Porter, Bill
Bill Porter: Korean War
Interviewed By: Terry Gust (Midwest City Rotary Club Interview)
Interview Date: March 29, 2004
Q: How are you today, Bill?
A: Well, I’m doing fine up to this point.
Q: See, now you thought you could answer them all “yes” or “no” and I stumped you right off the bat, didn’t I? (laughter). Alright, the first question is when an where were you born?
A: Well, I remember that (laughter).
Q: You were there, right?
A: Yea, my mother and a medical doctor, I remember. I was born December 27, 1933 in a little place called Enterprise, Tennessee. Quite enterprising.
Q: That’s neat! Now let’s see, question number 2 is, when did people first begin thinking that the US might get involved in Korea, if you know?
A: Actually, I wasn’t concerned about that at the time.
Q: Let me see, you would have been in – about 1950 you would have been, what, 17?
A: Sixteen years old, actually. I had just turned 16, I think.
Q: Sixteen years old.
A: I turned 16 in ’49.
Q: So, do you have any answer? Do you have any memory?
A: Actually, I don’t have any memory. I know some of the history.
Q: Well, this is “when did people first being thinking” – like in your family. Did you . . .
A: Oh, I doubt that my family even considered it.
Q: Now were you still living in Tennessee at that time?
A: Right, ah-huh.
Q: And, so national conflicts weren’t big in your . . .
A: They weren’t big at all, in fact, ah, there was nothing real big! (laughter)
Q: Well, when did you first learn about Korea at all?
A: Actually, I first learned about Korea when I got my orders. I didn’t even think about it when I got my orders to go there.
Q: So what did you do . . .
A: Because the orders were printed – they just said “Far East.” Nobody knew where we were going.
Q: Well, but we’re skipping a beat here now. You didn’t join the military when you were 16, did you?
A: Oh, no, no, no! I joined the military when I was, ah, 19.
Q: Alright, let me get back to the questionnaire, then. Was the war expected or did the war and the US involvement come as a complete surprise to you?
A: Yes, it came as a complete surprise.
Q: You never even heard of Korea?
A: Ah, probably not. I doubt it. Of course, that’s been 50 years ago.
Q: Well, I know, you’re an old guy and have trouble remembering what you ate yesterday, right?
A: Yea, I probably knew about it, you know what I mean. . .
Q: But it was pretty much a surprise?
A: Yea, it was not something that was a great, ah, conversation, you know, at that time.
Q: Just kind of came about. Alright.
A: What is a foreign war when you’re 16 years old?
Q: How old would have been when the war broke out?
A: Ah, it broke out in ’50, so, see I had just turned 16.
Q: No, 1950, you’d have been . . .
A: Yea, but I turned 16 in 1949 . . .
Q: What’s your birthday?
A: Ah, December . . .
Q: December . . .
A: So I had just turned 16. The war probably broke out about June of 1950.
Q: Alright. So at that time you’d have been 16, OK.
A: Sixteen years old on my way to 17.
Q: Alright. And you weren’t in the military when you were 16?
A: No, huh-ah. Hadn’t even considered the military.
Q: You were still in high school, right?
A: Yes, still enjoying myself.
Q: Yes! So, you weren’t a World War II veteran?
A: No, no. Too young for that.
Q: So, it says, if you weren’t in the military, were you drafted or enlisted? What happened there?
A: Well, you know it’s kind of interesting, ah, I had a friend in the little town that I lived in, and I knew I was going to be drafted, and he knew he was going to be drafted because in fact, we were getting to the point where we knew (emphasized) we were going to be drafted.
Q: Now you’d have been what, 18?
A: Ah, you know, I was 19 then because I had just – well, now wait just a minute, that was ’53. Ah, no it was ’52. I joined in ’52.
Q: You joined in ’52 and you were 18 then?
A: Let me think a little bit on it. Ah, I can’t remember whether I was . . .
Q: Stumping the . . .
A: It must have been ’53 when I joined. Yea, January of ’53. Yea, that’s when it was January of ’53 was when I joined.
Q: It was?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: And you said you knew you were going to get drafted, so instead of being drafted, you . . .
A: Yea, I didn’t want to go into the army or the marines, you know.
Q: So what did you do?
A: I joined the air force!
Q: Alright. Where did you go enlist?
A: Where did I go enlist?
Q: Yea.
A: Ah, I think I enlisted – well, you know, I may have gone to Nashville.
Q: So, let’s see, you graduated from high school in 1952.
A: ’52, yea.
Q: And then after high school, did you have a job, or what was going on?
A: Oh, yes, yes. In fact, I worked the full time I was in high school.
Q: Oh, you did?
A: Yea. I worked as soda jerk. At the time that I, ah, joined the military, I was working for a guy that owned a large store there in the little town I was in. . .
Q: You were a store clerk of some kind?
A: Oh, yea, yea. He had a huge store. Sold anything and everything.
Q: Alright, so, fearing that you were going to get drafted, you joined the – you enlisted into the air force.
A: Right, enlisted in the air force.
Q: And you stayed in the air force the whole time?
A: Four years. That was it. An obligation of eight years at that time – four years active duty . .
Q: And four years of reserve?
A: And four years in reserve, ah-huh.
Q: OK, getting back to our questionnaire here, what were your personal feelings about going off to war and what were your feelings in regards to communism and the anxieties and tensions it created in the United States? Well, that’s about six questions, isn’t it? So, first of all, what were your feelings about off to war?
A: Well, if I had known I was, I would have been scared to death!
Q: You did know that . . .
A: All I knew was that on the orders is said Far East, you know, that could have been Japan.
Q: So you didn’t know . . .
A: No.
Q: And so when did you know you were going to this war area?
A: After I got to Japan, you know, processing center.
Q: Well, you knew there was a war going on?
A: Yea, after – yea, but, ah, I didn’t think I was going to Korea, you know. . .
Q: You didn’t think you were going to the war? Even though we had a war going on for two years with Korea? (laughter) You didn’t put two and two together?
A: I wasn’t concerned about it.
Q: Well, you were from Tennessee, weren’t you? (laughing)
A: That’s exactly right!
Q: So, the second part of this question is what were your feelings in regard to communism – do you remember back then?
A: Oh, oh yea, I remember very well that communism was kind of like a bad deal. Bad policy.
Q: Alright, so then . . .and the anxieties and tensions it created in the United States?
A: Well, you know, when you think of communism, I think of the Soviet Union, you know, primarily, and so, they were involved in supporting North Korea when the conflict started in 1950.
Q: OK, or the Chinese?
A: Yea, the Chinese and the Soviet Union supported them.
Q: Yea, the Chinese and Russians didn’t like each other, did they?
A: Yea, yea. They had problems with each other.
Q: Yea. But at any rate, did the people you know – your friends and acquaintances feel the same way?
A: Well, I’m sure they did.
Q: You have specific memories of that, or . . .
A: Not specifically.
Q: OK, but pretty much your thinking is that the whole country was very anti-communistic at the time.
A: Oh, absolutely. In fact, if we thought of a communist, we thought of – let’s shoot him! I mean that’s a bad attitude, but . . .
Q: Was it that way when you were in high school, or when did that first come about?
A: I don’t really know.
Q: You know, we had been allies with the Russians in World War II, so. . .
A: Yea, yea.
Q: So when did that shift come over?
A: I always think of communism as a bad thing, you know, not something you want to be a part of.
Q: So, but you don’t have any distinct memories of, like, one day all of a sudden it was bad?
A: No, no.
Q: Just kind of following on the TV or the radio. . .
A: No, traditional upbringing, I imagine, you know.\
Q: OK, well it couldn’t have been tradition – it didn’t even exist for a while there. . .alright, now. Did all the people you knew want to join the military and serve? I guess this would be classmates, what-not.
A: Ah, I really don’t know. You know, there was no, ah, ah, reservations about serving, I don’t think. At that time, there didn’t seem to be, you know, as compared to later years, the younger people . . .
Q: So, people . . .
A: Well, they weren’t protesting and all. . . .
Q: But you didn’t want to get drafted, so you weren’t crazy about serving, were you?
A: Well, I just wanted to be sure that I served the right place!
Q: You didn’t want to be on the ground in Korea with a rifle in your hand, is that it? (laughing)
A: But I did that, though. I didn’t plan it that way.
Q: You didn’t want to do that?
A: No!
Q: So I assume that a lot of other people weren’t crazy about going to Korea and fighting.
A: I’m pretty sure they were, you know. Hardly anybody would just tell you . . .
Q: Never even heard of . . .
A: Nobody was like Kerry, you know, “give me the front line!”
Q: So this wasn’t like, from what you had heard about World War II – where everybody was really gung-ho?
A: That’s true. I don’t think it was.
Q: How did your family feel, or your girlfriend, how did they feel?
A: You know, that’s kind of interesting. My dad – it was the first time I was leaving home, and he said – I left home early in the morning and, ah, they had just eaten breakfast and he just got up and shook my hand and said, “I really don’t know what to tell you or anything like that, but more or less just to take care of yourself and do the right thing,” you know, that sort of thing.
Q: So, he wasn’t gung-ho about “go get those communists. . .” or “go get those . . .”
A: No, no, nothing like that.
Q: So it was like doing your patriotic . . .
A: Girlfriend? I lost my girlfriend! (laughing)
Q: She really didn’t like you going, huh?
A: She was anxious to get rid of me, I think!
Q: But she wasn’t worried for you or any . . . or it wasn’t that close of a relationship?
A: Ah, not, not as I know of.
Q: OK. Where did you go to basic training?
A: San Antonio, Texas, where they still do, you know.
Q: Where is that, Fort Sam Houston?
A: No, it’s ah, Lackland Air Force Base. I guess it’s still Lackland Air Force Base.
Q: Explain your experiences and impressions of basic training.
A: Ah, you know, I was kind of disappointed in it. It was more like the boy scouts than it was anything else. I mean it was very . . .
Q: Wasn’t real tough on you?
A: No, not at all.
Q: Not a lot of exercising?
A: No, I thought it would be real rough, you know, but it really wasn’t.
Q: So they didn’t overdo the exercise?
A: Oh, not at all.
Q: It wasn’t as difficult as . . .
A: You know – no, basically all they did was teach you how to march, you know.
Q: Did they – was this the picture of where you see the sergeant screaming at people?
A: Oh, yea, we had that.
Q: You did have that?
A: Yea.
Q: That didn’t make an impression on you, huh?
A: Yea, it did, but in fact. . .
Q: But they did do that – the drill instructors would scream at you and . . .
A: Oh, they would get right in your – nose to nose, you know, and really lay it on you strong.
Q: But you didn’t mind that, apparently.
A: Yea, I minded it, but nevertheless, it was still easy.
Q: Alright.
A: When I think of hard, I think of, ah, real stringent – like combat duty and that sort of training. We didn’t have a lot of that sort of training.
Q: No running through – underneath barbed wire . . .
A: Oh, we did some, but nothing that. I can remember one time. . .
Q: Did you shoot guns?
A: Oh, yea.
Q: Throw hand grenades?
A: No, no hand grenades. We did the gas chamber, you know . . .
Q: Did you backpacks and take 20 mile walks?
A: Oh, nothing like that. I remember one time. . .
Q: This is the air force, right? And this I why you picked the air force?
A: This is the air force!.
Q: Well, now after you got through with the basic training, where did the military send you?
A: Ah, I went to school at Scott Field, Illinois.
Q: What did you learn?
A: Ah, they taught me administrative duties, like classification specialist and records keeping and this sort of thing for military.
Q: How long was basic training?
A: Ah, I don’t remember. Probably January and February.
Q: A month or two?
A: Yea, probably January and February.
Q: Two months.
A: Yea, probably.
Q: And then you went to this school in Illinois for how long?
A: For a very short period of time – well, see I left to go to Korea in, ah, June, so . . .
Q: So a couple of months in school, then you went to . . .
A: Yea, two or three months in school. Well, I think they gave us, yea, I took off from the school and went home a short time before I left to go to Korea.
Q: Now, did you actually go to Korea or did you spend it all in Japan?
A: No, I actually went to Korea.
Q: So you went to Japan, and then from there. . . .
A: See, the process – you go to San – actually Oakland, California. . .
Q: Yes.
A: And then we got on a ship – a terrible ship!
Q: Didn’t like that, huh?
A: No. And, and went all the way to Japan where there was a processing center.
Q: That take you a couple of weeks to sail over there?
A: Yea, a long time. In fact we were – let me tell you this – we were out to sea three days and they ceased fire in Korea. . .
Q: Oh! So you’re through! Good news for you, huh?
A: They could have turned around and went back home, you know, they heard I was coming.
Q: But they didn’t do that?
A: They ceased fire. . .
Q: But they didn’t send you straight back home?
A: They didn’t turn around a go back home, no. In fact, we spent some time in Japan before we flew over – they flew us over to Korea.
Q: From Japan?
A: Yea. In fact, I got on that plane and it was the first plane I ever got on where they had parachutes, and I said, “Hey, what’s wrong with this plane? I haven’t been used to putting parachutes on?”
Q: You didn’t want that, did you? (laughing) So what was your – so there’s a cease fire going on. . .
A: Yea.
Q: What’s your rank at this time?
A: Oh, just one stripe.
Q: So what would that be, corporal?
A: No, it’d be – they called it an airman first class at the time, or private – whatever.
Q: And then, ah, by July you are actually in Korea?
A: Ah, yea.
Q: What city?
A: Well, see, we landed in Seoul.
Q: Alright.
A: And I was stationed just north of Seoul in Kimpo, just right south of the demilitarized zone. We were very close to the front lines.
Q: And so did you – what was your duty?
A: Ah, I worked at squadron level where I took care of the records – the military records.
Q: How many people in a squadron?
A: Very small squadron – it was a communications squadron. It supported communications for the base.
Q: And this would be. . .
A: A hundred people or so, not very many.
Q: And you kept records for this hundred people?
A: Yes.
Q: And in terms of your own experience in Korea, under what kind of conditions did you live and work?
A: Well, you know, it was good conditions for where we were.
Q: Were you in a tent?
A: Yea, we lived in tents, but the tents weren’t just a tent, you know. They had wood floors. They had wood walls and screens around them and then the tent was just the canopy over the top of the building.
Q: Now you’re there in the summertime.
A: Yea, we got there in July and until . . .
Q: How long did you stay there?
A: Well, we actually spent 10 months in Korea because it’s a one-year. . .
Q: So you did live in this tent in the winter?
A: Oh, yea, yea. Oh, it snowed and everything.
Q: It was cold, wasn’t it?
A: Oh, no, it wasn’t bad at all. We had two heaters in there – oil heaters.
Q: Oh, OK. So you weren’t uncomfortable in the tent?
A: Oh, no, it was very nice conditions.
Q: So what about your food?
A: Ah, it was good food.
Q: Alright. Better than Tennessee?
A: Oh, yea! (laughing) We had food – I’d never been used to – fact is, ah, when Korea – I, by coincidence, there was a guy there that I went to school with in my home town. And he was the mess sergeant of the officer’s club, and I could eat good if I wanted to.
Q: So you did? (laughing) And I assume that you had all the clothing that you needed and that type of thing?
A: Oh, yea, actually, it was good.
Q: So all the creature comforts were just fine?
A: Oh, yea.
Q: So, what kind of contact did you have with the people back home?
A: Just by mail. You know, we didn’t have a cellular phone then.
Q: No, but you didn’t have any trouble receiving mail?
A: Not at all.
Q: And any trouble writing the mail?
A: Not at all.
Q: And was it censored?
A: I don’t really know that. It probably wasn’t.
Q: Yea, because it was already a cease fire, right?
A: Yea.
Q: But it was kind of a hot cease fire, wasn’t it?
A: Oh, yea, yea. We still had some – we still had alerts. We still had alerts, like, you know, they had them by colors, you know, like a red alert, and I don’t remember the other colors.
Q: Did you see any combat?
A: Not at all – well, I did. I did see some combat. I put on boxing gloves with my supply sergeant!
Q: (laughing) You’re making this sound like the “M.A.S.H.” television show there!
A: That’s the only combat. . .
Q: But you didn’t actually have people invade the camp. . .
A: Not at all.
Q: During the year or 10 months over there it was pretty calm?
A: Yea. Pretty calm. It would stink like everything.
Q: What would stink?
A: The whole country did, you know, it smelled terrible to me.
Q: Why?
A: Of Korea.
Q: How did it smell?
A: Ah, like manure. The rice paddies there, they used manure, you know, for fertilizer, the little old base we were on was just surrounded by them.
Q: Oh, so it literally stunk like manure because they were using it for fertilizer?
A: Yea, ah-huh.
Q: But, I mean if you went to other parts of the country it wasn’t that way?
A: Well, you know, we were free to go wherever we wanted to, actually. Ah, and we’d go to Seoul and places like that. But, ah, Seoul, see had been bombed terrible. I mean it was just nothing. And just poor beggars and that sort of thing. Ah, it smelled bad, too.
Q: So, did you have to spend the 10 months there straight, or did you get some time off to go. . . .
A: Well, we got an R&R to go to Japan one time, and, in fact, my base commander had flew me over to Japan to a bal game one night, you know. . .
Q: What kind of ballgame? Baseball?
A: No, basketball.
Q: Well, that’s nice.
A: Yea, we worked in the same office, you know, so . . .
Q: So, you didn’t – military correspondence wasn’t a problem?
A: Not at all. In fact, I thought it was a pretty easy deal, you know.
Q: OK, but you said something about carrying a rifle earlier and being on the ground?
A: Well, yea.
Q: What was that about?
A: In fact we had a – in the office that I worked in – the tent that – we kept the carbines for the guys that were on guard duty, ah, set up in there with live ammunition. (laughing) I’ll tell you a funny one. My base commander, you know, his office is in there, and so he walks over one day to check the carbines. . .
Q: Yes?
A: And he looks down the barrel of one and he turns it up and flips it open and a live shell fell out – BOY! I mean you talk about scaring him? He said “Whose carbine is this?” (laughter)
Q: The safety officer wasn’t doing his job, was he? (laughing)
A: But we had alerts, you know, like we’d put on our back pack and the carbines and we’d go out around the base at certain places . . .
Q: With your helmet on?
A: Oh, yea. All that heavy stuff.
Q: Alright. And was that incident with the carbine your most memorable experience in Korea?
A: (laughs) I remember that!
Q: Anything else that sticks out in your mind?
A: I’m sure that, ah, the, ah, officer that did that kind of remembers it, too!
Q: Any other memorable experiences there?
A: Well, I got voted, ah, airman of the year one time.
Q: In Korea?
A: Yea. For the base.
Q: For the base.
A: But I didn’t make it over all the other guys!
Q: What does that mean?
A: That means that each squadron, see, has – each month they’d send up a name of somebody that had done well. . .
Q: So there’s like 10 squadrons on the base?
A: Oh, yea. See, we had a lot – in fact the base was separated – one side was reconnaissance and one said was, ah, - my side was reconnaissance and I forgot what the other . . .
Q: What was the name of the . . .
A: The other side was a fighter base.
Q: What was the name of your base?
A: Ah, Kimpo. Kimpo, Korea. They were known by K-numbers and it was K-2, I think.
Q: So your base was called K-2?
A: I believe that’s correct.
Q: And what was your unit?
A: Well, it was known by squadron. The 67th Communications Squadron.
Q: With? Is there a division or corps?
A: No, that’s the way you’d identify it.
Q: For the entire air force?
A: No, no, no.
Q: So if you went from the top, the United States Air Force, Eighth Air Force. . .
A: Oh, I see what you’re saying. You know, I’m not sure what that was under. See, and this may getting ahead of us a little bit, but when I came back from Korea, I went down to – I was stationed at Roswell, New Mexico where the Strategic Air Command – that’s what you’re talking about. . . .
Q: Right.
A: The Strategic Air Command had several bases around the . . .
Q: So you don’t know what command you were under . . .
A: No, I don’t remember that. I could probably – I’ve got an old annual, you know, base annual. I could probably find that out.
Q: The only thing you identified with was the fact that it was a 67th . . .
A: Communications Squadron. As well as I remember. I don’t remember the . . .
Q: The next unit above that?
A: Tactical – some kind of tactical unit or something, I forgot.
Q: OK. Alright. So you’re there 10 months, and after you were there you still had more time to do in the air force?
A: Oh, yea, had four years you had to make up.
Q: So you had another three years to go?
A: Well, actually I came back from there, and, of course, I probably went on a 30-day leave, and then I went to Roswell, New Mexico.
Q: When did you get out of the air force?
A: Ah, 1957 – January 31, 1957.
Q: Alright. Then they want to know when you got back from Korea what kind of reception did you receive when you got back to the United States?
A: Ah, “so you’re home.”
Q: What?
A: “So you’re here – so what?”!
Q: They didn’t have any giant parade – I’m sure your folks were glad you were back, right?
A: Well, they probably were. They probably were.
Q: And, since it kind of was a win nor a loss, it was kind of neutral. . .
A: Yea, kind of neutral, yea, no big deal.
Q: Nobody’s throwing stuff at you, but nobody was throwing you parades?
A: I can’t even remember anybody having any great questions about where I’d been, you know? It was like, “Oh, you’ve been someplace?” (laughing)
Q: OK! In terms or your war experiences, how did those experiences affect – if at all – your relations and interactions with your family, friends, spouse, and/or girlfriend? You already said you lost your girlfriend, so. . . .
A: Oh, yea, but that was a good deal, though, because I got a good wife in the process.
Q: So, in terms of your war experiences, did this have any affect on your relations or interactions with your family?
A: Oh, I wouldn’t think so, no. It was just a good experience in life for anybody to be involved in the military, especially if they need a little discipline or that sort of thing.
Q: You keep in touch with any of the people you served with?
A: Not now. No.
Q: You did for a while?
A: I can’t remember keeping any contact with anyone that I served with in Korea. I kept some contact for a little while with people that I served in Roswell, New Mexico.
Q: Do you have any general observations or conclusions about the Korean War or your war experience?
A: Well, you know, Korea is a bad deal even today, with the North Koreans and the South Koreans – both of them wanting to claim the whole country, you know. And the North Koreans being communists. But, you know, I don’t know whether you know it or not, but, ah, Korea was the first war that the United Nations got involved in.
Q: Right.
A: And lost a lot of people – it was the bloodiest war we ever had. Fortunately I was there after it had all taken place, but . . .
Q: Now why do you say bloodiest?
A: Huh?
Q: Why do you say bloodiest?
A: All the people that were lost and that sort of thing?
Q: We lost about 40,000 people.
A: Oh, no, according to history, ah, there was – maybe us, but I’m talking about all together. The civilians . .
Q: You’re talking about the Koreans?
A: Civilians – yea, military and everything. And also. . . .
Q: Well, you don’t think they lost more people in Russia during World War II?
A: According to history they did.
Q: They lost 20 million alone in World War II.
A: Twenty what?
Q: Million.
A: Twenty million?
Q: Yes. The Germans lost 5 million; the English lost 5 million.
A: Well, see I just read some history on it. It said it was the bloodiest war ever fought.
Q: No, not even close. Thank God it wasn’t close!
A: I always thought about World War II being the worst. . .
Q: Oh, it’s by far the worst, yea.
A: Not only that, but . . .
Q: In terms of the total number of dead. . . .
A: Just think of the technology and stuff they didn’t have then.
Q: Oh, especially, yea.
A: Just look at the technology we have not, you know, they just sit and press a button. . .
Q: And they don’t miss, either. That old air force got pretty accurate, didn’t they?
A: Yea, they did!
Q: They can put one through that door there, now!
A: That’s really something.
Q: So, anything else about your Korean War experience that you . . .
A: I just felt sorry for the people there, you know. It was a sad deal.
Q: A lot of tragedy in that situation.
A: Oh, man, yea. And people, you know, around that base, they lived in little old huts, you know, there was nothing.
Q: But the military that you served with – the guys were alright? They were proud and . . .
A: Oh, yea. You know, I didn’t really hear a lot of grumbling. It was pretty much a good camaraderie situation, and everybody just did their job and seemed to be pretty happy.
Q: You didn’t – you knew earlier in that war, of course, that we had been pushed almost off the peninsula at one time and there was a lot of grumbling about prisoners of war and that kind of thing.
A: Oh, yea.
Q: You didn’t meet any of those guys?
A: Oh, no, no.
Q: OK, well I guess that’s all we have.
