Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Gordon G. Talbot 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.
Today is December 3, 2015, my name is Joshua Webb, and I am interviewing Mr. Gordon Talbot who served in Korea during the Korea Conflict. During his service, Mr. Talbot rose to the rank of Specialist Third Class in the United States Army. I am interviewing Mr. Talbot as part of University of Central Florida's Community Veterans History Project. This interview is being conducted in Lady Lake, Florida. Mr. Talbot could you start off by telling us when and where you were born?
Born in Paterson, New Jersey, 1935.
And, what was it like there?
Well, I lived in a town called Glen Rock, which was about six miles from Paterson, and it was a normal town. We were--we didn't have a high school, we were tuition to Ridgewood High School, which was the next town.
When you say we, did you have any siblings?
Yea, I had a brother. He was two three years older than me. And, I had a stepsister who was five years six years younger than me. My brother went to Ridgewood High School, and my sister went to Glen Rock when they got to high school.
And, how was your relationship with your siblings when you were growing up?
No problem. My brother, we use to go down and visit him. He used to live down in South Florida, and Hollywood, Florida. And, my sister, she lives in Ridgewood, and she now lives in Virginia. We're very close, and my brother died.
In New Jersey, what did your parents do for a living?
My mother worked for the town of Glen Rock, and my father worked in a clothing store, upscale clothing store in Paterson, New Jersey. He was my stepfather.
Did you have any contact with your biological father?
Yea, off and on. Not that much, he lived out in Ohio.
How much education did you receive before you went in to the military.
Up to 12th grade I graduated Ridgewood High School, 1953, and I then I went into the service in 1954.
Did you play any sports in high school?
No, but I played sports afterwards. I played baseball in the Army.
In your bio data sheet it said you played semi-pro baseball before you joined.
Semi-pro baseball in Paterson and Glen Rock, New Jersey, and I played overseas for that summer in Korea. Up on the 19th Infantry.
How did you get involved playing semi-pro baseball after high school?
Well, I was always a good baseball player, and my father knew Larry Doby, who played in the American League for Cleveland. When he retired he used to come in the clothing store all the time and he said, "I got a stepson that's pretty good," and he contacted somebody and they called me up and I went down, I started playing there. And then, in Glen Rock--who I used to--Glen Rock baseball team who I used to watch when I was a little kid growing up, they were--a short-stop they had got hurt, so they were looking for a short-stop and there I was, so they called me up and asked me if I wanted to play for Glen Rock. So, I said sure, and it was funny because some of those guys I watched growing up when I was a little kid were still playing semi-pro when I played. And, one guy who was a catcher on the team, I played with his brother over in Korea. Never knew he was over there or anything, we just happened to get on the same team over in Korea.
Playing baseball, did you play any position besides short-stop.
No, just played short-stop. And, afterwards when I got back from Korea, I had my own semi-pro team.
Backtracking a little bit, did you have any family members that served in the military at all?
No, not that I--well, I had a cousin from North Jersey, he served in the second World War. He wouldn't talk about it very much because he saw a lot of his buddies killed. He was on Okinawa and stuff.
Were you close to him growing up?
Yup, I was close to Bobby when I was growing up. In fact, he delivered my notice of going into the service because he was a mailman when he got back, and he knew what it was. He wrote on the front of it, "Have fun." {Laughs} He knew what it was, that I got the notice to go into the Army. I volunteered for the Army, I wanted to get it over with, so if you volunteered you put your name higher on the list, you went in for two years, but if they called you, you went in for three years. So, I was in for two years. 1954 to 1956.
Okay, when you learned the U.S. entered a war in Korea, what was your initial reaction?
Well, I didn't know much about Korea. It was funny, when we were on the ship, they lined us up every third person went to Korea, and the other two went to Japan. I was the third person, so I went to Korea. I had no thoughts about it, the war was over, but when I first got there to Incheon, we went in on Incheon, and when I got there we're getting off the ship and these P.T. boats are going all around the ship and they're all armed. I'm like, "What the heck is going on ?" That was the agreement that every soldier that went into Korea, one had to go out. Every rifle that went into Korea, one rifle had to go out. That was the peace agreement was with North Korea. The war basically is not over, they just signed a truce. The truce has been in effect for 60 years. We still have 20 to 30 thousand troops over in Korea. Not many people in the United States know that.
Going back to when you decided to enlist, you said you did that for the shorter time commitment?
Yea, because I had a regular job in a hardware store in Glen Rock and I had worked in that store for three years while I was in high school. It looked like that's what I was going to be. I was a clerk and a driver in that store, and it was a very good hardware store. I knew what I wanted to do, so I talked to them and said, "You know I'm going to have to go in the service, I'm going to have to serve my time." If I go in now, I can go in for two years, otherwise if I wait for them to draft me, it's going to be three years. So, we decided that was the time for me to do, to do the two years.
So, you worked at the hardware store and played baseball after high school?
Most of our games were at night at six o'clock, they started at six, and I played on two different semi-pro teams. I played on one that played on weekends on Sundays. We played double headers on Sundays.
For those that don't know, what is a double header?
It's two games. One after the other, you get done with the one game, then you start the next game.
How did your family and friends respond to you entering the military?
They didn't mind. They minded when I got in, and I called my mother up and said--around the seventh week you have to decide what you're going to be in the services. A friend of mine from Ridgewood and I went down--we weren't going to sign up anything, we went down to hear this talk about the Airborne. Ended up, by the end of the night, we both signed up for the Airborne. I called my mother up and told her, "I signed up for the Airborne." She says, "Yea, what do they do?" I said, "They jump out of airplanes!" She says, "You're not going to--tell them you're not going to do that!" I said, "Mom, it's already set, I signed my name I can't change it now," so there I was.
When you entered, where exactly did you go to enter?
I entered the Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey on November 17th. That was my birthday, that was my 19th birthday. I entered the Army and got out November 17th, 56. I took my first eighth week of basic in the Army at Fort Dix.
What was your initial impression of training?
Just like any other training that you do for baseball or anything. A lot of P.T., physical training, a lot of marching. We did Bivouac, we were supposed to do it for a week, but they had to bring us back in five days, because half the company had pneumonia because we were out in the fields sleeping in tents. We wake up in the morning, there were like six inches of snow on the ground. We had summer sleeping bags, and a lot of guys couldn't take it. So, they brought us back in five days. We went to the rifle range and everything, qualified for the rifle laying in the snow and everything.
What did they have you qualify on at the range?
They had us qualify on the M1 rifle, and the pistol.
Where did you go after training?
After training I did my second eight weeks of Airborne basic at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. My second--which would've been my third eight weeks of basic, was jump school at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and that was real tough.
What was training there like?
Well, I must've done like 50 push-ups every day, and they just--that's what it is. They want you to react real quick, because if the shoot doesn't open, you jump from 1,200 feet. And, you're supposed to count from three, one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, and then look up and see if that shoot is open. If that shoot's not open, you only have about one second to react to pull that shoot before you hit the ground. So, there was a lot of, a lot of--we would jump off a three-foot platform, and we would go like this {Puts hands to the side}, we would have to stand there until they say recover. Then, you recover and say, "One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three," but if you recovered before they said that, "Give me 20 push-ups, give me 20 push-ups!" So, you know you had to react quick to know when to do it, and to know when not to do it. That's what they were getting out. I guess the hardest part was jumping out of the 30-foot tower. You're in the harness and everything, but you're up there 30 feet and there's nothing in front of you and you jump out of this tower and go down this long line. A lot of people gawked at that thinking that if they didn't do this tower thing, they wouldn't go--they would be done with the Airborne, but it wasn't that way. They kept them there until we were finished with the eight weeks, and they got a lot of crap thrown at them. Was better off jumping off that 30-foot tower believe me, for what they had to go through, they had to go through more than I had to go through. The training was good, but we made large marches, we made five mile marches with full pack and everything. We would run--we would run like a mile, two miles before breakfast every day.
You said you had to do five mile marches with the full pack. What exactly was in the pack?
We just packed it full of stuff, so it weighed like 50 pounds. So, that's what it was for. We would march out, out of Fort Campbell, towards the woods and stuff, and we stopped at this one place where it had barbed wire all around it. As soon as we stopped, here comes a jeep up with a machine gun on it and stuff and told us we had to move. Now, they had something behind that wire, whether they were making a bomb, the atomic bomb, I don't know, but nobody could stay there. They kept moving you all the time, and when they took that, whatever was there, they took it on the train out of Fort Campbell. All that area going to the train was off limits to everybody. I still don't know till this day, everybody had an idea what it was, but nobody really knew. I don't know from this day what they had behind that fence. But, it was something.
Wow. So, you said the second eight weeks was Airborne training?
Second--first eight weeks were basic training out at Fort Dix. The second eight weeks was Airborne basic at Fort Campbell, and the third eight weeks was jump school. And the, at the end of jump school, the last thing you did was make seven jumps in a week, every day you made a jump. About the fifth or sixth jump, was a night jump, and that was a full equipment jump. You had all your full equipment, you have your bag in the front, you have your rifle strapped to your side, and try to jump out of the plane. Once you make your seven jumps, then you got your wings, then you're in the Airborne. Now, I was assigned to a company in the Airborne, but right after that, I was in it for about like two, three weeks, they got orders to Gyroscope over to Germany, and anybody that was in for two years had to re-up for another year or two, and you had to go before the Company Commander and tell him whether you were going to re-up or you weren't. I wasn't re-upping, so they put me out of the Airborne, and they made an engineering company there, and a lot of us went to that engineering company, and they went over to Germany. Which, I'm glad I didn't go because a lot of them came back when I was getting out of Korea, a lot of them were coming back on Section Eights. That's an undesirable discharge, so when you're in Airborne, you think you're the toughest and roughest person in the Army believe me. Back then in 54, 55 when I went through, they used to pick fights with the MP's and everything. They--nobody bothered them, and they got in a lot of trouble when they went over to Germany. So, I was happy with the road I took, and getting out of there and going where I ended up.
Going back to the last week of jump school, what type of aircraft did you jump out of?
C-124. First--well it was the second time I was in an airplane, and believe me I was the second one that jumped out of the plane. So, the first guy's in the door, and I'm right here {Points to spot on the table}, the line's going up, and I'm peeking out that door and I see cars and stuff down below, and they look like toy cars. Believe me I said to myself, "What the heck are you doing here?" Believe me, but once you get a foot out of that door, there's no turning around. That pulls you right out of that door, so I guess I got the foot out {Laughs}. Down I went. Once the shoot opened, it was just beautiful coming down out of the sky looking all over and seeing everything, and then at night when we did the night jump, you could look way out you know and see where dark is in light, and you could--it was really nice, really nice.
After you finished Airborne training, you said you went to Korea?
Went to Korea, went out of Fort Campbell, went from Fort Campbell--I had a month's leave and we went to Fort Lewis, Washington. I had to report to Fort Lewis, Washington, and I was there about two or three weeks, I thought we was never going to leave there. And, got on a troop ship, it was a month on that troop ship, and when we went over it was typhoon weather, and I don't swim! When you see the front of the ship go up like that {Raises hand}, and come down, and the water goes over two decks, believe me you are scared, and I was scared. They wanted us to get out and walk around, and no way was I going out and walking around. We stopped at Adak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands at a naval base to drop off supplies to them. I just got off the ship because I was getting sea sick. I got off the ship just to walk around, the snow was about that high {Raises hand}. It was cold. Then, we got back on the ship and we headed to Yokohama, Japan. Got to Yokohama, Japan, they let us off the ship for one day, and that was interesting. I get in a taxi cab with other guys, and of course they drive, you know--we drive steering wheel is on the left side, it's on the right side, and then they drive on the opposite of the road. Where this guy was driving on the opposite side of the road downtown Yokohama. I thought he was going like 50 miles an hour, I was scared out of my mind. That's the only time I ever got to Japan, you'll ask me later on what I did in Korea, I had such good jobs in Korea I never took a leave from Korea to go back to Japan. So, and then from Yokohama, we went over Incheon, Korea. That's where we got off the ship. That was the harbor in Korea, which we lost and then had to get it back during the war.
When you were in the U.S. in the Army, how did you keep in contact with your family?
Wrote a lot of letters, believe me. I had a girlfriend then, who became my wife. She wrote me every day. I wrote her every day [Interview interrupted due to veteran getting emotional]. So, I had who was my future wife writing me every day, and she had her girlfriends, I had like eight people writing me letters all the time. So, when there was mail call when I was over in Korea, I got more mail than anybody. When I moved from one post to another post, and it took a few days for the mail to catch up, I had a stack of mail like that {Raises hand}, believe me. So, I had to separate it from the dates on the mail, so I could read the oldest first. So, I have one that wrote me, she lives here in the villages, she moved here in the villages, she was one of Margie's best friends. So, that's how I kept contact, I called home once when I went to Seoul. The USO had a telephone where we could call up for nothing, so I called up, told them when I was going to call up and stuff, and Margie was there, and my parents were there, but that's the only time I called up.
What did you do during your free time?
Okay, when I first got over to Korea, I was in the Eight Army Honor Guard, and what we did there was make parades, raise the flag in the morning and take it down at night on the parade grounds, and guard the generals at night. We had a lot of generals because it was the Eight Army Headquarters, which was the head of 24th Division and I Corp, which was over there in Korea at the time. So, I was there for about a month, month and a half. I was only T.D.Y., temporary duty there. So, I got set up to the 24th Division Headquarters, so they wanted me to be the 24th Division Honor Guard up there, and I said, "No I think I had enough of this." So, I had my driver's license from when I was in Fort Campbell, Kentucky for a quarter ton, which is a jeep, and a deuce and a half, two and a half ton. So, I got to drive, went to the motor pool and applied, and I got accepted. I had a chance to drive, because this other guy was rotating back home in a couple weeks, so I studied with him to learn all the roads over there, the back roads and stuff, and I drove for P.I.O., Public Information Office. They wrote for the newspaper, and they had photographers and stuff, basically I was driving, they had a Major who was ahead of it, and they had a Lieutenant, and then they had Corporals and stuff there as reporters and stuff. So, I drove for P.I.O. all the time through the winter until the summer when I played baseball. Boy was that an excellent job, because I got to see more of Korea than a lot of the G.I.'s did because we covered everything that went on. We went up to the DMZ, we covered a lot of stuff up there, we went to the peace talks in the DMZ with North Korea and South Korea, we covered a village in the DMZ, which is the only village between North and South Korea, it's a separate village in the demilitarized zone, and we were allowed to go in there and cover that, do a story on that village, and we did that. We had permission from North Korea to do that. We covered a lot of sporting events, boxing tournaments, basketball tournaments. So, it was just a--you know we covered Cardinal Spellman when he came over, Cardinal out of New York City. He came over for a visit, we covered his visit over there in Korea. We covered Rita Marino, when she came over, she was an actress. She won the academy award, we covered her when she came over. It was just a fun job you know. Korea is the only place I've been in the world, where it can rain for a week or two weeks, ten minutes after the rain stops, the dust is blowing in your eyes. Never seen nothing like that in my life. It was very dusty over there, very dusty over there. And, it dried up so quick, never saw that.
You said you covered the peace talks, what do you remember about the peace talks?
Well, I didn't get in the main building, the main building was all the North Koreans on one side and the Americans all on the other side. When they had something going on, if they had a dispute between the North Koreans and the South Korean guards walking the DMZ, because they would talk the DMZ, they would meet each other, you know they would be on that side of the barbed wire, and we'd be on this side, and sometimes the North Koreans they'd take a shot or something you know. Then, so they would call the peace talks and they would talk about that and stuff, and they would shoot at our planes and stuff, even though we were on our side, and they would claim that we would come on their side, and we'd claim we didn't come on their side. Nothing ever was gained from it, but I remember the North Koreans coming to the peace talks in American cars. {Laughs} They were driving in American cars, I'll never forget that. That was so funny, and then their guards there, we were right there next to their guards and stuff, they would stand up at attention, they wouldn't even look at you or nothing, where our guards are just walking all around you know and stuff. But, it was--it was interesting. I think that they use that as a tourist area now. I think if you go over to Korea, and you're a tourist, you can go up to Panmunjom where they had the peace talks, because it's a tourist area now, but it wasn't a tourist area when I was there, believe me.
In your free time in Korea, when you weren't on duty, what did you do?
Free time, I didn't have much free time. When I was driving, I drove every night. I had a Lieutenant, he would call me up sometimes at nine, ten o'clock at night, and he'd say, "Gordon come on we're going up to see somebody." And, we went up to this building, there was all Americans in it, but they had Army shirts on, but nobody had a rank on, no stripes, no nothing. You don't know, you could be talking to a General and you wouldn't know it, or you could be talking to a Private. I don't know who he went to see, I don't know if he knew what rank they were, I think it was probably the C.I.A. there, you know because they don't have any rank. That's what I think it was you know, or the C.I.D., they were there you know, but nobody had a rank, but I'd take him up there at least once a week at night. We'd go up at like ten o'clock at night. So, but--you know I didn't have much free time because we were always covering something whether it was maneuvers at night you know, we covered maneuvers at night, almost had a tank run me over one night. He was coming down the road, I know he didn't see me, and I'm coming up the road, and I said, "We got to bail out here, this guy ain't going to stop!" He came--I bet you he must've been going 40 miles an hour down that road and this was in pitch black dark, and we just dove off the road with the jeep, and he kept on going right on down {Laughs}. You know, we covered the maneuvers and stuff, I worked like every day you know, Sunday was just like a Monday or a Tuesday, you know. You had something to do all the time, because I had a lot of people I was driving for I was driving for a Major, I was driving for a Lieutenant, I'm driving for photographers, I'm driving for reports, so you know they're always going somewhere to cover something. So, that's why it was interesting.
You had mentioned the C.I.D., what is that?
It's like the Army thing, of like the C.I.A., but it's Army, but they don't show any rank so you don't know what they are.
What does C.I.D. stand for?
I don't--I can't tell you. It's been 60 years {Laughs}.
Okay. How was your interaction with the other soldiers while you were in Korea?
I never had trouble with anybody. I was real good friends of a black soldier. He drove the bus to the rec center and stuff, and one day we were off, and we get on the bus, him and I, and I sit down, halfway down, and he says, "Gordy, I can't sit here." I said, "What do you mean you can't sit here?" He says, "I got to sit in the back of the bus." I said, "You're with me {Points finger}, you'll sit right here. Anyone wants to say something they have to go through me!" So, oh boy, that's what he did. So, that's--it's changed a lot since then, but he was a real good friend of mine, real good friend of mine. He drove the bus, and I drove the thing, he'd help me with my jeep and stuff, he was like a good mechanic and everything so if I had trouble with the jeep I'd ask him what to do and stuff. So, he was good.
Did you interact with Korean soldiers during your time there?
No. When I was in the Eighth Army Honor Guard, down in Seoul, we had Honor Guard people from Turkey, from England, all the NATO countries we had different people in the Honor Guard then. So, I interacted with them and stuff, and I basically interacted with the people I worked with you know in the motor pool. The motor pool was separated from 24th Division Headquarters. We were like over a hill, and we were at the bottom of the hill, that's where the motor pool was, so we kind of interacted through ourselves. You know, we had about I don't know, 20 to 30 guys down there in the motor pool. So--.
You had mentioned you played baseball while in Korea?
I played baseball in the summer of 55. And, we were stationed at Six Tank Battalion, that's where my team was, and we had officers on the team. We had all different kind of people on the baseball team. So, we built our own field there and everything. One day, or couple--took us two or three days, we built a fence out there in the outfield, and we had old tents, and we used the old tents, and we stapled the tents along the--we had wood top and bottom and stuff. Next day we had it all done, next day we come out, it was all gone. Koreans took it all {Laughs} They could use that stuff in their villages and stuff, so then we had to rebuild it again, and we had to keep somebody out there at night to make sure it was there the next day. That was so funny, you know the Korean people went through hard times, you know if you would see Seoul when I was there, and see Seoul today, you wouldn't believe it. Seoul today is like New York City, probably nicer than New York City, with all their big buildings and stuff, you know. That's some big companies, Hyundai you know and stuff, make the Hyundai car. You know, and today, the Korean people they love us. We have a Korean church right up here in Ocala, and a couple of them live in the villages here, they have us up every year for lunch, and we have them down for some things in our club down here and stuff, and they--Korean people they know what they went through, and they love the Americans believe me, they would do anything for us, and some of them have. Some of them have given big money to some of the people in the services in the United States. So, but they went through tough times, tough times. Now, I understand where I was in the 24th Division, that's a blacktop road all the way, almost all the way to the DMZ now, and that was nothing but dirt roads when I was over there.
Did you interact with any of the Koreans during your time?
Oh yea, I had a--we called them slicky boys. I had a boy he used to take care of the laundry for a carton of cigarettes a month. I never smoked a day in my life, but when I was over there, cigarettes came in very handy. I could buy a carton of cigarettes for a dollar, which was worth about 10 dollars on the black market. So, my carton of cigarettes would take care of all my laundry for a month, all my things triple starched. Believe me, it was a deal. It was a deal, and everybody had the Koreans, they all used the Koreans to do their laundry and stuff, they all did all our laundry. I don't know whether he did it, or his mother did it, or his sister did it, but they were--they do it one day and almost the next day it was back to you. So, you know they were on the compound, the Korean boys, they were on the compound and stuff, we would see them and stuff, and then when I was in the motor pool, we had a small fence like this, they could walk right over that fence. The village was right down from us. {Laughs} I don't know if I should tell you this story. I come home one day from driving, and we made our own shower, so we could have a shower at night, so I go in that shower to take a shower, there's a Korean girl in there taking a shower {Throws up hands}. They come up and use the shower too {Laughs}. And then, one day, one night, in our Quonset hut, in our tent, we were in tents when I first got to the motor pool, and somebody came and made an inspection and said, "These guys are still in tents?" So, they got us Quonset huts, so we put Quonset huts up. But, we had, I don't know, there was 20 of us sleeping in one tent, and there must've been like at least 10, 15 radios in that tent. We wake up one morning, {Makes his hand resemble a zero} That's how many radios we had in that tent. They were all gone. Somehow, we think it was the Koreans came up and stole all our radios {Laughs}, but we had no radios. And, we had guards at night at the motor pool, we could hear them up there, you pull guard duty, you can hear them up there with the barrels of diesel, because we heated the tents, Quonset huts with diesel, we had stoves and we'd use diesel, you could hear the up there taking the barrels of fuel, but there was nobody going up there because they'd roll a barrel of fuel on you. So, we just--it was higher up ground than where we were, so nobody would go up there at night, but you could hear them taking the diesel and stuff diesel or gas, whatever they were taking, they were rolling the barrels away {Laughs}. That's stories you don't hear.
What was the last bit of time in the service for you like?
My last bit of time in the service was the last two, three months I got back from playing baseball, and I could've went back to drive for P.I.O, but that guy he had just started driving and he had a lot more time left in Korea than I did, and I knew it was such a good job. So, I went, "No, you stay there because it's a good job and you have a lot more time." So, they transferred me out up to the 19th Infantry Regiment, up across the Seomjin River, that was near the DMZ. That's where the 19th, the 21st, and the 34th Infantry Regiments were along that line, and I Corps was on the other side on the line up there, and I got stationed up there. I went up there, and I knew a Lieutenant up there, and he got me a job as Liquor Control NCO for the Officer's Club and driving for P.I.O. up there, so I did both jobs. I slept with the booze at night with the Sergeant, we were in this little hut, we had all kinds of booze in there. I don't--I didn't drink then. So, I was a good guy to have in there. So, that's where I was. So, the second day I was there, about two o'clock in the morning we hear this racquet outside and stuff, we look outside and everybody's packing up, they're leaving the whole company's leaving. They're going on maneuvers, we didn't know it was maneuvers, the Sergeant and I says, "Man I'm not going out of this building. We'll stay here, if the North Koreans are coming, we'll each grab a couple bottles of booze and we'll take off." So, they were gone for like two or three days, and we were only there by ourselves in that compound. So, but I used to take--I used to drive the Colonel, who was the head of 19th Infantry Regiment, I used to take him pheasant hunting, up there in the woods. He'd shoot pheasant right from the jeep. So, that was a good last 90 days, you know that was good. Had a good time up there.
How did you get back to the U.S. from Korea?
On a troop ship. Had a buddy that said he could get us, he could get us flown back, but we had to go to Hawaii first, and stay a couple of weeks in Hawaii, and at that time I didn't know that much about Hawaii. So, I said, "No, let's go back on the ship." So, here we go, we went down by railroad, man that took like two, three days on that railroad, that Korean railroad. I thought we were never going to get there, we'd go like two miles and the rail car would stop and we'd sit there, and we'd sit there, and we'd sit there, and then we'd go for like another two miles I thought we were never going to get back to Incheon. But, we finally got there and we were in Incheon for about a week, and then we got on the ship, and I went back on the ship to Oakland. We came in to Oakland, and then they flew us back to Fort Dix. And, I was in Fort Dix for a couple days, we mustered out, and my parents came down and picked me up and brought me home.
When you returned from Korea, what was the reception like from the community?
Like I was never away. Nobody said anything. That's why they call it the forgotten war.
Did you receive any medals, or commendations while you were there?
No, I got the Good Conduct Medal. I just got the Peace Medal the Korean government gave us the Peace Medallion here not too long ago, so I got that, and I got the medal that Governor Scott gave us in the villages there few months back. Anyone that was in service could get that medal. That was it. Besides my wings I'm allowed to wear, because I was in the Airborne.
Did you have any other memorable experiences in the Army that we haven't touched on?
Not really, no.
So, you said since no one said anything, and it was basically like you'd never left when you came back, the transition from military back to civilian life, what was that like?
It was easy for me, I started work like the next day at the hardware store, so you know I just started work.
Is there--do you feel you learned any important lessons from your time in the military?
Well, for somebody like me, who had never been away from home at all, it was an experience. Like the first night I went in, they were telling us, "You're going to have a party tonight, you're going to have a party tonight." I says, "Oh God, this is good, they're having throwing a party for us the first night." Yea, a G.I. party, and you learn real quick what a G.I. party is. We scrubbed them floors and everything to about three o'clock in the morning. Two, three times we did that. That's what a party is, that's what I learned. I learned what a G.I. party was, because I had never been away from home a day in my life, I was a mamma's boy. I never slept over at anybody's house or anything, I was never away, never away.
So, it was rough, the initial bit being away from home?
Yea, the first--first couple of days worry you, but then you get to meet people and you know and stuff, and you make new friends, and things like that. So, most of the people, well most of the people when I went in to, a lot of them were from my area and stuff. I made friends with a fellow from Ridgewood, who was the next town, I never knew him. We signed up for the Airborne together. I got in and he didn't go because he had something wrong with his teeth. He was a big football player and everything in school, and he didn't get it {Laughs}.
You said you had been working in the hardware store after you left. How long did you work there?
Worked there two, three years, and then I had an offer from my in-laws, my wife's parents, to go in the building business up in Unadilla, New York. Which is right next to Oneonta. I don't know if you know New York very well, well you know Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame? Well, it was about 25 miles from Cooperstown. So, I went up there into business with them and stuff, selling homes, and building pre-fabricated homes, national homes. I did that for, I don't know, three or four years. Then the economy got tough, so we stopped building homes, and I got back in the hardware business selling wholesale hardware for a company called Architects Hardware out of Albany, New York. I did it for 25 years and retired from there. I was selling hardware to lumber yards and stuff. So, I'm still really friendly with my boss, he comes down in the winter, he stops here to see me to make sure I'm alright and stuff. So, yea I did that for 25 years, and it was good.
What did you do after those 25 years?
After those 25 years, when I retired from Architects Hardware, I managed a hardware store in Sydney, New York, which was a town right next to where I lived. I managed that for a year and a half, until I moved down here in the Villages. I've been in the Villages 18 years. And, I worked in the Villages in security and community watch for 14 years. I was a supervisor on the midnight shift, from midnight to six in the morning, I worked that shift for 14 years. I was ahead of 17 people at night on the midnight shift, had a good time.
What made you decide to come all the way down to the Villages?
Because I don't like the cold. I took enough of the cold, I shoveled enough snow, and I wanted to go south. We'd come down almost every Christmas time for, I don't know 10 years, we'd bring the kids down, we'd stop at Disney World, and then we'd go down Margie's parents moved and lived in Englewood, Florida, and we would go down there. Margie had a sister down there, I had a brother that lived in Hollywood, Florida. So, you know we had places where we could go. I would always take my two week vacation time over Christmas. Kids were off school, and that was the best time for me to be off the road because a lot of the places were taking inventory after Christmas, and they didn't usually buy much.
Do you belong to local veterans' groups?
I belong to the American Legion 347. It's 5,500 people in that American Legion, it's the biggest in the world, and I belong to Chapter 169 of the Korean Veterans Group out of Leesburg, Lake County, and that's the only two.
Okay. Do you have any words of advice for someone wanting to join the military today?
I think the military is good for somebody that doesn't know what they want to do, or they don't want to start college or something, I think it's good for a young person to go into the military. You don't know, there's a lot that just go in for the two years, and 25 years later they're retiring from the military. So, you know there's nothing wrong with the military, you can learn quite a lot, you can learn jobs and stuff in the military, you don't know.
Is there anything else that you feel you'd like to talk about today that hasn't been covered?
No, I think you did a very good job, and I'm honored to be here to do this interview with you.
Okay, thank you Mr. Talbot for your time today and your service. The UCF Veterans History and I greatly appreciate it. We will be in touch when your copy of the interview is ready.
Thank you very much.