Rogers, Will
Will Rogers: Korean War
Interviewed by James Kriwanek (student interview)
Interview date October 23, 2003
Q: When and where were you born?
A: Schulter, Oklahoma.
Q: And was the Korean War expected, or did the war and US involvement come as a complete surprise?
A: Well, you might say it come as a surprise because I was real young at the time, you know.
Q: Yeah. OK. How old were you when the Korean War broke out?
A: Um, 17, I think.
Q: OK. Were you in the military at the time?
A: No, well, I was in the Oklahoma National Guard.
Q: Were you a World War II vet?
A: No.
Q: If you were not already in the military, were you drafted or did you enlist?
A: Well, I was in the national guard – Oklahoma National Guard.
Q: In what branch of the military were you? You were in the national guard?
A: Yeah.
Q: What were your personal feelings about going off to war?
A: Didn’t bother me one bit. I wasn’t worried about nothing. I was real young at the time and anxious for – what do you call it? Going somewhere! Yeah.
Q: What were your feelings in regards to communism and the anxieties and tensions it created in the United States?
A: Well, I didn’t pay too much attention to that right at the first, you know. Until I came back from Korea, you know.
Q: What were the feelings of your friends and acquaintances about the war?
A: They was all just like me. They was just young kinds, you know. And ah, out for going off, getting out of town, going somewhere, you know.
Q: Just something to do?
A: Something to do, ah-huh.
Q: Yeah. Did all of the people that you knew want to join the military and serve?
A: There was 85 from Henrietta that was in the national guard down there and we all went together.
Q: Really. How did you family, wife, or girlfriend feel at the time?
A: Well, my mom, she didn’t say much, and my dad, he didn’t say much, either. They just – I just went, you know.
Q: Yeah. Where did you undertake basic training at?
A: Camp Polk, Louisiana.
Q: Explain your experiences and impressions of basic training.
A: Well, I had most of my training before I went down there, and, ah, I was just young, you know, just out for – what do you call it – having a good time?
Q: Yeah.
A: Really, nothing bothered me, you know.
Q: After basic training, where did the military send you?
A: Ah, well, I took a short basic there and then they sent me to Fort Riley, Kansas, to school up there. And then, ah, I came back and I guess later on we shipped out. I couldn’t go – I couldn’t go with the division when it went because I was underage. I was just 17. And you can’t go overseas until you’re 18, and I spent my 18th birthday one day out of San Francisco. (laughing)
Q: In what capacity did you serve during the Korean War?
A: What?
Q: Like your duty, rank, and so on.
A: I was a truck driver over there. Ah-huh. Got to go a lot of places, see a lot places, do a lot of things. Seen the country.
Q: What was your rank when you went over there?
A: I was a private.
Q: And so what was your MOS? Do you remember what your MOS was?
A: Ah, well, I had, I remember was 0114, I think that was a mechanic, but I can’t remember what the truck driver was. I believe the mechanic was 0114, I’m not for sure on that.
Q: In terms of your experience in Korea, what kind of conditions did you live and work in?
A: Oh, me, you name it and I was in it. Ah, I lived in bunkers. I lived in my truck, slept across the seat, slept in the back of it. Ah, and, ah, ah, I don’t know, just generally surviving, you know. Wherever we was at, that’s where I slept at during the night, you know.
Q: Yeah.
A: Ah-huh.
Q: If you feel comfortable talking about combat, please describe the combat experiences you had, if any.
A: I had a bunch of combat experience, ah, being a truck driver. I got to – I got to go up on the front lines all the time and I got to stay – when I got up there, I’d just stay there until they needed me and then I’d go back, you know. I got to sit in the bunkers and watch what was going on through the field glasses, you know, and I was real nosey about stuff like that, you know.
Q: Yeah.
A: In the radio room, I sat in there and listened to that, you know, and I just had a good time while I was there, you know. Nothing bothered me. I wasn’t – I’ve often wondered, ah, ah, we done a lot of night driving going up to the front lines hauling supplies up there. And, ah, running black-out, you know. And a lot of times I’d go by myself, you know, ‘cause I knew the road and I’d been over it a million times and I often wondered how many times that my life was in danger going up there doing that.
Q: Yeah.
A: Yeah. I’ve often wondered that. Didn’t both me then!
Q: Kind of look back and think of different things?
A: Yeah, I look back and think about it, and, ah, I just imagine that my life was in danger a lot of times.
Q: Yeah. What was your most memorable experience in Korea, combat or otherwise?
A: Oh, we were moving the regiment off the front lines back to regimental reserve, and, ah, anyway, it was the 279th, and it took a couple of days to do that and it was raining while we was a-doing it. And I was one of the last vehicles to unload to go back to my company area after we got them all moved. And we had to go down through this creek. Had to ford this creek and they had – engineers had stakes where we could see of a nighttime, you know, in the blackout. And they had stakes with little flags on top of it where we could just stay in the middle of that and not get off to the side, you know. And, anyway, whenever I unloaded about 2:00 in the night, I – I – I turned around and started back to my company area, running blackout, and when I got down to this creek, I just, you know, drove off in it following them stakes, and when I got out in the middle there wasn’t no stakes! And, ah, anyway, all of a sudden, well, the engineers had been taking gravel out of the creek bed, and that truck nosed off in one of them.
Q: Oh, no!
A: Yeah, and the bows on the top – I didn’t have a top on it, you know – and anyway, I crawled up through the back of the truck there and was hanging on that back bow trying to see what was going on and, and I had a .45 that I carried with me, ah, ah, for my weapon, you know. Ah, anyway, I stood up there and that water was running pretty good, you know, and it was a raining right down and I said, “Man, I’m just stuck out here,” you know. And I – pretty soon I pulled that .45 out and I shot about three or four rounds off in the air, you know. Nothing happened. And I short one more round off. Pretty soon way off in the distance I heard, “Sergeant of the Guard, post number 3.” And, anyway, whenever everybody got down there, why, I guess they heard my shots, and I run off another one, you know. Well, they knew what general area it was, you know. . .
Q: Yeah.
A: And they come out there a-looking for me in a boat. Come out there – you know, I was a hollering about that time and I knew they was over there, you know. And, anyway, they come out there looking for me and they put me in that boat and took me to the shore, you know. And the next morning my company there – this Dana Powell, this guy here (showing a photo), he lives in Henrietta, he, ah, he worked as a mechanic in a maintenance section.
Q: Yeah.
A: And we had a wrecker, you know. So he brought that wrecker up there and pulled that truck out of that water, you know, and hauled it back to the company area and he – he dried it out, man, and in about three days I was driving it again! (laughing)
Q: Has that experience impacted your life?
A: No, no, it hasn’t. It’s just something to look back on, you know, as just memories, you know.
Q: Yeah.
A: Just old memories, you know.
Q: OK. What kind of contact did you have with people back home, what kind of correspondence?
A: Ah, I wrote my mother, ah, ah, about twice a week and she kept up with me pretty much there. She used to send me cookies and all kinds of stuff through the mail, you know. And, ah, whenever I’d write her something, why she’d, ah, call the paper there at Henrietta and they’d, ah, they’d print a short subject about I had wrote, you know.
Q: The correspondence that you had, did the military only permit a certain amount or did they just. . .
A: The military never said nothing, you know. There wasn’t no, ah, there wasn’t nothing ever said about what we could send back or what we could talk about or anything, you know.
Q: OK.
A: I guess there was a cap on it, you know, if they’d have knew you was doing it, you know. . .
Q: Yeah.
A: But as far as that, nobody ever done anything or said anything.
Q: OK. How long did you serve in Korea?
A: Um. Well, I didn’t serve very long. About seven months, I think.
Q: Seven months?
A: Yeah. We was on a two-year call-up and, and my time was getting near, you know. . .
Q: Yeah.
A: And I had to come back home.
Q: Do you remember what months you were over there?
A: Ah, I got over there in, ah, you might say, just a day or two after Christmas, and stayed till July.
Q: That was in 19. . .?
A: Ah, ’52.
Q: 52?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: OK. That was ’52 in December or ’51?
A: Well, it was ’51 in December, and then it got into ’52, you know, and went on. . .
Q: OK. After serving in Korea, where did the military send you or were you immediately discharged?
A: Ah, I was sent – sent home through Seattle, Washington back to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and immediately discharged – or released from active duty. I was still in the reserves. Yeah.
Q: OK. What kind of reception did you receive when you got back to the United States?
A: Oh, man, that was a big one, there! We, ah, we come down the Puget Sound during the daytime on that troop ship and, ah, everybody was on the deck, looking, you know. And whenever we got the Port of Seattle there, ah, they wouldn’t let us off that night. They made us stay on the boat till the next morning and nobody slept all night long. They just sat out there and watched the lights of the town, you know, (laughing), and then the next morning the military there out of Fort Lewis, Washington had big band down there playing when we got off the boat and a bunch of people doing some talking, you know, welcoming us home. Put us all on the bus and took us down to the army base, and, ah, boy we took a big long shower and got some new clothes to wear. Anything we wanted to eat, we could get it.
Q: Really?
A: Yeah.
Q: Um, that’s neat. If indeed you experienced the horrors of war, how did that experience affect your relations and interactions with your family, friends, spouse, or girlfriend?
A: Ah, whenever I came home, ah, my dad was sitting on the front porch there at home, and, ah, when the taxi stopped out in the front there, well, boy, here he come a-running. I didn’t even have time to hardly get out of the car. And he grabbed me up and hugged me there and telling me glad I was home and all that.
Q: OK. Do you still keep in touch with some of the people you served with?
A: Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah, from Henrietta and every time one passes away my buddy down there calls and tells me and we go their funeral. I mean, it’s kind of a bad thing to be saying, but that’s the way we do it.
Q: Yeah. What kind of general observations and conclusions do you have about the Korean War and your experience?
A: What kind of what, now?
Q: What is your overall observations of it, or your conclusions of it? I mean, was it worth it to you?
A: Well, ah, I growed up.
Q: Yeah.
A: I growed up. That’s what it done to me. I growed up. Real quick.
Q: That’s all the questions that they have. Do you have anything else that you’d like to talk about?
A: No, not really. I belong to the Korean War Veterans Association in Oklahoma City and we have a monthly meeting. And all the Korean veterans belongs to it – marines, the whole bunch, you know, and we have a meeting once a month. Still active, you know.
Q: OK. All right.
Rose State C
