And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I rode that train and sat in that "solarium" observation car ! ! !
I had just completed the First Grade in Owensboro, Kentucky, where Mama and us three kids were living with Grammaw and Grampaw, while Daddy was away serving in the United States Army during the Korean War.
Following his combat service, he sent for us to join him at Ashiya Air Force Base, Kyushu, Japan.
After taking the train to Chicago, we boarded the Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Pacific Railroad (i.e., the "Milwaukee Road") and rode to Seattle, Washington, where we sailed to Yokohama, Japan on the United States Naval Ship "General M. M. Patrick" (AP-150).
Like my father, exactly twenty years later, I would also be serving in Korea as a soldier in the United States Army, and both of us had served under the same command, i.e., the Eighth Army!
I was in the last group of American soldiers to be awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Service Medal for serving in the Republic of Korea, and years later, American G.I.s who were stationed in Korea were authorized to wear the newly created Korean Defense Service Medal.
And telegraph lines still run along the rail line. I got a free ten day DZ visit to S. Korea with the 82nd Abn in Feb of 1969. Just left VN the previous Oct, jungle to tundra was not in my plans but we were cheap labor.
I rode that train and sat in that "solarium" observation car ! ! !
ReplyDeleteI had just completed the First Grade in Owensboro, Kentucky, where Mama and us three kids were living with Grammaw and Grampaw, while Daddy was away serving in the United States Army during the Korean War.
Following his combat service, he sent for us to join him at Ashiya Air Force Base, Kyushu, Japan.
After taking the train to Chicago, we boarded the Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Pacific Railroad (i.e., the "Milwaukee Road") and rode to Seattle, Washington, where we sailed to Yokohama, Japan on the United States Naval Ship "General M. M. Patrick" (AP-150).
Like my father, exactly twenty years later, I would also be serving in Korea as a soldier in the United States Army, and both of us had served under the same command, i.e., the Eighth Army!
I was in the last group of American soldiers to be awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Service Medal for serving in the Republic of Korea, and years later, American G.I.s who were stationed in Korea were authorized to wear the newly created Korean Defense Service Medal.
I now reside in the Mervyn Sharp Bennion Central Utah Veterans Home in Payson, Utah.
ReplyDeleteVery cool story, John, very cool!
ReplyDeleteWhen pulled by steam the Hiawatha hit 110mph plus. The driving wheels on the engines were 7 ft in diameter. Hi speed travel isn't new.
ReplyDeleteAnd telegraph lines still run along the rail line. I got a free ten day DZ visit to S. Korea with the 82nd Abn in Feb of 1969. Just left VN the previous Oct, jungle to tundra was not in my plans but we were cheap labor.
ReplyDelete