Care for the Wounded and the Dead

Interviewer: So the whole time you're there, there's fighting going on.

Oh yes.

Interviewer: Battles. Can you take me through that? What it's like in the midst of a battle.

Well, you haven't got time to be scared. You haven't got time for that. You just gotta go ahead and do your job and that's it. It's kind of terrifying when you see your buddies getting shot and blown up. See we had terrific shelling for months and months. They were always poking a shell at us, you know. Of course we shot back of course, but... with artillery, but...

Interviewer: Did you see a lot of your buddies wounded and shot?

Oh yes, oh yes. Yeah.

Interviewer: Can you describe that for me? I just can't imagine being in that situation.

Yeah well it's kind of hard because.... well one buddy, do I dare give his name?

Interviewer: Feel free, first name.

Yeah, Ray, he got into a minefield. And I went up there and, one of my stretcher bearers was killed the same time, but he wasn't killed. I cut his jacket open and my hand dropped inside his chest. And him and I used to have a beer together. Like I knew him well for years.

Interviewer: How do you cope with that?

Oh you have to. Cause they rely on me.

Interviewer: So a good buddy does.... are you able to provide a proper burial for him?

Oh all of them, what I used to do when I brought the dead out, I made sure I had both padres, the R.C. and the Protestant. I made sure they give a service. Then I done them up in a blanket and shipped them, to, back, where they were buried down by Pusan.

Interviewer: So they were all buried in Korea?

Oh yeah. Yeah, we had five-hundred and something all told. I handled about, I don't know, eighty or ninety, I don't know, somewhere in there. You don't keep track of things like that.

Interviewer: No.