From: Mike Klein
Machine Gunner: 1952
email: easyco27@peoplepc.com
I remember standing watch on the outpost in the neutral zone sometime in 1952 while the peace talks were going on. Our responsibility was: that if the talks failed, we were to help get the reporters out.
The Korean Marines and a village were off to the left of us. One night a villager told us that a Chinese soldier was in the village and wanted to surrender. We sent a patrol after him. He darn sure didn't want to surrender to the Korean Marines. He was brought to the outpost and we gave him cigarettes and some chow. He was scared to death as we all had big walking sticks and we figured that he thought we were going to beat him up. We just held him until someone from regiment picked him up .
This was during the time when outpost White was hit by an attack and they caught some of our guys in their sleeping bags. This was when Troy Watson was awarded his Bronze Star, if my memory is right.
There are many stories I can seem to remember like when the cook brought fresh baked donuts up the the MLR when we were occupying Reno, Carson and Vegas in late 1952.
I also remember that a patrol was getting ready to go out to Reno and the guys were waiting to go when the corpsman; I can't remember his name, told us that oranges would make you sterile as I was eating one and he really laughed. Well, that night he was shot up pretty bad and evacuated. He was only in the company a short time. In 1953, I came down with malaria and was in the naval hospital in Philadelphia. When I was released and was leaving the hospital, I heard my name and lo and behold it was the corpsman who had been badly wounded. I asked him how he was? He had lost an eye and had a glass one and had metal bones put in his fingers but it surprised me as we didn't think he would live, as bad as he was shot up.
I also remember the raid that Lt. Vanairsdale led. I was one of the machine gunners who gave covering fire and Hash got R&R in Japan for his actions. That was one of the most successful raids pulled off during the war.