Korea and a Few Stops In-Between

The following May I received my orders for Korea but I had 30 days leave coming so I got a delay-in-route and spent a month at home.

Following my leave, I went to Ft. Lewis, Washington where we stayed about a week being processed before beginning our journey to Korea.

Once again, I had to deal with the adage, never try to out-guess the Army. This was late June, summer weather, right? Even Washington in June can be warm and I knew weather in Korea was similar to the Midwest (the 38th parallel runs through Kansas). I left my winter uniforms in Omaha. Since the Northwest can be either chilly or warm, GIs out there are allowed to wear either uniform. Whoever wrote our orders didn’t anticipate where we were going and we were required to board the plane in winter clothing.

Consequently, I had to go to the post commissary and buy a winter uniform to board the plane for our trip to Korea or else face a court-martial for disobeying orders. It was well into the 90s when we arrived in Korea so the winter uniform was excess. When you have limited space in a duffel bag, such excess is discarded.

That was as bad as the overnight bag I won at bingo on the troop ship going to basic training in Hawaii, only to throw it overboard because it wouldn’t fit in the one duffel bag I was allowed.

From Ft. Lewis, which was near Seattle, we were taken to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for our flight to Japan. Canada’s contribution to the Korean War effort was using their commercial air lines to transport troops.

Our flight route took us over the Aleutian Islands on our way to Camp Drake in Tokyo. Japan. The weather became bad and the pilot apparently was told to land at Cold Bay, Alaska in the Aleutians. This particular air base is situated so the landing strip ends with a huge drop off into the sea. As our plane came out of the clouds the pilot saw he was below the level of the air field, with nothing but a cliff looming in front and the sea boiling below. He quickly banked to the left, nearly dipping one wing into the water, and got high enough to take another approach.

As we came in for a landing, I looked out and saw several emergency vehicles waiting for us on the runway. I was on the opposite side of the plane and couldn’t see the danger we had overcome. The tower control people were not taking any chances and had prepared for a crash landing.

We found out later our pilot, a civilian, was the youngest Canadian ever to receive a license to fly a major air line plane. His youth may have helped him in his quick reaction and perhaps saved us from a watery grave.

The air base was not expecting us, of course, so there were no sleeping accommodations in this far northern outpost. I found a rec room and curled up on a pool table for the night. Before leaving the next day we could see why few airmen wanted this base for duty. Rope lines were strung between buildings so troops could find their way during frequent snow storms. Barracks were unpainted because constant winds simply removed the paint. At least the tour of duty there was short because of the high incidence of depression.