I got to go on R and R [rest and recuperation] and I met a guy in our company that was from Iowa. We went together. We flew out of Seoul, Korea. That was my very first plane ride I had. I do not know just what they called that big cargo plane they had where the whole front end opens, and they run the tanks up front; it is a C-4 or something like that. They had seats on the side with straps for everybody, and then down the center they had back- to-back rows of seats. It was a double decker. I looked at that when I went on R and R; I looked at that mass of people standing there, and there was a mass of them ahead of me. I said, "Well, I am not going to get in that plane, there is way too many of us." And I got on the plane, and I got up on top of that plane, on the second deck, and I thought that I was flying already, because I had never flown in a plane in my life up to that point. I looked out and there were that many guys behind me, that was in front of me, and they all got on the plane. I said, "With all of them guys, how is this thing going to get off the ground?" That was my first plane ride from Seoul, Korea to Tokyo, Japan. But in order to get to Seoul, it was by deuce and a half; I rode in the back of an open air deuce and a half [2 1/4 ton truck] a big share of the way, and then we were able to catch a train that had some broken windows in it, and it was cold in there, and wooden seats. That was the kind of trains they had. That brought us to Seoul. We flew into Tokyo and then I spent a week on R and R in Tokyo over Christmas and New Years. I went from Tokyo to Yokohama at an army center that they had for people that were on R and R; we could stay there. And then we got to go around Yokohama and do different things. And then I was able to call home, and I think that I talked for 6.00 dollars a minute, and I think I spent about four minutes talking. So it cost me 24 bucks, and 24 bucks in those days was big money, especially when I went in the army, I made 71 bucks as a single guy.
71.00 dollars a month?
71.00 dollars a month, and right away I had half of it sent back home to my dad, because food, clothing and shelter was all taken care of. I had half of my paycheck sent home to be put in the bank. It was not the money.
Don, did you feel pressure and stress while you were there in Korea, particularly?
Well, I do not know, pressure and stress, probably somewhat. I think I could describe fear sometimes; I was fearful. But yet, I know that when the battle got heavy or our guys got attacked, that fear left. You wanted to be out there and get 'em. You know, when the shells are coming in on you, you get a little fearful. That probably caused a little stress, but yet I know one night when another group got hit, you knew they were out there and needed help; you wanted to go out there and help them. And that fear left you.
How did your faith in God and faith in Jesus help?
Oh, that was the thing that really was the best thing of all! When the shells were coming in on me in that bunker that night, I made a commitment that night, "Lord" I said, "If you get me out of here, I will do anything for you when I get home." And, you know, I might tell of an experience that I had. I came home on a... I had time left when I was at Fort Carson, about a month before I got out. It was pheasant season back home. I said, "Well, I have got a week or so of vacation, or furlough coming yet." And I said, "I think that I will take that." And I went home and pheasant hunted. And while I was home, a worker from one of the churches, our church had another church that they were starting, and that had been started, and they needed workers there with young people. The director of that church, the pastor, came to me while I was on furlough and said, "Would you help us with the young people?" I said, "Well, I had an excuse." I said, "I am still in the army, yet." And he said, "We will wait." With that commitment I made in Korea, I had to fulfill it. So I came home in November, and I started working at that church. I worked with them seven years, with young people. And I said, "Well, Lord, I guess I probably have filled my commitment." But then our own church [First Jenison Christian Reformed Church] needed somebody for young people, and I worked another two years there. I went on from there to serve in the council and do different things and go to rest homes and speak. I have been doing that, and now I am 72. Just last week I was at a rest home speaking, yet.
And you are still at it!
And I am still, I am clerk of the church now. Whatever committees I get on I just do not get rid of them. I was on Building and Grounds, and I still do all of the work, the repair, the fix in, and I janitor the church on Sunday now, and I cut the grass in the summer, and I shovel the snow in the winter. So, that commitment I made in Korea, I am still trying to fulfill.
Just to show you do not pay it off in one fell swoop, and it is something that stays with you for life.
You bet!
Is there something special you did for good luck, particularly, again, when you were in Korea?
No, I do not believe in really good luck. I believe that it is all providence, that God has a special plan for your life, and whatever happens is not by chance; that God controls everything. I could see that, how when I went into the army, I went with a group of guys, I knew about four of them real good, and the army has one of the best ways of separating you from everybody you know. I got to Fort Knox and they all went to the tanks, and I went to the infantry, and I was alone, did not know one soul. When I shipped over to, got on the train in Chicago, I did not known one soul, and headed to Camp Stoneman. The other guys that left with me went to Germany. On the boat I made a couple of friends and we got to my company and there was Otto and Nelson, they got to be real close friends. I might mention that Nelson, after he got home from the service, he got married and he and his wife and another couple were out one night and they hit a bridge abutment within a few years after he got out, and they were both killed. I still maintain close contact with several of my buddies in Korea. Namely, Delvin Otto, [and wife Millie] I have stopped by there; Charles Bays [and wife Hazel, from Terre Haute, Indiana], who rode home with me from [Ft. Carson]. We communicate with Christmas cards, and I went to his 50th anniversary down to see him, and stopped in a few times when I was coming through from the south, or out from Branson [Missouri]. Dave Lodzinski [wife Cecelia], the commo Sergeant while I was in Korean, lives in [Vale] Oregon; his daughter [Anne K. Schmiesing] happened to marry, and her husband got a job in Grand Rapids, and they have come out the last four years to see their daughter, and we get together. I made some good long, lasting relationships with some of my best friends that I met while I was in Korea.
Don, how did you entertain yourselves when you were in the military?
In basic you had no time for entertainment; when you were done training, you were cleaning or writing letters, taking showers and getting ready for the next day, and go to bed and get some rest.
Your platoon sergeant entertained you, right?
Yes [laughs] he would get us up in the night and give us entertainment. He was a rascal. It was for a purpose, when he said something, you did not question nothing; you did it. Otherwise you paid for it. So, it was good training. In Korea there was really no recreation. After the war, USO shows, I cannot say enough good about them. You could take the ugliest; there were no women in the army, or military; I did not see any women at all, Americans especially, and were so far away from villages, we did not see any Korean women, outside of just rotating home. The USO shows, they were just a wonderful thing for moral boosters. I always did not get to go to them; the only time I got to go to them was when I was in reserve at Camp Casey. You could take the ugliest women in the United States and bring her to Korea, and she could sing the lousiest of anybody that ever sang, and the GIs would go wild over her. I can remember that while I was there, it was wintertime and cold, we were on the front lines, I believe. Marilyn Monroe got married to Joe DiMaggio, and they took a honeymoon to Japan, and she went on to Korea to entertain the troops. She was back at 25th Division headquarters for the USO show in the middle of the winter. In order to go, I would have had to ride in a deuce and a half in freezing weather in the back of an open deuce and half for, I do not know, probably 25 miles on a Korean road, bouncing around. I said, "It is not worth it." But the USO shows do a great service to the GIs. I never got to see the Bob Hope shows or anything like that, but I just cannot say enough for the people that are willing to sacrifice their time and holidays to entertain the troops.
Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual events? [Tape stops and starts, veteran responded negatively, that there was nothing funny about being in the army]
What sort of sporting events did the troops participate in?
When I was at Fort Carson, it was nice weather from June until November. Between the barracks we had a volleyball net. We played a lot of volleyball. We got to be pretty good volleyball players. Every night we enjoyed doing that. The Dixie Division had a ball team when I joined the company. They had a ball team, and they were playing ball with different companies. They wanted a practice game with some of us guys that were not on the team from our company. We went out on the ball diamond, and I can remember, I was the pitcher, and they were not used to a wind-up pitch too fast, and a fast ball in there, and we beat them pretty good. That was a kind of fun thing to do. While I was there at Fort Carson, Billy Martin was in the army there. He got a hard job of playing on the Fort Carson ball team. He played a lot of baseball there. He had already been in a couple of World Series for the New York Yankees. We went out one night to a hotel to have supper. Low and behold, one of the guys in our company was a semi [professional] ball player for the Milwaukee ball club. We got a table right next to him and Billy Martin. I got introduced to Billy Martin. I got to at least talk to him a little bit. Then he eventually became manager of the [Detroit] Tigers and stuff like that, and since then he has passed away.
Don, did you take any photographs in Korea?
I took a lot of photographs. I brought a small little camera along that fit in my vest pocket. When I went to the outpost that stayed on the main line in my duffle bag with some of the film I took. When I came back off the outpost after a month, everything was missing. I do not know who took it, the film and camera and everything. So I lost about two months of picture taking with it, or more, even on the boat coming over. I did not have a camera until someone went on R and R. One of the sergeants in the company went on R and R and I gave him some money and I said, "Buy me a good camera, so that I can take some pictures." All my pictures that I had taken are from probably the last six months that I was in Korea. The first six months, they are all gone.
Don, what did you think of the officers also your fellow soldiers that you served with?
We always had good officers. Even the guy that trained us in basic was not an officer; he was just a PFC acting sergeant. You hate them at the time, but looking back on it, it is kind of humorous, all the dumb things we had to do, and then the fun we had. It was good. And the officers that I had, I have nothing but good to say about all of them. Especially the one, Richards, we got to be good friends. He wanted me in the worst way when I got out, to stay in the army and re-up. He talked to me quite a while about it. He said, "Somebody on the ball as much as you got, you should not get out." I told him at that time that I was really seriously considering it. I did think about making the army a career. I told him that I wanted to go home and go to school, and come back in as a chaplain. The timing, I guess, getting out in November was not good to start school. I never did start, and I got a job, and had a girlfriend. I never progressed into that, but I did have thoughts that, while I was in the service, that I wanted to go to school, be a chaplain, come back in and serve and help those in the service that had troubles or problems and be a chaplain.
Did you keep a diary when you were in the army?
No, I did not. It is all in my mind.
This is Segment 5: After the Service. Don, what did you do in the days and weeks after you were discharged?
I went back to my regular job, which was at a factory. I was an inspector there. That job was not open, they put me as a stock chaser.
Where was that, Keeler Brass?
Keeler Brass Company in Grand Rapids. I did that until the warm weather came in April, and then I decided that, boy, I liked the outside better than being inside.
You liked that hiking, and packing, and forced marching and stuff!
[Laughs] Yes, my dad and brother were in the building business, along with my grandpa. And I says, "You got room for me." And they says, "Yeah." But my grandpa, after I started, he said, "Well, I should retire." So he did. My dad, grandpa, and I worked together for some time. In fact, my brother and I are still doing stuff together, repairing, even after we both retired.
So you started in the construction business right away?
Yes, building homes, we were strictly building homes, and remodeling, and things like that.
Did you take advantage of the GI Bill for education?
No, I did not. I should have. That is one thing I regret. I wanted to, and looking back on my life, I wish I would have.
Now, Don, you had one other close friend that you made when you were in the army.
Yes, that was Jim Hofland [from Sanborn, Iowa]. The way I got to met Jim was, our church has a list of all the people serving, our church, our denomination [Christian Reformed Church in North America] I should say, had a list of all the men of our denomination.
The Christian Reformed.
Yes, the Christian Reformed men serving in Korea. Well they probably had other lists for Germany and stuff like that, but they sent me the list of men in Korea. On that list was Jim Hofland, who was in K Company of the 325th Regiment of the 25th Division. So, I inquired about where he might be located in our company. He was in the Third Platoon. They were fighting over on the other hill from us. I got to go over there and got to meet him. We planned to go on R and R together to Japan. And we did that. We got to be close friends. We [Don and wife Arlene] have been out to Iowa several years and had breakfast with him, and got together with him. They Jim and his wife, Joanne] have been to Grand Rapids here, too, a few times, and we get together with them, too.
How many of your friends, Otto, Bays, Lodzinski, and Hofland have you stayed in touch with?
Oh, yes, every Christmas, always a card. The other ones, Dave Lodzinski's got a daughter [Anne K. Schmiesing] here now; we see him every year. Jim Hofland, we were seeing them every year when we went out to Iowa when our former pastor was there, but that has not been the last year or two. Bays, I have stopped in and seen him maybe three times; he has never been up here. And [Delvin] Otto, I have not seen him since Colorado, since I was in the service. We went on our honeymoon there in '57 and we went over by him; we spent a day with him. They moved to Arkansas, to Cherokee Village, and we stopped in there at Cherokee Village, and he was working in the next town when we stopped in. I found out where his wife [Millie] was working, and went over there, and she was just out for lunch, with somebody out for their birthday, so we did not stay around. We have teen in contact, now and we have Christmas cards back and forth, and he called me on the telephone, too, and we had a chance to talk to each other. But he was one of my real dear friends in the foxhole.
Don, did you join any veteran's organizations after leaving the army?
No, they have tried to encourage me to join, but I had conflicts with their meetings, always with church work, with meetings with church. I have not joined any. But I have participated in a lot of their things that they have gone together, like Memorial Day parades. Since they have started marching in the Memorial Day parade, I have been in every one of them since then, which has probably been 30 years now that they have been marching at a parade here in town. Also, I have taken part in the cemetery ceremony; I raise the flag, say the Pledge of Allegiance. I still get into my uniform that I had when I was in the service. The last three or four years we have had a Veteran's Day service at the church, where we have a hymn sing. We have some very prominent government people their, Pete Hoekstra [US Congressman, Michigan 2nd District], Wayne Kuipers [Michigan State Senator, 30th District] and many others from the township and state, and even Washington, if they are in town. I have taken part in that program of presenting a wreath and bringing in the flags, and saying the Pledge, and different things like that. That has been done the last four years.
May 10, 1957. I married a girl I met roller-skating after I was out of the service. I had a girlfriend in the service, and things did not quite work out. And then I met Arlene, probably a year and a half before we got married.
Moving onto Segment Six: Later Years and Closing, I will ask you, did your military experience influence your thinking about war, or about the military in general?
Oh, definitely. Yes, I know what they are going through, and I am 100% behind the military.
In Iraq and Afghanistan?
Yes, the thing is, we have got so many that are armchair quarterbacks that look over the situation after it is over; the things that could be done, that should have been done, and how it should have been done. You have to work with what you have got at the time, and with the best information you have received, and you go from there. I am 100% behind them in whatever they do, because they are not trying to possess any lands; they are just trying to free people, and to get freedom. When you see ail the mass graves, and just last night they uncovered some more mass graves in Iraq, this, to me, is worth it all, that not only us, but also other people can be free.
Don, how did your service experience in the military affect your life?
It gave me a lot of confidence. Especially in finding my way around. You know, you walk around in a place where somebody is hunting you. I got to learn directions real good. And traveling, I was not fearful to travel across the country all alone and things like that. I've been alone in Korea where somebody is shooting at you or wants you. It gives you a lot of confidence, and it gives you a lot of respect for those that do wear the uniform. I think that it made me a stronger person, and more willing to help other people, too, probably.
One thing I also want to get on here is a little bit about your family. You mentioned marrying your wife, Arlene Marcusse, which is her maiden name. And I understand that you have four children and 11 grandchildren. Do you want to explain a little bit about your children and who they are married to, and where they live, and list the grandchildren?
Yes. We have got a neat family. We have been married 47 years, this past May. It has always been an enjoyable time. We had four children within 4 years. The first one came in December of '58, and the last one in June of '63. The first was a girl we named Janet, we call her Jan. She married a guy that works at Steelcase, a truck driver, Mike, is our son-in-law. Dan, Daniel, he was in building with me and my brother [Roger Wierenga], and he is still building, and we help occasionally; he married Sue Scholten. I might mention that Jan married Mike Tompkins. Jack, he married Lori DeBoer. They had three children; Dan and Sue had two; Jan and Mike had four. Craig married Diane Vander Molen, and since then, they have separated, and are now divorced. Craig has two children. Jan has four children. The neat thing about it is that they all got married so close, AVz years they were born from each other, and they all got married within 2 1/2 years from each other. The first two got married three weeks apart, and the second two, four weeks apart. They all had a child about the same year, and the year before last we had four, with each family having one graduate from high school. So, we had three graduations on one night, so we had to divide-to-conquer with the video camera. That was the way we did it. We have four of the grandchildren that are in school. One of them is through beauty school, now working with hair. The other one is at Hope College playing football.
Are these Jan's children?
This would be one from each family. Jan's oldest is Lindsay, she went to JC [junior college] for one year and then she worked a little while, and now she is back into Olympics (sic), Olympic School [Olympia Career Training Institute, Grand Rapids], a specialized school for nursing, or the medical field. It could be anything; she does not know what she wants to be yet, but she wants to be in the medical field, maybe a nurse, maybe something else. Dan's oldest, she went to beauty school and she does hair now.
Getting back to Jan's family, you mentioned Lindsay, and who is the next child?
Yeah, Jordon, he right now is a senior at Grandville High School; he is captain of the hockey team. Then they have another boy, who is a ninth grader, and he is on the hockey team, too, but he is our travel squad right now. And then they have little...
Okay, after Jordon came?
Tory. Tory is a ninth grader at Grandville High School. He is on a travel squad with hockey. Then follows Kara, a little sixth grader. That is Jan's four children; with the boys being book ended by the two girls.
Then Dan's family.
Dan's family, Dan and Sue, they have two children. The oldest is Jennifer; she went to beauty school and now does hair. She works a couple of different places. Then Josh, Joshua, he is a senior now at Unity Christian [High School]. His desire was always to be in law enforcement. Right now, he has been working share-time in school; he has been helping Dan now for about four years, doing carpentry work, Saturdays and after school, and now on share- time and summers. And then the next one would be Jack. Jack and Lori, she was a DeBoer. They have three children. The oldest is Ryan, who has been out [of high school] a couple of year. He is still going to what they call CC, which is junior college. His desire was to get into law enforcement, also. Whether that materializes or not, I am not sure; I am not sure what subjects he is taking now, but he is working part time and going to school at the same time. My son, Jack, works for Seven-Up, Brooks Beverage; he is the manager. He has to take care to see that the sales get taken care of, shelving and everything, and Ryan does that, putting stuff on the shelves for him. He is one of them that does that; there are many of them. And then, after Ryan comes Kylee. She is in the 11th grade now. I do not know what she plans to do after high school, but I am sure she will be going to school, college someplace. And then the little sixth grader, our youngest grandchild is Alexis. And then after Jack, is Craig, Craig's children. Eric is a sophomore at Hope College. He went there on a football scholarship, but this last year he did not suit-up for any game because of a protruding disk. Hopefully that is cured now, but the season is over, and he will be up and ready for his junior and senior year to play defensive back for them. Then, he also has Rachael, who is sophomore in high school, and she is on the competitive cheer team, being a cheerleader. And that makes 11 grandchildren, which is the pride and joy of our lives here.
Don, let me ask you about Arlene. What did she do throughout her working life?
After she graduated from high school she went onto junior college to become a Licensed Practical Nurse. She became that; she was doing that at the time I met her. She graduated from that and got a job in a doctor's office and she worked for that doctor for about 21 years, mostly part time because of the children. When that doctor retired, she was in a two-girl office at that time, and she had a lot of patients that she had to find a place for them to go. She located a doctor that was just starting in our area here in Grandville, and she was able to transfer most of the patients to that doctor. And she worked for him for two years, and then he sold his practice to the doctors that she is working for today, Kobiela and Koepnick [Robert P. Kobiela, MD and Kurt J. Koepnick, MD]. That other doctor, Dr. Dan Chaffee , who she worked for, he went on to Wisconsin to work. And she has been working now another 20 years for this doctor already, too. Since 1956, when she graduated from nursing, she has been working part time as a nurse. Many of the patients want to just come on the days she works because they feel very comfortable with her.
Now, Don, you are a retired building contractor; what are you doing now, then?
My brother and I, we do a lot of repairing and we do not do any major construction, but my son, Dan, is building, and he calls on us to help him occasionally. Especially when he is finishing or so. When I first retired we would help him rough in a little bit, but he did not want us working that hard. My brother quite often hangs doors, and I build the drawers and build some cabinets and things for him. The job that I took after I sat around a few months, and I have been doing this now for BYz years; I have been a courier for the company that my wife works for, and that is Michigan Medical. They became Michigan Medical a couple of years after my wife started working for Dr. Kobiela and Koepnick. They joined and formed a private corporation. They have about 30 sites or more that have offices around Grand Rapids and Holland. I go around and do courier work; I work for the lab; they have their own laboratory. I pick up blood. We were moving mail for them, and reports and thing like that. It is a nice job where you drive a couple of hundred miles a day; meet a lot of nice people, and you get paid for it. So it is kind of a nice job; it keeps you active, gets you up in the morning, gets you going, gets you a lot of walking, a lot of talking, and just a super job.
Well, Don, I think we are about at the end of our allotted time here. I want to thank you sharing your recollections about the US Army and about your experiences in Korea and elsewhere. I certainly wish you and your family the best, particularly at this holiday season. I hope that you have many more years of fond memories. This is Wallace Erichsen, thank you.
Good. [END TAPE ONE, SIDE TWO] [END OF INTERVIEW]