1926. 26 . How old are you . I will be 91 this friday. Be 91. Look too young to what is the secret . George my wife. She kept me. How long have you been married to her . Onrge it will be 66 years june 17. Years, wherer 66 were you born . Born in the state of washington in 1926. Tell me about your family, when you were growing up. George my dad worked for the railroad and we originally came from North Carolina so i grew up in North Carolina. I have been in two states mostly. How many schools have you went to . Bonlee high school beard high school. Bonlee high school . Washington . Of george it was in North Carolina. When did you graduate . George in 1945. Since 1926, you went through the Great Depression . George you were four years old yes. You were four years old when the Great Depression happened. How was it . George my great grand father got laid off by it. I got to know him as a kid. We lived on a farm in north acres, about 90 acres of farmland. It must have been hard. George oh yes, it was. We had a team of mules. We later got a tractor. Kid of twoddle brothers. I have one older and one younger. We all served in the military. Did you know anything about korea when you went to school . George no. It was a foreign country to me and i knew nothing about it. What about other countries in asia . Did you know about time in japan . George yes, i knew about china and japan. Did you learn about it . George we were at war with japan. When you are at war with something, you study a little bit about what it is about. Of course, we dropped a bomb over there and that ended that relationship. One of the targets for the atom bomb, it was not used. Occur do you know where that is . A southern part of japan. When did you join the military . See, june 21, 1950. Right after i got married. You were married at that time . George yes. And then you joined the military before the korean war . It was before the korean war. I was drafted by harry truman. Then it is not june 21. The korean war broke out june 26 of 1970. George it was in 1951 when i joined the military. Did you know that you were going to drafted the korean war . George now, i had no idea. Where did you get military training . In maryland. I had no combat training. You did not have combat training . What kind of training did you receive . George i want to machinery school. I did that in atlanta, georgia. My diplomas in there if you want to look at it. What did you learn . George to be a machinist . Like what . A shaper, metal machines, all that stuff. A little bit about welding. Not too much. Were you good at it . In the there was 33 class and i was of the top three. So i hope. I worked with General Motors at the time. I retired from them after 41 years. So when did you leave for korea . In january 1, 1952. I got over there in february of 1952. Where did you land . George i landed in jeong. I went to japan first. What was your unit . George i was not assigned to any unit at that time but i got assigned to the Fourth Region the Fourth Division of two 23rd 3rd regiment. 2 i was on the front line. I wifes birthday is on february 12 and i was on the front line right after the day of her birthday, if im a member that. If i remember that. Regiment . D 223rd 223rd regiment for the adam company. I was having a brain cramp. So you were added to the front line one after the birthday of your life in 1952. Inre was it your wife 1952. Where was it . Told we were the worrisome troops in korea. Do younumber remember the name of the camps . Wildernesswas in the. I went on patrol from that group and we went another two miles into north korea. I think we were in north korea at the time. My squad leader was george smith and he cant be close to him because he wanted to keep an eye on me he kept me close to him. We came on the backside of a control patrol and they opened fire on us and i got hit with amount of dirt the size of a Pitchers Mound and my helmet fell off and they hit my helmet, they did not get me, but they did kill george. You were almost killed. How was it . You dont get your feelings there. I might as well tell you what happened. And killed three of us wounded a couple of guys. We were getting wounded at first. And then we fought the enemy law fought the enemy off and they left and they were on a hill, over a hill. We fought them off and i stayed smith when thege enemy left, supposedly all of them left. To get alla while the wounded outburst and i stayed there with george smith out first. Finally was there with me farley was there with me and he was from chicago. It andgeorge smith on all of a sudden a white flag. A white flag appeared. I was the first one that he came to. They kept him prisoner and it was not anything special on my part,. How many . George one. And that was north korea . George yes. How did you know . I have some money that came from him and you might be able to tell where it came from, but i am not sure. But i think he was chinese. His gun. Y, i had this is another story. I got hit with a gun once. It is a simple weapon. It didnt fire very far. It was only effective for about 50 yards or less but it fires very rapidly, it is called a bird gun. And i had that for little while. They took it away from me and the reason they took away from me, they were starting to negotiate this element over there at the time and the russians swore under oath of their that they had not shipped any arms since the war started. This made a liar out of them because it had a manufacturing date of 1951. 1951 . George 1951 on the weapon. Firing theto ammunition out of it just for the fun of it. They took it away from me. I dont know how many they collected in that order, but they collected one from me. Ok. You went tome that were int school but you country. So it has nothing to do with george nothing to do with my training, no. I was a good shot. I still am a good shot. I did a lot of hunting in my lifetime and i am a good shot with a rifle and shotgun. Very few people ever beat me. Is this name familiar to you my Iron Triangle . George i am not sure where it was. It was always the right hand side of the army. We were there punch bowl . Heartbreak ridge . George it was not heartbreak ridge. It was more like a punch bowl. Anyway, getting back to this prisoner, we had a new commander at that time, nobody knew who he was. He put out an order that very morning and he wanted to talk to a prisoner and the first person that captured that prisoner was going to be an honorary five day defend. I was the one that got that. Lucky you. George farley had as much to do got it as i did so we both an honorary firearm. This commander, nobody knew who he was, he was Harry Trumans first cousin. You know harry truman . The president at that time . And i got to meet him. You went with him. George i went with farley. We met truman as a result of it. He shook our hands and talk to us a little bit. What was his rank . George he was a colonel at that time. But when he met korea, he was a head of the division and what he and he was a one star general so harry sent him to get promoted. What is his name . George lewis truman. The first cousin of harry. All right. Then what happened . Easter we left on r r on sunday morning with a different location on our front line and they moved us over to north seoul in a very mountainous area. There was a hill right in front of us we called it another it was called Marilyn Monroe hill where it was shaped i get big breast like a big breast. It was 50 yards from where we were. R r andack from my there was an awful fight going on and i got back out there and , the to see the pilot plane had been shot down right between us. I could not see the plane as it was burning. The train kept you from seeing the plane but i saw the pilot coming down and they were shooting at him he was in a parachute. Him hit the ground. I had some binoculars. I said, he is still alive. They put together a patrol to go out and get him. And farley and i get the enemy away from him. They were trying to get to him to capture him. We lay down the fire there that they could not get to him. We got him out of there. And bullet grazed the back of his neck it did not break the skin, it burned him. They shot the heel off his boot. He was limping and faking like they killed him. We got him out of there. So you went to r r at the notes of at the north of seoul . You really did not have r r there. George i spent r r in socorro japan. Sakura, it was one of the r r centers. They had three different ones in , whichnd i was in sakura is a nice area in the southern part of japan. Were you scared where you were hit first with your helmet . George yeah. You were married at the time. George i was married, yeah. When you get married in korea, you get four rotation points per month and i acquired rotation boards rotation points a lot more rapidly than the rest of them. We left the front lines about one week after july the fourth. And i never got back in combat after that. Mean july 4 of 1952 . George it was about a week or 10 days after july 4 that i left the front lines. We got back there in the rear and we picked up some orphan and we had a bank or 10 of them and they all fit and one was a little girl. Them. Had eight or 10 of they either got killed or we got separated from. We had nicknames that we call all of them. Some of the local people had cut down some of the g. I. Uniforms to put them in clothes. Eventually, we started an orphanage. I had nothing to do with that. We just put the kids are on re. Ir in thetr they are the real victims of the war. Their parents, they dont know what is going on. They are victims, too. One was a little girl and she was very young. Anyway, we were down there in this garden. They promoted me at the time. I was checking on my squad and a shirtwood said there is a little boy eating out of our trash cans. We cant catch him and we would like to put a uniform on him. Said, all of these kids, we had given them nicknames. Knew atalk to one who little bit in english. We use a candy bar to lower him out lure him out. He was eating out of the garbage cans. The only garbage he had was what we had called a burlap sack with holes cut in it and we put him in a uniform. Of kids to the group that later became an orphanage and now it is a school. They built that and i did not have anything to do with that. I did have something with collecting this one boy. Where they are now, i dont know. Did you see the seoul completely destroyed . It was about 50 miles from where i was. As i remember, there were not any paved roads in that place. Is a totally different now it is a totally different city now. The landing that occurred before we were there, what i did land there. But i did land there. What did you think when you saw this whole thing, korea . What did you feel about it . Did you think it was established . R bear and barren george it was a country i did not know much about. I did not know much about the people. It was a strange land to me as america would be to them. I had a little bit of education. I spent one year in college in the mountains of North Carolina. Iwas active in sports and missed my leg up playing sports. I reinjured the same leg over there and it got me out of there. So you thought it was strange. George it was a strange land. People spoke a language i did not understand. You know why you are there . Rge i knew why i was very they are, yeah. We were fighting a war. Who won . George that puzzled me for a little while, but this is a strange land and i have learned a little bit more about it since then because of that. Wecue korea twice rescued korea twice. They were prisoners of the japanese and we rescued them from that and then we rescued them again from north korea going down through there. I was a part of that. Whenove them that back i joined them. I was not part of that drive. A lot of americans lost their lives, two of them right next to me and i storm ever their names. One from south dakota and one from california i still remember their names. I did not get a scratch out of that. I got no scratches out of the army. Did you write letters back to your wife . What is her name, by the way . George joann. Yes, i wrote practically every day. While iee postage was on the front lines. I have a photo album of a lot of friends. I had a camarillo but i could not get film for it camera reel. It has been very hard for it must have been very hard for you and your wife to be separated like that. I got two honors. I was one of the few people who ever got two of the honors only because of Harry Trumans first cousin. I just happen to be at the right place at the right time and he was looking for a place to give up. That weapon that he had was ondence that they were lying that situation. To firend i did not get any nation out of it. Ammunition out of it. What did you write to your wife . George i tried not to worry her too much. I dont remember too much about it. The first r r she always told me, if you ever get get some dishes, get them over there so on that first r r this is kind of a funny story. There and theyup were kind of expensive. You can go into the town and they told me where to go and i walked about one mile and a half and i want them around they are to one of their Outlet Stores and bought her a 98th set piece 98 a 98 piece set up china. I will show it to you in a few minutes. Four of my letters in there. The only reason they are in there is so you can see my return address. That is the only reason they are in their. What was the most difficult thing during your service in korea . If i ask you one thing, what was the most difficult thing to you . George facing the enemy. That was the most difficult thing. You never know when one of those bullets was going to hit you. The fight did not start as a result of us rescuing that pilot. Dayslasted for about 10 theywe had a big were shooting and it knocked my machine gun out. Were 78 caliber, 76. And they got my machine gun after three shots. Thank goodness, the first one ,as under it and that gave us farley and i, i chance to get out of harms way a chance to get out of harms way. It knocked it up in the air about 40 or 50 feet. Canon process, we had a back there dug into the hill and they started knocking the mountain guns off. Hey got seven of them off as a result of that, about three days over three days later, the artillery was shooting at this 90 millimeter. For two days, it took them two days to hit it. I heard there were 300 rounds of artillery, incoming rounds. That was almost aroundtheclock. We set up a spotter team and they would get up there and shoot them. They had some good information and you could not find out why this artillery where this artillery was coming from. We knew the base of where it was coming from, but we could not pinpoint it. This happened for about 10 days and that was the worst part of it because you never know when one of those was going to hit you and it killed six of our guys in that bunker over there. I dont know why they did not get out of there but they did not and they felt they were secure. Where did you sleep, what did you eat and how much were you paid . Sea raisins. E but not every six days, i cant remember exactly, we rotated people out of our front lines to the where where they can get a shower and clean clothes back to the rear. Food is like an army cafeteria. It was pretty good food when you went back there. Menu . T was your favorite george you want to hear the worst what. What is it . George the worst one is corn beef hash. Why is that . Too salty or what . George if you can imagine eating a bunch of grease for lard, and you had no way of ting it up so it was cold no way of heating it up. , and you might laugh at this, it was beans and franks. That is one other thing. It is the best way to lose weight because i weighed about 160 pounds and when i got to the front lines i weigh less than 120. It is a good way to lose weight. Where did you sleep . Was it in the trench . I slept in the trench in a sleeping bag. It was two hours on and two hours off. Can you imagine being woken up every two hours . We slept more in the daytime that night then at night. That is horrible. George about the time you get sleepy, somebody would be waking you up. Oftentimes, they will wake you up before the two hours, depending on who the person was. In februaryrrived on the front lines . It must have been very cold. George it was pretty cold. We had snow all over the ground. And you sleep in the trench in a sleeping bag . George just a sleeping bag. I cannot imagine how you went through those. George sleeping bags were filled sleeping bags. They kept you warm and we had warm clothing. We had gloves. Pile have what you call a cap and then you had your helmet over the top of that. It covered your ears. T was named for arnie powell he served for the troops at one time and he was a writer and he wrote about the army. How much were you paid at the time . George not very much. Annual salary, how much . George the biggest apartment to my wife. She got the biggest hunk of my pay. About 25 or 30 a month, Something Like that. To your wife . George she got most of it, yeah. Actually, i will back up a little bit. When i went to machine the school in atlanta, georgia, she came to live with me when i lived off base when i was down there and it was like a honeymoon for us. We lived about one mile off base and i had my car down there with us. She transferred her job down to atlanta and she was working during the daytime. Where did she work . Worked for Prudential Life insurance company. She was able to transfer her work down there to be down there with me and that was basically our honeymoon down there. Have you been back to korea . George no. So now you have a vivid memory of korea in 1952, a miserable place. He said it is strange. You said it is strange. Now you know korean economy and democracy, right . What do you know and how do you compare it . Can you put it into perspective . George it is like our country here. During the war, the people in the south have freedom. By the way, i know one of the girls, she was a nineyearold prisa parks, she was a nineyearold girl in south korea at the time the war broke out. She has written three books and i have all three of them. One about the life when she was young and the time of one is the rooster crows at midnight. It is about young girls being taken by the japanese and made comfort women out of them and she writes about that in one book. And then the other one is grand korea novel. She used to play in the kansas city symphony orchestra. I see her from time to time. Shes a nice girl. Lives in thed and kansas city area. When did you leave korea . Korea in a plane with my leg torn up and a sprained right ankle and i could hardly stand up. Hospitalne week in the. Spent 30 days in the 141st General Hospital in japan. It was in the fall of the year. Nut and i wasl listening to the world series at the time and the yankees were playing the dodgers, i believe. One of the doctors was named dr. Bobby brown. He was a third baseman for the yankees at one time. Ballgametening to the and he talked to me a little bit. I did not know at the time until he told me he was. Rebroadcast of a the ballgame. It was not as it was happening. Japane in the hospital in. It took about two weeks. I was totally in the bed, i could barely get up. And then i started moving around a little bit and walking with crutches. , i began to30 days walk pretty good. Was myor duffey physician. He said im going to put you on a 30 day rest and recuperation leave to japan. You can go anywhere you want to and i did not have much money. Spent a train to where i two r rs. R r, i met one of the guys that i was in Machinist School with. So i stayed with him for those those 30 days. Or i walked around during the daytime and got to learn a lot about japan. When did you leave korea . George i dont remember the exact date but the world series was going on at the time. What is the month . George it was in the fall. 1952. So it was in september or october . Somewhere around there. Tell me about this what do you think about the whole thing that happened to you. Korea, did not know nothing about it, it was miserable. Now you know it is one of the 11th largest economies in the world. How do you process and characterize this . George i wonder while we were over there i wonder why we were over there. People have the same freedom over there that we do. This jack bird in the north wants to take away from them. He wants to enslave south korea again. I have mixed feelings about that. Were it ishey a good thing that we did that, tremendous thing. It is harder to deal with the fact that we lost so many guys. Or People Killed in korea in three weirs three years than in vietnam in 10 years. Yeah. George people dont realize that. We were treated not too kindly looming got back to the states. In thehree months left military before i could get a discharge. Base station made out in missouri. I was giving test to new. Nductees we had an machine that automatically graded them. I took the test to see what i could do on it. I improved my score a little bit, but not a lot. That was a fun thing to do when i was down there. My wife came down there to be with me. On monday, tuesday, and wednesday. We did this on thursday and friday living off base in a campground. I really got to know my wife again. We read a lot of books and had access to a library and read a lot of books. What do you think is the legacy of the korean war and your service . George i did not think it was a good thing, but harry truman did a tremendous thing. Look at the freedom they have. Freedom is not free. Livesof people lost their doing that and i think it is a good thing, but looking when i was over there, i did not think that way. Are you proud of your service . George yeah. The best thing i have done is organization. Andothered me a long time the best thing i have was a bunch of other guys that went through similar stuff. That forot trade anything. These guys are all my friends. You told me your grandson is going to korea. What is going on . Tell me about it. What is his name . George he is not really my grandson, he is my grandnephew. He is quite counted with music quite talented with music and he plays a base instrument. He lives armand dallas he lives in dallas. I was talking to him yesterday. He did not know the exact dates, but they are scheduled to go to korea as a group and they are going to sing over there and perform for somebody. Isnt it wonderful . The country you saved, now youre grandnephew is going there. It is. Is feared he is a nice guy. I spent some time with him yesterday. He played for my wife and i. He is a nice kid. Father got to be pretty wealthy. I will tell you a little bit about him. And heuite talented ,lays for the dallas orchestra my nephew plays in the dallas orchestra. Dallas while he was down there, he met two guys and they wanted to start a company that does background checks on people. School to detective start this company up and a theyolled him bankrolled him. So new york firm wanted to buy him out and they made them all of themires, all three are millionaires and they hired him back to run it. That is why he is still in dallas and that is his son. The whole family is talented in music. Thank you for sharing that. Any other specific episode of your battle experience in korea that you want to share . George i want to tell you about the boy in the lumberyard. The rescuing of the pilot, ok. Keep talking, please. George we got him out of there. Today. Know where he is. Hope he is still alive thank you very much. That moral history interview was provided to cspan by the korean war legacy foundation. For more information about their archive of hundreds of interviews war veterans, and photos, visit their website. This is American History tv, exploring our nations past every weekend on cspan3. This is the 70th anniversary of the start of the korean war on june 25, 1950. Tonight, we feature programs focusing on the 19 76 republican and Democratic National president ial convention from a yearlong u. S. Information Agency Series reduced for International Audiences on the American Election process. Here is a preview. Lets look at some of the people, the men and women who are going to be delegates at these conventions in new york and kansas city the summer. Lets talk with some of them and see what their view is of their role, why they became involved in the commitment about the conventions in which they are going to represent not only themselves and their party, but their Party Colleagues and louisville oils al. Loy candidates are elected in individual states in a variety of ways as shown here. Some states meetings of Party Members to elect delegates to the National Convention. Delegates who are elected to the National Convention in this manner are usually pledged a particular candidate and hope to be elected on that basis. We asked several virginia delegates in norfork and maryland why they wanted to be National Delegates and what they hope to contribute to their respective convention. I believe the criteria for elections should be based solely upon perseverance and dedication to the republican party. My sense of commitment to a candidate is a very sincere one once i have established in my own mind that the candidate is truly qualified, that the of thete is well aware position in his own mind on the issues. Once i have established that in my own mind, i will give the effort everything that i can. Myit an overall part of political career in my career as a citizen of jeanette to help the progress citizen of virginia to help the process. I am not one of those people who accepts any instruction or irrevocable commitment because i think it is incumbent on a w2 uses judgment on eight delegate toon a uses judgment. Judgment. His it is supposed to be a government by the people and unless the people take part, this concept is not carried out. Over the past 10 years i have been actively engaged in local politics. I have run for local office. It seems to me that any politician who wants to become involved, would want to become involved in the election of the president and one gets the opportunity to do that by becoming a convention delegate. I ran for delegate to the republican National Convention because i believe as a democratic process to work, that if people or the citizens being governed must participate in all phases of the political process. I firmly believe that the future of this country and the with the new dynamic leadership of the democratic hasy which the party furnished throughout the history of united states. I think every citizen has an obligation to be involved in the affairs of their community. One of the most important things in america is the selection of the president ial candidate and the election of. There for, to become involved in the political process. Announcer learn more about the president ial nomination 6 00 p. M. Tonight at eastern youre on american tv. Here on american tv. This is American History tv covering hes very cspan style covering history. 48 hours all weekend, every weekend only on cspan3. This is korea, and nation divided at the end of world war ii at the 48th parallel. In north korea, the soviet union lost no time in setting up a communist government. In the south, the u. S. And United Nations sought to establish a democratic republic. Two years ago at the capitol of korea United Nations commission supervised