Korea, Her Story

"Korea! This was our turn-our generation's war.".... "The Korean War has been called the 'Forgotten War.' ... For some the war was all too real"... "The First Marine Brigade was heading out into the Pacific once again...We had watched eastern Europe and China fall to the communists. Now the call had come for help from South Korea"... "again our country was going to the aid of its allies." "If the Corps had wanted Marines to have wives they would have been issued."? "Before we married, he told me that the USMC was first in his life."..."The first job for their wives was, as always, to keep the home front going."... "---our job was to care for the children and keep the home running smoothly. There was no whining or 'poor me' attitude. Those feelings better describe a later generation and a later war." (Clearly the fem-inist movement belonged to that later generation.) "I was very young-only 18 in July when we married in 1944."... "Jim and I had gotten married when1was nineteen, and he was twenty-two."... "It was certainly difficult being newly-weds and preparing for war at the same time... "Bill left with the Fifth Marines when the baby was seven weeks old."... "Boots Hansen had a brand new daughter born July 10in the evening just hours before the new father, Dean Hansen' shipped out with the 1at Marine Brigade to Korea" ... "at the time their son was born Marge did not know whether Jim was dead or alive." "They were living on a Pfc's pay and broke. They didn't have enough money for a car." Another was "the young wife of a Pfc, dead broke and seven months pregnant." The officers' wives fared little better. "... we were still making uniform payments, too. Fortunately, Sully was able to cancel the order for his sword... or I'd have been stuck with ... payment son that useless piece of gear, too." "There was still a housing shortage." There was little construction during the war. "a lot of rent properties were ramshackle and inadequate, but hard to find at that." ... "quarters consisted of half a Quonset, furnished,.." Homoja "consisted of two very small bedrooms, one bathroom, shower only. The living room extended into a tiny kitchen. We had an ice box and an oil-burning space heater"... "happily I never had to get used to a wood stove"..."The cottage had only one oil heater...We lived in fear of it blowing up one day...to our horror it happened one evening while we were at the movies." "... troops were surrounded and cut off by the Communist Chinese"... mail stopped. "It was a terrible, traumatic time for both of us."... "Well, 1needn't tell you that the war situation is really grim."..."Of course, I too am very worried and scared stiff ... 'Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."..."My heart pounds for minutes each time the doorbell rings."... "1 did receive the dreaded telegram January 30 when Bob was wounded again"... "When the telegram came our five year old daughter was crying with me... she said, "Momma, what is wounded? She didn't know why we were crying."... Out of his battalion of 900 men only 300 came thru" ... "Wallace Jordan Reid was killed in action August 8, 1950."