Military

Carl enlisted in the Army on November 6th 1951, he was 18 years old. He was ranked as a Private First Class. His release date was November 15, 1954.

He took a bus from Huntington, Indiana to Camp Breckinridge in Kentucky. This was where he did his basic training. From there he flew to Seattle where he got on a ship to Korea. The voyage to Korea took around a week. I wonder what was going through Dad’s mind while he was waiting on the ship. What was he getting into? Would he survive? Would he be in active battle? The unknown is always a little scary. He was young and alone and was putting his life on the line.

He started off in Korea but went to Japan shortly there after. He was in Japan for around 10 months for special training. He really hadn’t had a lot of training except what he had learned while in Basic. For part of his stay in Korea he was stationed at Kojeshi Island. He guarded Chinese prisoners in case there might be a riot break out.

One story he shared with me was during a battle. Carl was supposed to be the leader of the platoon while going into a battle. There was a soldier in his group that wanted to have that position. He got permission to take the lead and he was killed in front of this entire group. Carl has always wondered why his life was spared and not his friends. Did God have a purpose for his life?

The soldier who was killed in the battle that I mentioned was from Germany. He joined the US Army in hopes of becoming a US Citizen. I found this interesting since it hadn’t been that many years since WWII had ended.

When Carl was discharged he flew into Colorado Springs. They had been told that if their home was East of the Mississippi River they would be able to fly all the way home since it was so far. They were all so disappointed when they had to get on a train headed for Chicago. At that point they were told they would be home for Christmas however, their stay in Chicago was several days and none of them were home for Christmas. When they were finally able to leave Chicago is wasn’t on a plane or a train but on a greyhound bus. Carl is still disappointed in the military over this. He felt they had lied to them.

The three years that Carl was enlisted he only got three pieces of mail. All of them were from his older brother Kenny. I can’t imagine how homesick and scared this young man had to have been.