Korea, Jack Bloess

The time was the summer of 1951. The place was the Hwachon Valley, in North Korea. I was a member of the 17th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division. I was assigned to service company and my rank was corporal. I worked in division rear, which was in the back of the military formation. I was in charge of paying the 17th Regiment. It was a great job, because I didn’t get involved in any firefights.

In order to keep abreast of the pay problems of the men, I would go to the front lines and interview people who had pay problems. This is the story of one of my trips.

I had a jeep and a driver who knew where to take me. North Korea is very mountainous and many of the roads are one-lane defiles around the side of the mountains. As we approached the Hwachon Valley, we were on one of these narrow paths. We came to some enemy trucks that had been hit by our jets. They cooked the trucks and the people in them. Not a pretty sight.

Later, we came to the valley. We could see the whole valley. We had a lot of artillery set up all around the valley — 8-inch self-propelled howitzers, 155-mm howitzers and 105-mm howitzers. They were firing harassing fire at five-minute intervals.

Division forward was set up here also. Division forward is where the commanding general and his staff are located. Each division has three regiments. All the activity of the division is directed from division forward. I camped with division forward and worked out of there. I usually stayed there a month at a time.

When you are up there, you need a foxhole, for obvious reasons. One of my buddies pointed out a hole that was unoccupied. I asked why no one was using it. He said because the guy who dug it got killed by artillery last night.

Division forward had set up the night before. The Americans controlled the high ground and turned on floodlights in order to see what they were doing. The Chinese saw the sky light up, so they fired in that direction. As they fired, they extended and the rounds came right through the camp. The guy in the hole was safe, but he had something in his truck so he jumped out and ran to the truck. A round hit the truck. Not too smart. Anyway that was why I didn’t have to dig a hole.

Every infantry division has a band. It’s the general’s band. Most of the band members do the gofer jobs at division forward — orderlies for the high command and so forth. The first thing they do at division forward is put up a flagpole and hoist Old Glory, up at reveille and down at retreat.

The first night I was there, the band assembled at retreat and played the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Standing at attention, saluting the flag being lowered, knowing the Chinese could probably hear the music, you talk about feeling proud. God I felt proud.

Don’t think I will ever forget that moment in time.