Mackey, Ralph - Rotary Club Interview
Ralph Mackey: Korean War
(Midwest City Rotary Club Interview)
Interview Date : April 29, 2004
Q: Ralph Mackey, when and where were you born?
A: 1925 at Checotah, Oklahoma.
Q: When did people first being thinking that the US might get involved in Korea?
A: Well, it wasn’t too long after World War II that thing beginning to get a little involved in that part of the country, so at that time, about 1948, why, I think that was when I thought things were going to get involved.
Q: How old were you when the Korean War broke out?
A: Ah, 27.
Q: Were you in the military at that time?
A: Ah, no. I was recalled to active duty in 1951.
Q: And where were you at that time and what were you doing?
A: At that time, I, ah, was living in Ardmore, Oklahoma, ah, and plant superintendent over a dairy – Cooper Farms Dairy – and I got a telegram about 3:00 on Friday evening. My wife called me and told her to open it up and see what it was. She said, “well,” she started reading it. The gist of it was that “you have been recalled to active duty. . . to report San Antonio, Texas . . 8:00 Monday morning.”
Q: Were you a World War II veteran?
A: Yes.
Q: How did that impact your thought about the Korean War?
A: Well, of course, being a veteran of World War II, ah, at that time I figured, you know, that we almost waited too long to get into World War II, and, of course, when Korea started acting up, I figured, well, we either got to get in and slow it down or do something, or we’re going to have an all-out war with other countries getting involved.
Q: In all the branches of the military, in what branch did you serve? Was it air force then or was it army air corps?
A: It was – in the Korean War, it was the air force. In, ah, World War II, it was the U.S. Air Force.
Q: What were you personal feelings about going off to war and what were your feelings in regard to communism and the anxieties and tensions it created in the US?
A: Well, there’s no doubt that the United States did the right thing in World War II by getting involved when they did. Had they waited another six months it might have been a different story. There’s no doubt that the Korean War – as far as I’m concerned – was something that we had to do and the quicker we did get involved, the better off we would be.
Q: What was the feeling of your friends and acquaintances about the war?
A: Well, during the Korean War, of course, everybody that I had dealings with or acquainted with felt the same way as I did – felt like it was something necessary and needed to be resolved in some way.
Q: Did all the people you knew want to join the military?
A: Well, people – some did and some didn’t, but mostly if you were an ex-GI from World War II, they were all willing to serve. Some of the younger generation, ah, wasn’t that motivated.
Q: How did your wife and family feel about you go off to war?
A: Well, they, of course, they were worried as any wife would be, but they felt like, you know, that it was something that was necessary, and the longer we put it off the worse it would be.
Q: The next question is concerning you training, and I know you didn’t need basic. You were a veteran and you had been a pilot in World War II, so where did you take your training in Korea?
A: Well, before, ah, when I got recalled, I went through a transition period of checking out in jet fighters, where in World War II I had been in B-17s. I started out in Valdosta, Georgia, where I went through instrument training, ah, transition, and went into the Air Defense Command.
Q: In other words, you used propellers in World War II and jets in Korea training?
A: Yes, ah-huh.
Q: Explain the experiences and impressions of your training in Korea.
A: Well, when I was at Valdosta, Georgia, everything was on a priority basis. They was trying to get them checked out and get them in as fast as they could, ah, where they would be ready to go to Korea. At that time, ah, they were short of pilots and the faster they could train them and get them checked out – and at that time, I didn’t go to Korea. I got – was lucky enough to get into the Air Defense Command.
Q: In what capacity, what was your duty and your rank?
A: I was a pilot and an Air Defense Command captain. Our mission was – in the Air Defense Command was to scramble and, ah, (tape skips) any object that was in the sky that couldn’t be identified, ah, was to overtake it, find out whether it was an air plane in trouble, whether it was lost or at that time, they – any reflection on a cloud was called an enemy airplane.
Q: And for these civilians who might hear this tape in 20 years, what does the word “scramble” mean?
A: “Scramble” – when you go on duty in the Air Defense Command, you are on 24 hours and off 48. And usually you work in teams, ah, one radar operator and pilot in one airplane and the same in the other airplane. And when you go on duty, one is assigned to be number one and the other is assigned to be number two, and when the alarm goes off, they scramble you – you jump in the airplane and they scramble you to take off as fast – and they give you – if you don’t get off the ground in five minutes, then you have to write up a report to your squadron commander because at that time, urgency was to get airborne and make an intercept and find out what the problem is.
Q: And obviously, you weren’t doing it very slowly. How does your own experience during the Korean War – under what kind of conditions did you live? Were you in a home, a barracks, or what?
A: Well, at Selfidge Air Force Base. . .
Q: And where is Selfidge Air Force Base?
A: Michigan.
Q: Michigan.
A: And – you rarely ever stayed over a week at your home base. Ah, most of the time the Air Defense Command would send you to places all along the northern part of the United States, all the way from New York, ah, and you never knew where you was going to be the next week. And you stayed approximately a week at each place and then they would, ah, send you to another place. They kept moving you around.
Q: I see, you were like a nomad. What kind of contact did you have with your folks at home?
A: Well, I had good relationships, no military correspondence at that time was being turned down. You could communicate, you know, with family or friends.
Q: Describe some combat experience you had as you flew over Europe.
A: Well, in World War II, ah, the first six missions were – wasn’t a lot of excitement different. The seventh mission, ah, started off to be a normal day. We went to briefing at 4:30 in the morning. I found out that the target would be Munich. The 452nd bomb group was to be the first group. They were going in and knocking out the air field, and our – the 388th bomb group – was to go in second and knock out a munitions factory. At briefing that morning, a captain approached me and said “I need a favor.” I said, “sure, what can I do?” He said, “well, I have 34 missions and I just got a telegram from the Red Cross that my mother was ill, not expected to live, and I need to fly the 35th mission. That way I won’t have to go to the, ah, Japanese to finish . . .”
Q: The Asian theater of operations?
A: The Asian theater, yea. And, ah, “could I fly with your crew.” I said, “sure, let’s just clear it with the squadron commander.” So we cleared it with the squadron commander and I went on back to the mess hall and was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee and in came an MP and said, “grab your parachute, a pilot’s got sick on another airplane and we need replacement.” Ah, he took me out to the runway where the airplane was in line to take off. I climbed aboard and our target was – we were to bomb at 21,000 feet and the bomb group in front was to bomb at 20,000. And the reason being that they could go in at a lower altitude, and at that time there were putting up rods, like, and it felt like if we could get in a little higher, we could get in and get out before they could change their altitude on their guns. We turned on the IP and headed toward the target, ah, getting a medium amount of flak and all at once the engineer on the airplane I was on called out and says, “two airplanes going down.” I looked up out my right window and I could see the airplane – one of the airplanes going down was the crew that I had flown all my other missions with. I told him to look for parachutes. He called back about three minutes later and said he only saw one parachute. At that time, when I got back to the base, I couldn’t find out anything from anybody on whether or not anybody got out of the airplane. Couldn’t get any status of whether anybody was killed. And it wasn’t until I got back to the states in 1945 that I found out that some of the crew did survive and were PWs and four of them were killed.
Q: Thank you. (tape goes to second side and part of question is cut off at the beginning) . . .experience that impacted your life.
A: Well, there’s times that you reflect back and things that happen and it crosses your mind on how many young men that we lost and the number that didn’t come home. Ah, there was good times and bad times. You try to push the bad times out of the your mind and try to think of the good times.
Q: What was your period of service during the Korean War? You went in what year?
A: 1951. And, ah, I got out in 1954.
Q: 1954. You done a double-duty service and after serving in Korea, were you immediately discharged?
A: Ah, after – after I had been in three years, I, ah, decided it was time for me to get back out and go back to civilian life. I felt like the longer that I waited, the harder it would be for me to get back and accomplish some of the things that I wanted to accomplish.
Q: What kind of reception did you receive when you got back?
A: Well, it wasn’t like it was in World War II, but still the people – your family and our friends and everybody, ah, gave you a welcome home.
Q: Now, you do still keep in touch with some of people you served with?
A: I keep in touch – I only have one, ah, crew member in World War II that is surviving beside myself. We correspond monthly. His health is bad. He plans on coming down to visit me, ah, which I haven’t seen him since 1945.
Q: Now, at one of these reunions you went back, and was it a B-17 you flew in Europe? And you went back to Boeing and flew one of the planes as a trail – what year was that?
A: Well, when Boeing had their celebration, ah, 50th celebration, we went back to Seattle, Washington, and at that time all the bomb groups were invited in for the celebration and, at that time you could – they had two B-17s and you could, ah, ride, fly the airplane for approximately an hour, and at that time, it was 24 hours and you more or less had to schedule your time to get in the airplane.
Q: But you were able to fly one again?
A: Yes.
Q: Now, the last question. What kind of general observation and conclusions do you have about the Korean War and your Korean experience?
A: Well, the Korean War, of course, ended up as a political war, which, ah, the boys that did go into combat – pilots that I talked to, they’re hands was tied most of the time on what they could do or where they could go. And, ah, I don’t feel like that we really went in to win the war. I think it was more or less a show of force, trying to convince Korea that, ah, ah, we could, anytime, you know, go in and dominate them, but, ah, I think politically it was strictly a political war.
Q: Thank you.
