(Via Milinet)
Bangor Daily News
July 4, 2000
Marine Remembers Korean War
By Scott Holleran
The Korean War (1950 to 1953) remains the forgotten war.
Sandwiched
between World War II and the Vietnam War, it was the first
United
Nations war - though it was deemed a police action - and the
first
armed conflict of the Cold War, pitting the West against two
powerful
communist nations, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet
Union. The Korean War marks its 50th anniversary this year.
Writer Martin Russ, 69, is a former Marine and former associate
professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, who wrote ''Breakout:
The
Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950'' (Penguin paperback,
$14.95).
SH: What makes a good Marine?
MR: Well, this gives me a chance to tell you that I think I was
a
minimum Marine. I wasn't very good back at the line; I was
sloppy and
I tended to do as little as I possibly could - I never
volunteered
for anything. When I got up to the line, I saw it as a great,
fun
adventure for a couple of months, and it really turned me on -
it was
like being in a movie. I was never challenged seriously as far
as
bravery was concerned. I never did anything that was
particularly
brave - I never had the chance. My mind is not the kind that
thinks
of [my service] in terms of sacrifice - to me it was an
adventure.
I saw plenty of bravery. When Lt. Butler was killed, because he
had
gone up over the skyline and had exposed himself [to enemy
gunfire]
in the moonlight, a corporal jumped up and went over that
skyline to
drag his dying body back - I thought that was tremendously
brave. I
sure as hell wasn't going to go and get him back - I would have
if
I'd been ordered to - but it didn't cross my mind that I should
do
that. While I was thinking about that, a corporal did it.
SH: When were you the most afraid?
MR: When I crawled out in front of my bunker. It was at night
and I
had no feeling of vulnerability. But this sniper was pretty
close and
he, apparently, had heard me come out or had seen me come out
and he
called in mortar fire on me. So I was out there by myself with
no
hole and no shelter and the mortars were falling all around me.
Then
they stopped and I crawled back. That was the only time when I
really
became afraid.
SH: What is your most searing, personal memory?
MR: The yo-bos, the first Korean service corps, many of whom
were
wounded veterans from earlier fighting. It's a phrase in Korean
that
means something like ''come here'' or ''hurry up'' or something
like
that. Some denigrating phrase. These were men who were too old
to be
drafted into the Korean army and they helped us, they brought
water,
they brought ammunition and C rations and put in barbed wire for
us
and carried the dead away, they carried the stretchers for the
wounded and nobody paid any attention to them; they were
constantly
terrified. They had to come up to the outpost and the Chinese
were
right there and grenades were being thrown. Looking back, I
admire
them now. I think they should be honored. I was in an outpost
new
bunker and there were some mortar rounds coming in and the
yo-bos got
terrified and I remember the way their faces looked when they
really
thought we were all
going to die. I feel sorry for them in retrospect and I didn't
then.
SH: Is cowardice something for which a soldier should feel
ashamed?
MR: There's no way you can avoid feeling ashamed of it but I
sure as
hell will not look down upon him and I'm not sure how I would
react
in the same situation. I have sympathy for anybody who was a
coward
in the war. I wonder how quickly I would have become a coward if
the
Chinese had attacked my position en masse. One part of me wanted
that
to happen. I fantasized that the Chinese would come against me
and
then I would be a great hero. I had all the magazines stacked up
and
the grenades and I was ready. Looking back, I wonder how long it
would have taken me to run.
SH: There's been some controversy over the Korean War Memorial
in
Washington, D.C., because the soldiers are depicted actively -
pulling pins out of grenades. Do you think that it's appropriate
to
depict men engaging in battle in a war memorial?
MR: I think it should be haunting.
SH: Fifty years later, the North Koreans have missiles that
could
reach half the continental United States. Do you have any
thoughts on
the present situation?
MR: I have the feeling the North Koreans are going to invade
South
Korea again eventually for the simple reason that, when you
create a
huge, standing army, you end up using it. I feel that,
eventually,
the order will be given to invade South Korea again, which will
be a
total disaster because all the cities will be flattened, all the
dams
will be destroyed, there will be many casualties.
SH: Have you been to Korea since the war?
MR: Once while working with former Navy secretary James Webb. I
worked for him for four months in the Pentagon and he sent me to
Korea in 1985 [to do] research.
SH: What were the major events in the Korean War?
MR: The Inchon landing, the Chosin reservoir campaign, which was
the
big turning point, and Gen. Matthew Ridgway's campaign in 1951.
SH: Do you have any opinion on the conflict between Gen. Douglas
MacArthur and President Harry Truman, who fired MacArthur?
MR: I've always felt that MacArthur is one of the great
captains.
He's remembered as being kind of a jerk, nowadays, but he wasn't
a
jerk. He had reason to believe that the Chinese were not going
to
enter the war, and he had reason to believe that the North
Koreans
were retreating and that all he had to do was push them across
the
Yalu [River] and the war would be over - and he was very close
to
doing that. So he decided that it'd be all right to split his
forces
into the 10th corps on the east and the 8th down there on the
west
unable to support each other and, at that moment, the Chinese
intervened, so it was a disaster. Nobody grabbed MacArthur by
the
lapel and said, ''Doug, the Chinese are about to come in great
force.
You better look out.''
Nobody did that. There were hints. The Indian minister warned
us. He
did magnificent work in Japan after the war. He got the Japanese
back
on their feet by himself and I think he should be honored for
that.
And his work in World War II was magnificent. He made a series
of
landings, every one of which was successful. He was very
aggressive,
and the thing that impressed me the most about MacArthur was
that his
casualties were light and that requires great skill. He was
good. He
was damn good.
SH: Has anyone said thank you for fighting the war?
MR: No. Nobody has.
SH: Do you think that's a proper thing for someone to do?
MR: Yes.
SH: Why does it matter if Korea is the forgotten war - suppose
it
should be forgotten?
MR: I think all wars should be forgotten, really. Except by the
loved
ones of the men who died. But, historically, there was a major
war
which saved the Republic of Korea and its 20 million people from
being enslaved by a Stalinist regime which still exists. And is
still
a disgrace to humanity.
Scott Holleran is a free-lance writer in southern California and
a
frequent contributor to the Bangor Daily News. Holleran's father
fought in the Second Division of the U.S. Army during the Korean
War.
|
