Myrick, John
John Myrick: Korean War
Interviewed by Janelle Griffiths (student interview)
Interview date November 11, 2003
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born at Milo, Oklahoma, 1931.
Q: Was the Korean War expected or did the war and the US involvement come as a complete surprise to you?
A: Well, I was – I was in high school, and I had got my notice – got my draft deal to go to, ah, to go take my physical and everything, and, and, I got drafted, so I went to work for the government in the summertime at Tinker Field. Then I got drafted into the Korean War.
Q: And how old were you when the Korean War broke out?
A: I was 18.
Q: 18?
A: No, see, wait – I was 19. I was in high school. 1950 when it broke out, wasn’t it?
Q: Oh yeah.
A: Guess I was about 17 then.
Q: And you in high school at that time.
A: Yeah.
Q: And were you – don’t think you were a World War II veteran.
A: No.
Q: In what branch of the military did you serve?
A: Infantry company – foot soldier.
Q: And what were your personal feelings about going off to war?
A: Well, it’s something you’ve got to do because – because you got drafted. Somebody’s got to do it because they’ll come over here if we don’t help them out over there.
Q: And what were your feelings in regards to communism and the anxieties and tensions it created in the United States?
A: Yeah. What do you mean?
Q: How did you feel, you know, about how people seen communism?
A: They liked freedom. They wanted more freedom. See, over there they didn’t have freedom. Communists didn’t have no freedom like that. And, ah, mostly, we was over there – when I got to Korea it was mostly Chinese people we was fighting then, wasn’t. . .
Q: Oh, it was?
A: Yeah, wasn’t . . .
Q: North Koreans?
A: North Koreans and Chinese.
Q: What were the feelings of your friends and acquaintances about the war?
A: Ah, it was something we had to do.
Q: So no one wasn’t against it?
A: No, we all – soon as they told us what to do, we had to do it. They give you orders and you’re supposed to go do it, so we did it.
Q: So, did all of the people that you knew want to join the military and serve?
A: See, we had some guys that joined the service back then when war broke out. Most of them was draftees – we had draftees and, ah, some of them joined. And, ah, mostly our master sergeants, they really joined, like that, and lieutenants. But the infantry, most of the infantry company was draftees and had a few joined in there. We had – one young guy, oh, he was pretty young, got up there and – if you’re a certain age, they don’t send you up on the front lines. They, ah, if you say – they ask you how old you was – we go up there. . .
Q: So the older people went first?
A: Yeah, (garbled). When I was (garbled) . . .I was 20, so they said, “get on a truck.”
Q: How did you family or wife or girlfriend feel at the time?
A: I don’t know. I was young. I just got out of high school. I was the only one in our family that went to the Korean War. I had an older brother – he had something wrong with him. He got drafted, but he didn’t get to go. He had something wrong with him.
Q: And where did you take your basic training?
A: Camp Rucker, Alabama.
Q: Explain your experiences and expressions of basic training.
A: Well, basic training is what you got to have to keep you alive – (garbled). And it’s rough, but it will keep you alive. Made you go on a 25 mile hike and, ah, bivouac, and basic training is what will keep you alive on the front line. You lean how to stay – how to stay – dig in the ground, dig a foxhole, or dig the bunkers, how to take care of your equipment – your weapon, keep it clean all the time. Stuff like that.
Q: So was it real hard for you?
A: Basic training?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: Yeah, it was rough, but it – it – I know it helped me out. Everything – everything you do in basic training sure helped you out. It’s rough. But you got to have it to stay alive.
Q: After basic training, where did the military send you?
A: After basic training, then I got orders to go to California to Camp (garbled). So I got onto the train, so I went to Seminole and had a, I think, six or seven day delay in route, and I caught trains, then I went to California at San Francisco. My orders was to go to (garbled) Japan (garbled). So I , ah, I got there and I got the flu, and I was in the hospital about a week and the doctor come by and said, “You ready to get out?” I said, “Yeah.” So I got out and so my orders had changed – changed to go to Korea. So. . .
Q: Wow. In what capacity did you serve during the Korean War? What was your duty, your rank, and job.
A: I was – I was a corporal on a mortar gun. And, ah, and I – I was a PFC one week. Next week they, ah, they, ah, made me corporal and I was a gun on a mortar gun, and, ah, and we fired mortar rounds, and, ah, we pulled – we’d go out on patrols with the, with the rifle company to – that takes two mortar squads to go out on patrol because if somebody got hit, we had to get them back in the line.
Q: And in terms of your own experiences in Korea, what kind of conditions did you live and work in?
A: Well, we – we lived, ah, in the wintertime it got 32 below over there. And we built bunkers out of logs and dug in the ground because they could take a direct hit. We got digging bunkers and put a roll log on, another row of sandbags, another row of logs, and we lived underground and had these trenches. It was cold, and, once in a while we had to go out on patrol and come back. And in the springtime it rained. It was monsoon season?
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And we was in this valley one time and they come back and told us to get out of this valley because monsoon season was coming and when it – water would come down through there like a river. So we all had to get out of the valley. It’s cold – it’s a cold country in wintertime over there.
Q: If you feel comfortable talking about combat, can you describe the combat experiences you had, if any?
A: Oh, yeah, I had some, but I don’t want to talk too much about it.
Q: OK, that’s fine.
A: Yeah, we got attacked one night. We, ah, we was on blocking position and they sent us up on the line and we counter-attacked last night. And we got up there, I don’t know what time it was, but we got off the hill about five. We lost our captain and lost all of our lieutenants and just – I think about 40 of us left that next day.
Q: What was your most memorable experience in Korea?
A: What do you mean?
Q: It could be just – I guess – probably means – I guess what’s the most you remember out of Korea, like what would be the one thing that you would just. . .
A: That you like or something there?
Q: Yeah.
A: Oh, ah, I know a lot, like, there was rivers and streams and a lot – a lot of pine trees. There was pine trees over there and over there you didn’t see no snakes because the weather’s too cold! You see a lot of pheasants and a lot of deer. And we had a guy – after the war ended over there, one killed a deer and took it back and we had it cooked. Koreans thought it was awful to eat deer.
Q: They thought it was awful?
A: Yeah. There was a lot of deer over in there.
Q: Wow. How has that particular experience, like, impacted your life, just being in the Korean War?
A: You know, (garbled). I went ahead and I just – I went to come back from Korean War and went back to work for the government as an aircraft mechanic, and, ah, I worked in TDR. We, ah, investigated crash jobs - take an engine and tear it all down and see what made it crash or what made an airplane crash and stuff like that. Take ah – take an engine and see who put more hours on it or less hours on it. That’s what I did for the government.
Q: Oh. What kind of contact did you have with the people back home? What kind of correspondence did the military permit to, like, get in contact with your family?
A: Oh, letter writing. I wrote my momma letters. And my wife, I usually wrote her letters. Wrote letters. Didn’t cost nothing to mail it over there. Everything was free – letters.
Q: That’s good. How long did you serve in Korea?
A: See, I went over there in, ah, April – see, ah, in the infantry company – I was in the service two years. But in the infantry company on the front line, you get 36 points a month. When you get your 36 points a month, you get to come home. So I was over there and I had 30-something points when the war ended. And after the war ended, they sent us home.
Q: After serving in Korea, where did the military send you, or were you immediately discharged?
A: Well, I was discharged at Camp Rucker, I mean, not Camp Rucker, Colorado Springs – Camp Carson, Colorado Springs. That’s where I got discharged at. I was up there, see, I think it was one month, or a month and a half before I got discharged. Because we got out early because – they let us out early. I was supposed to went to August, but we got out in April, discharged.
Q: April?
A: You – you got a chance to re-enlist or, so I didn’t want to re-enlist, because I wanted to go back and work for the government. And, ah, last year, because I didn’t finish high school, ah, last year, I got my high school diploma.
Q: Wow! That’s good!
A: I went down – went down and talked to the principal and he said, yeah. I lacked a couple of credits getting finished, so, and so, he, ah, took my discharge and stuff like that and got my – it’s out there in the car – my high school diploma.
Q: Wow, that’s nice! After all those years, too.
A: Yeah.
Q: I mean, you’ve been through so much, you. . .
A: They went through – the governor – the last governor passed a law that you could – if you’d been in the service – what’s his name, ah . . .he passed a deal that anybody in the military didn’t get to finish school that they – they could – I can’t think of his name right now. I knew it right and left.
Q: Was it in this state?
A: Yeah, this state, yeah.
Q: Ah, what year?
(Myrick asks someone else in the house what the governor’s name was.)
A: Keating! Yeah, he was the one that passed that law that you could go back to the school and get your high school diploma. I couldn’t think of his name!
Q: I couldn’t either!
A: Went blank.
Q: Yeah. What kind of reception did you receive when you came back to the United States? How did people treat you?
A: Well, they had a band waiting for us when we got off the ship. And they loaded us on buses and took us down to a big cafeteria and fed us all steak dinners and everything. After we got through eating, then they gave us the orders and had airplanes waiting for us to fly us to – fly us to Colorado Springs. They treated us good. When we got off the ship they had a band waiting there for us. And loaded us on these buses and took us to a big – big consolidated mess hall and fed us all big dinners and everything and. . .
Q: That’s good.
A: We come back on the ship – the USS Gordon, it was – and 18 days – 15 days to get back. It cost – it takes 18 days to go over.
Q: Wow.
A: It was a troop-carrier ship.
Q: It was?
A: It had air force and GIs on it.
Q: If indeed, you experienced the horrors of war, how did that experience affect your relationship with your family and your girlfriend or your wife?
A: No way. No way at all.
Q: Do you still keep in touch with those people you served with?
A: No, (garbled). They was all out of different states. They was out of – they was out of Wyoming, Utah – I was the only one from Oklahoma, I think, in my outfit.
Q: The only one from Oklahoma!
A: I had a – had a guy I went to high school with, he was in artillery. He’s from Oklahoma. He’d be back in the back. I – when we went to basic training all them other guys went to different bases. I went to different bases.
Q: What kinds of general things did you see and conclusions do you have about the Korean War and your Korean War experience? Like, what conclusions do you have about it and what kinds of things did you see?
A: What do you mean?
Q: I guess, what kinds of general observations and conclusions do you have about the Korean War – I guess it means what was the big picture that you got from your experience?
A: Ah, big picture experience – growing up, I guess. I don’t know. It was something I had to do.
Q: And so that made you mature more quickly, right?
A: Yeah.
