Korea, Gene Scotten

In an album with a brightly colored Japanese design are pictures and documents of Gene Scotten’s years in the Army. Scotten purchased that album in Kokura, Japan, during the only five days of leave he received during his war-time duty in Korea. He served with the 8th Army, 955th Field Artillery Battalion.

Scotten had been out of Missouri one time before he was drafted June 25, 1951, at the age of 22. Verna Williams was the government worker in the Pettis County office who signed the paper with his draft number on it. Scotten was told to report to the Missouri Pacific Bus Station at Third and Lamine to go to Kansas City to begin the induction process.

He rode a troop train from Kansas City to Fort Custer, Mich., where the men were given their uniforms. They reloaded onto another troop train and ended up in the middle of a field in Oklahoma. Half the men were bused to Fort Sill, Okla. The other half, including Scotten, were bused to Camp Chafee, Ark. He received 16 weeks of training, before being shipped to Korea.

Scotten was an ammunition corporal with the 8th Army. These battles, to take and hold the 38th parallel, often saw the front line moving forward and backward. Scotten and his battalion fought all the way across Korea: White Horse, Old Baldy and in the battle of Heartbreak Ridge.

To build a bunker to sleep in, the men dug a hole with a bulldozer. Then they cut pine trees and laid them over the hole and covered that with tar paper. Then they covered it all back up with dirt. They built fires only during the daytime — never at night.

They would heat ammunition cans full of water to take baths. When they had a chance to wash their clothes, they did it the same way. Then they hung them out to freeze dry. At times in the winter, it was 27 degrees below zero. When the temperatures were warmer, they would wash their clothes in the river and sometimes get in themselves.

Every day for meals, there were dehydrated sweet potatoes, milk, eggs and mashed potatoes that were mixed with water. Scotten hasn’t eaten sweet potatoes since he returned from Korea. Chicken was shipped in frozen and the cooks fried it in big pans of grease. The men looked forward to that.

It was at Heartbreak Ridge where the most men were lost. Scotten and the other gunners fired their guns for three days and three nights during that battle. They hardly slept. They loaded their guns continually with 120-pound shells. “You put them in just as fast as you could at times,” Scotten said. There were six guns in a gun section stationed 150 feet apart. Sandbags surrounded the gunners. Enemy shells were landing all around, and shrapnel was flying at them as they fired their own guns. There were no foxholes to hide in.

During the battle, search lights lit up the 38th parallel at night. Battleships would fire their “Long Toms” all through the night, while the gunners on the ground were firing.

Scotten was made a corporal on July 13, 1952. He was later promoted to a prime mover driver and drove an ammunition vehicle. This vehicle pulled the big guns when the battalion was moving forward or backward along the 38th parallel.

During the Korean War, when a soldier had 36 points, they were supposed to be rotated home. Scotten had 44 points before he left Korea. Although he thought he would never be back alive, he eventually returned to his wife, Betty Lou Arnett Scotten. They married five months before he left to go to Korea.

He got to make one phone call to her in Korea. It happened during the five-day leave he was granted. She worked in an office above the old Safeway building at Fifth Street and Ohio Avenue. He had gotten word to her that he would call. She stayed at that office until midnight and waited for his call. The permission form to make the call is in his album.

Scotten is the son of Louise and Leonard Scotten. They had two sons who served in Korea. Gene’s brother, Roy Scotten, was in the Navy.

Scotten, now 78, is still working. He runs his 500-acre farm north of Sedalia.

— Emma Curry is Gene Scotten’s cousin.