Peters, Jack
Jack Peters: Korean War
Catherine Elizabeth Ellis (Student Interview)
Interview Date: November 23, 2003
Q: I guess we’ll start with where you were born and when you were born.
A: I was born in Macomb, Oklahoma. That’s where my grandmother lived, and grandfather, and I was born in the house across the street. And it’s the only house still standing on that street. And it was February 9, 1930 in a snowstorm. We was living down in Maud, well, out in the country from Maud. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And my dad had to get the team of horses to get the car out on the road, or, anyway, he had to take my mother over to her mother’s so . . . that’s where it started.
Q: OK. What was it like growing up in small town Maud, Oklahoma?
A: Yea, well, we lived nine miles west of Maud, and out on a farm, and, ah, we, we raised cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, and we raised our own food and we went to town probably once a month. And Johnny. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, we always had plenty to eat. My mother was a good cook and I didn’t know we was so poor. But we, we just lived good. For the times.
Q: Ah-huh. And how did you end up in California?
A: Well, when, after the war, I was 11 years old when World War II started. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And during the war we gathered up rubber and, ah, metal and turned it in. And, ah, we raised chickens and that was one of my jobs – taking care of the chickens. So, anyway, we, we just, ah, and then after the war was over . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: My brother, he worked out in Texas on a big 2300 acres of wheat – wheat ranch – in Burnett, Texas. And, ah, so he had to go – he got drafted in the service and he talked my dad into the notion of going out there and working for Homer Williams, that was the foreman. So we went out there, and, ah, worked on that ranch, and then we moved down to Dimmit, Texas . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And my mother – we didn’t have a house – it had big cracks in the walls and you could – my mother and my brother caught a train and they came to – she has a sister in Ceres. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So they rode the train out to Ceres and my mother, if I remember, she told my dad to – she wasn’t coming back – to pack it up and come out. And I was working on another – for another farmer and he had came to California on a vacation. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And he – we had about two weeks of work to do, and he told me where to put the tractor and what to do and all that stuff. So that’s what I did, and I hitchhiked home, and dad was loading up the pickup. We had ’37 Chevy pickup. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And he was loading it up, and he had already quit. And I don’t know if he was going to wait for me - because he didn’t know where I was at – anyway, I just – my sister and dad and I got in that pickup and we drove, or he drove, I had just got my driver’s license in Texas. I was 16. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So he wouldn’t let me drive because he had that thing stacked so high and it – it would have turned over, probably, if I had got behind the wheel.
Q: Ah-huh (laughing).
A: So he drove, and we just stopped for gas and got something to eat. Never – and how he drove for three days and nights – we never stopped at night either.
Q: Right.
A: And, ah, anyway, we got to Fresno and like to never found 99 to go north towards, ah, Turlock. . . and so we had to turn and go out to my aunt’s place. And we’d never been there, but we had instructions. So I think we got there around two o’clock in the morning?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Anyway, my cousins were getting ready to go to school, and they had a bunkhouse. And I laid down in that bunkhouse and I slept for 24 hours. I never woke up.
Q: Oh, my goodness. Exhausted from the trip, huh?
A: Yea, it was, man, it was, ah. . .and my sister she was – I think she was about 10 years old – and she don’t have any recollection of that trip, but I never forgot it.
Q: Well, that’s for sure.
A: So anyway, my brother and my mother had went to work for John Ingall’s Frozen Foods there in Modesto. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And then dad and I – we, we got all situated, so we went out and we got a job. Dollar five cents and hour, and boy, I thought I was making lots of money.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: In Texas we made five dollars a day, room and board, but . . .
Q: Wow!
A: Anyway, that was a big jump from five dollars a day . . .
Q: Ah-huh, to a dollar oh-five an hour.
A: Anyway, we worked there for the whole season and, ah, I had money in a bank in Borger, Texas, and in Dimmit, Texas. And I opened up an account in Ceres. And I had – so I had the Ceres bank collect all the money that I had in . .
Q: Texas?
A: . . . put it all in one bank, and then my folks bought that place there in Ceres. And, ah, I think they paid four thousand dollars for it. And Vernon and I loaned them the money – helped them pay for the – we paid cash for it. . .
Q: Wow.
A: So they paid us back eventually, and. . . Anyway, that was in 1946 was when we landed in California – I think it was July ’46. So I was too young to be out of school, so I had to go to night school . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And work during the day and go to school at night just to get by the – I think I had to about a year more or something and, ah, and anyway, I finally bought myself a car, and I’ve been broke ever since!
Q: (laughter)
A: So, anyway, I had a lot – lot of friends around Ceres. We used to have parties at night, you know, we’d build a fire out on the riverbank and just nice clean fun. I had about six or eight people we used to run around with.
Q: That’s good.
A: And, ah, just had a real good time. But I – that’s where I got the idea I wanted to be in the rental business. They had a rental business there in Ceres. It was called Tremble Rentals.
Q: Really?
A: And I used to go over and sit on Saturday morning across the street.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And see all this stuff going in and out and I said “boy, that looks like a good business to me.” So I made up my mind what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have a clue how I was going to do it.
Q: Ah-huh. So what events led up to you joining the army?
A: Well, ah. . .
Q: Why did you make that decision?
A: Well, you couldn’t get a job unless you had two years of service or three years – yea, you could join for three years and you never had – two years you stayed and then you had six years of reserve. And I didn’t want no six years, so I went for three years. And then I was supposed to be all done. There was no war going on and everything was running along. This was in August of ’49.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And we went to, ah, well, there was four guys that was – I ran around with . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Went down and talked to the recruiting sergeant, and he said “you guys be here. . . “ (we was all going to go in together) “. . . Monday morning and I’ll send you to Sacramento and get a physical,” and I was the only one that showed up.
Q: Oh no!
A: So, anyway, I got on the bus and went up to Sacramento and took the physical and raised my right hand and they put us up in the hotel.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And the next day we went down to Fort Ord.
Q: To where?
A: Fort Ord. It’s down by Monterey.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: It’s the training – training camp, you know, where they - that’s all they there is train people.
Q: Basic training?
A: Basic training, yea. And, ah, I spent 13 weeks there.
Q: And that was at Ford Ord?
A: Fort Ord, California.
Q: How do you spell that?
A: O-R-D, I think, Fort Ord?
Q: OK.
A: And, ah, so, anyway, I had a car and I – I took the car down – I’d go home every weekend.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And that’s when I had – my girlfriend was there and, and, ah, so, anyway, when I got out of basic training 13 weeks, I went home. I had two weeks to get to Fort Lewis, Washington. And, of course, they gave me a train, and I had to catch a train to go to Fort Lewis. But I – I spent two weeks with Vivian. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, so anyway, when I got ready to go to Fort Lewis I – she was there to see me off and she give me an 8x10 picture of her, just her face. And it was nice.
Q: Yea.
A: And, ah, anyway, I caught the train and they – we got off in Tacoma, Washington. We got there middle of the night and they just put on the sidecar and then Fort Lewis came out and got us and . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, and, so, ah, they asked me what I did, and I said, “well, I’ve worked in the theater there in Modesto and want to get in special service.” And they said “this ain’t no special service place.” So, anyway, we – I got into squad, it was a 4.2 mortar company, and, ah, there was four platoons and four squads for each platoon, and I went out with them and what we’d do, we had about a 25 pound shell and it’d go over and land on the back side of a hill or something, you know. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . .where in combat, and, ah, we had 30 vehicles. And so they had an opening. They wanted somebody in the shop to help service these vehicles. A mechanic, you know?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So they had a school, so I signed up for the school. And, ah, man I just whizzed right through it, and, ah, a week before I got out of school, the Korean War started.
Q: Right. And was that an expected thing? Or did the war and US involvement come as a complete surprise?
A: Well, it was a big surprise to me. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Because, you know, I thought I’d get in and get out before anything started.
Q: (laughter)
A: Anyway, and, ah, the recruiting sergeant told me when I signed up, he said, “now, if you want to save money I can send you over to Korea,” see, that was before this thing started.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: I said, “I don’t want to save no money, so just forget that!”
Q: (laughter)
A: Anyway, after I got out of school, ah, in ten days we was on the boat headed for – we was supposed to stop in Japan. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And it took us ten days. And the things was so bad in Korea, they didn’t even stop in Japan. We went straight into to Pusan, Korea.
Q: Pusan, Korea?
A: Yea, that was the – the . . .
Q: Where you were stationed?
A: Well, that’s where we got off of the boat.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, anyway, I had my stuff packed and we were supposed to send all our personal stuff home, but I didn’t do it. I had that picture and some clothes, and a pair of shoes. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Anyway, I lost my – they lost my duffle bag. When I got off the boat, I didn’t have nothing.
Q: Oh no!
A: Well, I had my toothbrush and stuff like that, but . . . .
Q: Ah-huh. Nothing else besides your uniform – stuff that you had on?
A: They issued me new uniforms because what job I had – I was the – me and another mechanic had 30 vehicles to take care of.
Q: Oh, my goodness!
A: And I drove the maintenance truck. We had our tools and all. We hauled gas and oil, and, you know, anything we needed.
Q: Ah-huh. How old were you when the Korean War broke out?
A: Ah, see in ’49 I was, I was 19, when I joined the service. Well, August ’49 – yea, I was – I was 19 years old.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, I guess, let’s see, I had spent 13 weeks in Fort Ord and then we spent about, I guess I was up in Fort Lewis for about 8 months before it started. So I was probably just 20 years old when it – when we got on the boat.
Q: And the branch of military that you served in?
A: Well, it was the army.
Q: The army?
A: Yea, second infantry division.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, of course, I was in a mortar outfit. We had, ah, all different kinds – rifle companies and the whole thing . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: But there was 187 of us that – in the heavy mortar company that I shipped over with.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, when we got off the boat in Pusan it was – they almost had the first cavalry division pushed in the ocean.
Q: Really?
A: And we could hear the guns going off and I said “Holy Smokes!” And the civilians was just coming down the road trying to stay out of the North Koreans’ way.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, anyway, and the North Koreans would have older people and they’d have a machine gun on their backs – strapped to their back – and they’d just lean over and somebody would start shooting. They never shot at me, but I heard about them, you know.
Q: Oh, wow!
A: So anyway, we got all situated and dug a – the first foxhole I dug.
Q: Really.
A: Yea, they said you better get secured and dig a foxhole and it was getting late in the evening and one of our planes was strafing a hill and his guns jammed and, boy, 50-gallon bullets was going all around us and I jumped in that foxhole.
Q: Oh, wow.
A: And, ah, nobody got hit, but, boy it was scary.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, so that – we started going north, eventually, and, ah, I would drive the maintenance truck and then do mechanic work.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And then it – in the nighttime – sometimes at night we’d have to unload all our tools and gas and oil and, and I’d have to take the truck and get in a convoy and haul troops.
Q: Oh, wow.
A: You know, when they switched troops from one place to the other?
Q: Yea.
A: And so, I’d drive at night in a convoy, and, and we’d deliver and we’d come back and then we’d have to work all day, you know, we’d have to service the trucks and keep them running and all that stuff.
Q: Ah-huh. So, did you just service the trucks and everything, or did you work on any other kind of equipment?
A: Well, that’s about all we worked on. The mortars were – they had a squad for the mortars, and they – and anyway, we had to haul our own ammunition. It takes – we had a weapons carrier that hauled the ammunition and they had their own driver and everything.
Q: Right.
A: So, anyway, we was – we was going pretty good and we got to Seoul, South Korea and, ah, and that’s where they was stationed at, at Inchon, they had a ship port there and, anyway, we stayed in the barracks where they – the first cavalry was stationed.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And the only paved road I ever drove on. And so we was in Seoul, and, ah, we was, ah, you know, we had to carry our M-1s with us everywhere we went.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And, ah, one night one of the guys got lost, so they said “you guys spread out and go in and see if we can find him.”
Q: Oh no!
A: So, I, you know, I had the old combat fatigues on, and had my M-1 and I walked in this club. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . . looking for this guy and it was an officers’ club. . .
Q: Oh, really?
A: Yea, so they didn’t want me there at all.
Q: (laughter) You weren’t welcome, huh?
A: No, officers don’t – don’t fraternize with the enlisted men.
Q: Right.
A: So, you know, it’s, ah, respect, I guess, for them, but. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Anyway, he wasn’t there and I left. And I’m walking around in that darn town, dark and just by myself and, anyway, I don’t know – I don’t remember whether we found him or what, but, anyway . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . .we, ah, we got there and then we went into North Korea. And we was stationed in the North Korean airport. I don’t remember the name of the town, but it was a big town like Seoul. And MacArthur landed. And we was doing so good, he said “you’re going to be home by Christmas 1950.” And, ah, anyway, we . . .
Q: So you were there to meet MacArthur?
A: Well, I was there when he landed. We was stationed around the airport.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Guarding the airport.
Q: Right.
A: And he landed, and he had a speech.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: That’s when he told us we’d be home by Christmas because everything was going so good, you know.
Q: What were your personal feelings about going off to war and what were your feelings in regard to communism and the anxieties and tension that created in the United States?
A: Well, I, ah, I knew that I had to do it, you know, because when you raise your hand you’re committed. And I just did my job and never thought too much about the politics of it. But . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: I just knew that it, ah, was going to be a long time there. Never had idea when we’d ever get back, you know, until MacArthur said we’d be home by Christmas, which was wrong, wrong, wrong!
Q: But that was like the first indication of when you might be going home?
A: Yea.
Q: Even though he was wrong?
A: Yea.
Q: How much longer did you stay in Korea after what MacArthur had said that you’d be going home that Christmas?
A: Oh, we was there – we had made it all the way up to the Yellow River, that was just before you get to the Chinese border. And, ah, it was 40 below zero. . .
Q: Oh, my goodness!
A: And, anyway, we had a – we had the – we was – the company – the mortar outfit was set up on one side of the river and we heard all this – well, the commander heard all these people coming across the river and they thought it was the North Koreans coming.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And one truck would not start. So he put thirty rounds in the radiator and gas tank. So, it turned out to be our own guys. So the next day we had to go up and get that truck and we kind of pulled it up on a hill off of the road and got a gas tank and radiator and put it together and we was just going to spend the night right there. . . (voice from another room) . . . so anyway, this guy that was driving the truck that we just got through repairing, he seen these tanks going down the road with the black-out lights on. So he got nervous. He went down and he stopped one of them, and he said, “what’s going on here?” Because everybody was heading south. And, ah, he said, “well, you better get out of here because we just got ambushed a mile down the road.”
Q: Oh, wow.
A: If we’d have been there probably another 15 minutes, I would have probably still been there.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So, anyway, we got everything started and I had three drums of gas and two drums of oil and all of our stuff, you know. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And we started – we drove till twelve o’clock that night and we was tired and so we stopped and went into a house – it was empty – there wasn’t nobody there, and the way they do it, they would – the kitchen would have a fire and it had the chimney went underneath the floor and out the other side and it would heat the floor.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So we left one guy on guard and we went in and went to sleep. And this same guy happened to be on guard and here come these tanks again.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And he stopped one of them and they said the same thing, “you’d better get going.” So, anyway, we got in the line and – and that’s when the Chinese jumped – they was riding horses in and getting behind us, you know. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: We had to go through this path, and so they set up a roadblock. But we got into a convoy that went around it and – because we never could find the company after we got that (garbled) started. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And we just got in this convoy and we would – I would drive and Corporal Swanson, he was the other mechanic – he was up in front with me – and so he’d sleep while I was driving, and then the convoy would stop and so I’d lay over the steering wheel and sleep and then he would wake up. So when we got ready to move again, why, he’d wake me up and we’d drive and it was just, you know, like traffic is here, just jammed up. And what they was doing was going around this roadblock.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: But our company went through it.
Q: Oh no.
A: All of our guys. And, ah, so we – I think we was about three days before we finally caught up with the company again. And we had lost 30 guys and 15 vehicles.
Q: Oh, wow.
A: In that. . .
Q: How many – and you had 30 vehicles to start out with, right?
A: Yea.
Q: So you basically went to half – half of your vehicles were lost?
A: Yea, and then we lost 30 – I think there was about 7 or 8 guys in each squad, so . . .we lost, probably, ah, ah, probably a whole platoon, almost, of people.
Q: Ah-huh. Oh, wow.
A: And, ah, anyway, they – they made it through and we went around it. It took us that long. And we finally found them and got back together with them, so we stayed with them all the time.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And then we just kept going south until we got past that thirty-eighth parallel, I guess, and anyway they, ah, the war wasn’t going too good for us.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So then we didn’t know when we was going to get – never had no idea.
Q: Right. Because you guys would get so far and then you’d – you’d fall back so much more. . .
A: Yea. And we kept – we’d have to – I’d have to keep unloading the truck and moving troops and, man, I was about 24 hours a day, you know?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: But every once in a while we’d get in a reserve – what they’d call a reserve – the whole company would, and we could just take it easy and not do anything. We’d play cards and what-have-you.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And that’s where I – I would – I only drew fifteen dollars a month, and I’d play poker and I’d lose it!
Q: (laughter)
A: And one time I’d lost my fifteen dollars and we was in a little tent and I had generator lights going and. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . . this kid was playing and he said, “I’ve got to go to the bathroom. Will you play my hand while I’m gone?” And I said yea. So when he came back I had won! He said, “why, you just keep on playing!” And, ah, me and one other guy ended up with all the money.
Q: Oh, wow!
A: And, ah, and I was getting tired. I wanted to go to bed. I said – I shoved all the money out in the middle and I said, “I’ll play you five-card showdown for the whole works.” And I won it on a pair of gooses.
Q: Wow.
A: And, ah, so the guys split it with me. And so I sent mine home. I’d send money home. Every time I’d win, I’d send it home. (laughter)
Q: Send it home to your parents?
A: Yea. My mother, she took care of my money.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Then I had a camera and I’d take pictures and just send her the film, you know, and she’d have them developed.
Q: Right.
A: Anyway, I found out, ah, I talked to my sister, here, a couple of years ago and. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And she said, “when you was in the service, my mother was scared to death.”
Q: I bet.
A: I said, “well, I was scared, too. . .” but, anyway, she worried about me all the time.
Q: Your mom did?
A: Yea.
Q: Yea.
A: But, anyway, I, and about the time – I think we had got back down into South Korea . . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And I was writing to Vivian back and forth, you know?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: I got a letter that said she was getting married to Bill Jones, my friend. I knew they was going together. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . . before, you know, I started going with her, and I just – so I – when I got out of the basic training and come home she said, “Well, we broke up.”
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And every time I’d come to town they’d just break up. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So, anyway, I just was nuts about her. . .
Q: Yea.
A: . . . she treated me so dang nice, and, ah, when I was stationed up in Fort Lewis, Washington, me and Homer – him and I were always together. He was from Fresno and. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So, we had a three-day pass. We went over to the airport. You used to be able to catch a ride in an airplane, you know, if they was going – because they was going to Atwater there by Ceres.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: So he said, “we’d like to catch a plane to Atwater.” They said, “well, you know, we’d do that, but you gotta have a furlough. You can’t go on a three-day pass.”
Q: (laughter)
A: So we was determined to go to Ceres. So we went out and the Highway 99 went right through Ceres. . .
Q: Oh wow.
A: . . .we hitchhiked.
Q: Oh, my goodness! All the way home?
A: All the way to Modesto – or to Ceres.
Q: Ah-huh.
