Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is Wayne Fletcher. He's a US Army veteran
Speaker 1: of the Korean War. Mister Fletcher served nearly eleven months
Speaker 1: in Korea in nineteen fifty one. He served as a
Speaker 1: gunner with fifty caliber anti aircraft guns. However, these guns
Speaker 1: were mounted on half tracks and used in support of
Speaker 1: American ground forces. Wayne Fletcher was born in Eustace, Maine,
Speaker 1: in the midst of the Great Depression, and he begins
Speaker 1: our conversation explaining what life was like for his rural
Speaker 1: family during those difficult days.
Speaker 2: That was bone, that was the Depression shotted in twenty nine.
Speaker 2: I was BONIFETI one. So my folks were cool wick,
Speaker 2: bringing everybody around us laws. My father was either he
Speaker 2: worked in the woods or he was a guide, his
Speaker 2: sport's guide of worked in manufactury mill, different things of
Speaker 2: that nature. Sometimes you worked on the log drive, driving
Speaker 2: the log down the rivers. My mother run her home.
Speaker 2: She had five children.
Speaker 1: Was there a history of military service in your family?
Speaker 2: I know the onlybody I knew of before me was
Speaker 2: my uncle. He was in the Festival War.
Speaker 1: You enlisted in the army in September of nineteen forty nine.
Speaker 1: What happened after you enlisted? Where did they send you?
Speaker 2: And what happened when I enlisted? I went to basic
Speaker 2: training in Fort Dictioner, Jersey, from about thirteen weeks.
Speaker 1: Where did you go after Fort Dix?
Speaker 2: Well, I went to Logan Heights in El Paso, Texas.
Speaker 2: It was now shoot from Fort Bliffs that they had
Speaker 2: put in the Second World War. They've all small, four
Speaker 2: men hot we lived in. They would motopool and before
Speaker 2: we had a half track for the fifty calibers and
Speaker 2: in fifteen thirty seven millimeters on them.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about that. How did you get assigned
Speaker 1: to anti aircraft fire just buy their choice? And what
Speaker 1: did that training consist of?
Speaker 2: Well, we had we had to learn the ins and
Speaker 2: out to the track itself, so we could do what
Speaker 2: we could ourselves. If we get in more time, we
Speaker 2: could probase detendent on somebody else. We had to learn
Speaker 2: the maintenance of the track. We learned. We learned how
Speaker 2: to take the guns atop and put them back together
Speaker 2: and clean them. And then we'd go on the range
Speaker 2: and they would they would have grown, they would fly
Speaker 2: by out quite a way rout promise, and we would
Speaker 2: fire at them to see if we could get them.
Speaker 2: So we've tried down a lot of astro shooting. I
Speaker 2: was a gunner and I had a right candoneir in
Speaker 2: a left canyon air, which that means the right carnyar
Speaker 2: took out of the two guns on the right and
Speaker 2: kept the munition flowing, keep them un jammed, and the
Speaker 2: end the left did the left ears.
Speaker 1: How long did it take you to get good at it?
Speaker 2: I'm to say, you know, long we were. We were
Speaker 2: pretty well knew what we were doing. The short order
Speaker 2: a couple of couple of months. We kept doing it,
Speaker 2: you know, even if we're learning pretty good, so we would,
Speaker 2: you know, only but now get rusty on it.
Speaker 1: You mentioned before that one of your responsibilities obviously is
Speaker 1: being able to assemble and disassemble these fifty caliber guns.
Speaker 1: Talk about that process.
Speaker 2: Like if you were in battle after a long you
Speaker 2: would have to change the barrels on them. If you
Speaker 2: were trying to let one gun to alone, the barrel
Speaker 2: would get red hot and the waft of barrel and
Speaker 2: the bullets would go out to hambuzigzagging all over the face.
Speaker 2: So you had to learn how to change the barrels,
Speaker 2: and my cantons would have to do that when you
Speaker 2: were firing, to change the barrel. If you get in
Speaker 2: there fighting was going on, you change the barrel while
Speaker 2: you're using the other guns.
Speaker 1: Me a little bit more about your fire team and
Speaker 1: the other guys.
Speaker 2: I was a gun on, but I said, in that
Speaker 2: kind of a terraff, I had sights and a two
Speaker 2: hand or you will hang on or to make a
Speaker 2: gun go up and down and it would rotates. If
Speaker 2: you make them go sideways, you go all the way around.
Speaker 2: They have fifty calibers. They go hold on the bottom
Speaker 2: around the tarrat. The cannoniers would actually be walking on.
Speaker 2: There's metal cases themselves. In Korea, when you're in a firefight,
Speaker 2: they would make sure that they had another container of
Speaker 2: cottridges right there to the hook right on to keep
Speaker 2: right on going. I missed a few shots, but it
Speaker 2: wouldn't be many. Take with their job. Keep them on
Speaker 2: jam and keep their guns of firing there as long
Speaker 2: as of the targets out there, I kept on firing. Now.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned at the beginning, in Korea, the anti
Speaker 1: aircraft artillery was used for ground combat? Is that also
Speaker 1: how you trained it?
Speaker 2: We never use them for any aircraft. I was always
Speaker 2: personnel the enemy on the ground.
Speaker 1: What other gear did you carry in addition to the
Speaker 1: big guns? Did you have rifles and other things with you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? We all the crew had the cabine, the m
Speaker 2: city cabine, and I think we started out with a
Speaker 2: semi automatic, but they changed us all over to automatic,
Speaker 2: full automatic ones. The driver himself had, but they're called
Speaker 2: the grease gun. It was forty five caliber. It was
Speaker 2: all metal or they had a metal stock on it
Speaker 2: that would push in out of the way I would
Speaker 2: pull out so you could put it against your shoulder
Speaker 2: and fire it. They called it the grease gun. It
Speaker 2: was forty five caliber and it was especially for the
Speaker 2: drivers to keep the side of them.
Speaker 1: Any other weapons, pistols, knives.
Speaker 2: They didn't issue us any, but every once so far
Speaker 2: you'd be able to buy one off on somebody. I
Speaker 2: don't know where they come from, but I remember one
Speaker 2: time I had the forty five caliber for a while,
Speaker 2: and there was other other weapons. We had a thirty caliber.
Speaker 2: We eventually mounted a thirty caliber machine gun on the
Speaker 2: top pide of the tarrat shooting down over the hood
Speaker 2: of the vehicle. Remember, we never had to use it,
Speaker 2: but if you had to then to get climbing on
Speaker 2: your track, we would we would be able to point
Speaker 2: that down there and move away.
Speaker 1: Sir, When did you first learn that your service might
Speaker 1: be needed in Korea?
Speaker 2: Coming back off bivouac, we've been out of the Ring
Speaker 2: pacticon and and they'ing different things. Then we go back
Speaker 2: and the tronvoys stopped and a big banner come out said,
Speaker 2: Wall you are I got all big. We didn't know
Speaker 2: what to talking about, but that's just I'm we heard
Speaker 2: about it. We had a meeting before we were getting
Speaker 2: ready to go to Korea and somebody said we were
Speaker 2: going to the far East. Well, I'm a country boy.
Speaker 2: I don't know too much about things. I'm thinking that's
Speaker 2: good because the walls in career in the West. I
Speaker 2: didn't off our East. I was going Wow, I thought
Speaker 2: I was going to some place safe. I was going
Speaker 2: into higher East.
Speaker 1: Was there anything particularly memorable about the trip over there?
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. Yes, we met a boat landed in
Speaker 2: Japan Pereskebal. We had our equipment. I don't understand what
Speaker 2: it was all about so we had our equipment, went
Speaker 2: out on the range, dungeon proractical practicing, and this and
Speaker 2: that and the other, put them back all on the
Speaker 2: ship and headed for Korea. I think we were in
Speaker 2: good hand about a month.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you entered combat in early January of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one. Where was that and what was the
Speaker 1: state of the war.
Speaker 2: We landed and push on. The Chinese had joined the
Speaker 2: North Koreans and they had pushed all the United Nations
Speaker 2: troops down to just they had just to help holding
Speaker 2: on by just a little bit down the various southern
Speaker 2: tip of Korea and will we landed in January sixth,
Speaker 2: It was cold and blue blazers.
Speaker 1: What was the American morale like at that point?
Speaker 2: I think we were all confused, didn't know what the
Speaker 2: heck we're getting into. Or most churches too young, We
Speaker 2: didn't know. I was like nineteen. I don't know about them,
Speaker 2: but I wasn't liking it. I was scared to go
Speaker 2: into law.
Speaker 1: As you also mentioned, it was very cold, and that
Speaker 1: is one of the most famous things about the Korean War.
Speaker 1: You come from a relatively cold climate in Maine, but
Speaker 1: how would you describe the climate in Korea that winter.
Speaker 2: It's a lot like Maine. It might not be quite
Speaker 2: as cold, and howd of Maine I'm in, but it
Speaker 2: was very close because the river throves over there snow
Speaker 2: on the ground. The river throws over solid, so they're
Speaker 2: time close to the same Tambasa Hire, Maine. We never
Speaker 2: did know what the temperature was. We just knew it
Speaker 2: was cold.
Speaker 1: And did you have winter gear?
Speaker 2: Yes, we did. We were a fortunate lunch because there
Speaker 2: was a lot they got there early that did not.
Speaker 1: And what did that? Winter gear consist.
Speaker 2: Of wonder sweeping bags, insulated boots, and had had underwear
Speaker 2: and had have your clothes to wear on, you know,
Speaker 2: the pants and shirts and jackets and rainy ear.
Speaker 1: And from what I understand, the entire time you were
Speaker 1: in Korea, you slept outside every.
Speaker 2: Night, except except when we went back, when they put
Speaker 2: it back in the rear to give us a little rest.
Speaker 1: Describe that, what's it like sleeping in that cold over
Speaker 1: and over again?
Speaker 2: Sometimes we shut in the vehicle. A couple of guys
Speaker 2: are sweep in the cab, a couple of guys that
Speaker 2: sleep up on the turrets, and a couple of us
Speaker 2: had a tap we would put over us and sleep
Speaker 2: on the court of the Haut drag. It was cold,
Speaker 2: but I was awful, thankful that it came from a
Speaker 2: cold climate.
Speaker 1: You think that help help you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, you probably come from down south. You know
Speaker 2: it never gets down real coal. I think I don't
Speaker 2: know how to how to handle it.
Speaker 1: Did it have any lasting impact on your health? Do
Speaker 1: you still, you know, get frostbite or anything like that?
Speaker 2: No, I do not. The only thing is when and
Speaker 2: then set to calibers. I said, right between them, they
Speaker 2: were made off to my head and we never want
Speaker 2: ear protecting. So it affected my hearing not terribly there,
Speaker 2: but if I if I want to rarely hear some things,
Speaker 2: I have hearing as I should put it end.
Speaker 1: How did the cold impact your gear, your guns and
Speaker 1: so forth.
Speaker 2: I think you had to be very careful you didn't
Speaker 2: get too much oil on them. If you oiled them,
Speaker 2: you had to oil them and then try to write
Speaker 2: mustard off if you didn't. Automatic for sometimes it's sluggish
Speaker 2: because the stickned up, but as a whole that didn't.
Speaker 2: We didn't have any trouble with it, but freeze up it.
Speaker 1: I can remember you mentioned that you did not have
Speaker 1: hearing protection. So how would you describe the sound those
Speaker 1: guns make?
Speaker 2: Ooh terrible a fifty caliban for even know what a
Speaker 2: fifty caliber is? Oh sure, I'll for me eight inches long.
Speaker 2: The fire between four hundred and fifty and five hundred
Speaker 2: rounds a minute, So there'd be two of them when
Speaker 2: I was when I was firing, and it'd be two
Speaker 2: thousand rounds a minute going. They've been in firefights that
Speaker 2: I could not hear a sound. After they're done, You're
Speaker 2: gonna holler ate my face, career, any any sound whatsoever.
Speaker 2: So I'm facunate to have the hearing that I have.
Speaker 1: That's Wayne Fletcher, a US Army veteran of the Korean
Speaker 1: War who served as a fifty caliber anti aircraft gunner
Speaker 1: in support of ground forces. When we return, Fletcher describes combat,
Speaker 1: how it changes your mindset in the midst of battle,
Speaker 1: and some intense moments of battle that he remembers. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds
Speaker 1: of Service.
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Speaker 1: This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is Wayne Fletcher. He's a US Army veteran
Speaker 1: who served eleven months in Korea. In nineteen fifty one
Speaker 1: as an anti aircraft gunner in support of ground forces.
Speaker 1: We've covered the frigid weather and the operation of the guns,
Speaker 1: but mister Fletcher had plenty to say about combat itself.
Speaker 1: In just a moment, we'll hear some of his vivid
Speaker 1: memories from combat. But first I asked him how often
Speaker 1: the halftrack with the guns mounted on it was on
Speaker 1: the move during battle?
Speaker 2: Very often because we were either pushing him back or
Speaker 2: they were pushing us back. Good push, and Polls saying
Speaker 2: it depends on Sometimes you know, they'd put a big
Speaker 2: bunch together and make a big porstion a certain area.
Speaker 2: You'd pulled back and fighters you went and get out
Speaker 2: of there and get back aways and get reset up
Speaker 2: ready for him so he's in And I'm sure they
Speaker 2: would do the same thing. N backed in the rio
Speaker 2: we had we looked like a bunch of giftses. We
Speaker 2: had polls looked to the side of the half pack,
Speaker 2: and we had the top. If we were back in
Speaker 2: the area, we could put that top out like an
Speaker 2: awning and uh have a place to set out during
Speaker 2: the day. And but you couldn't have that on the
Speaker 2: front line. Everything had to be so you could leave
Speaker 2: and shut very short on how are.
Speaker 1: You arranged on the battle line?
Speaker 2: Basically what it was there was a line all over
Speaker 2: across Korea. There are be infantry, there would be a tank,
Speaker 2: be some more infantry, and then a hack tack and
Speaker 2: then it just went that way all across unless you
Speaker 2: come to a place we couldn't go, like up Steve
Speaker 2: Hills and shot. Then they were just just infantry. Of
Speaker 2: course the tank could go some places we couldn't go.
Speaker 2: They had a better track ring.
Speaker 1: And so were you being contacted as to where to fire?
Speaker 1: Was it your own observation? How did that work?
Speaker 2: We were own observation because there were different phases of
Speaker 2: the like if we were get they were getting ready
Speaker 2: to take a hill, the infantry we would go over.
Speaker 2: The tanks could stank, were shoot, and we would shoot
Speaker 2: above the infantry to keep the enemy down while the
Speaker 2: armed men were going up the hills. We could only
Speaker 2: shoot so far the fifties and under. The tanks could
Speaker 2: store out further, so they would to give support to
Speaker 2: hit the enemy down so the infantry could advance.
Speaker 1: How would you describe combat?
Speaker 2: I think when you were in the battle, you're all animal.
Speaker 2: You think nothing of their lives, their enemy, and you
Speaker 2: want to do me, and they're out to get you,
Speaker 2: and you wanted to make bankster to try to get
Speaker 2: them finished. I remember one battle were puting all the
Speaker 2: men and one got away, and I was mad at myself.
Speaker 2: We're going to turn into an animal, have no thought.
Speaker 2: So then people on the other side. I remember one
Speaker 2: time who had been overrun. I'd tried, didn't have me
Speaker 2: get to belong to that believed been overrun by a
Speaker 2: bunch of people mentioned the Koreans. I guess they were.
Speaker 2: You had high uniforms start behind them line the night before,
Speaker 2: just for the observation, but they were coming up against
Speaker 2: and the next day they did. David found out that
Speaker 2: are there and never after them, and they come back
Speaker 2: to our lines, and the brew from the half cuts
Speaker 2: up and shout them to guys, they were trying to
Speaker 2: get away and never going across the Harn River, and
Speaker 2: put those sights on them and just look's mowing grass
Speaker 2: and slowed them down. So they were going to get
Speaker 2: back across with the information that come together. The one
Speaker 2: got away, and I was surmied at myself. I didn't
Speaker 2: want any information going back to tell them what we
Speaker 2: had over that they were coming up again.
Speaker 1: How frequently did your position behind the infantry and the
Speaker 1: tanks come under fire?
Speaker 2: Oh, we were going to fire at a small weapon,
Speaker 2: fire and archellry fire. No, no aircraft, but quite often
Speaker 2: the bullets were flying both ways, bullets archivalry. But because
Speaker 2: they didn't have the actual we had, but they had
Speaker 2: actually everybody lost one of our men to archivalry. We
Speaker 2: were just setting there and I was watching a hill
Speaker 2: and then the glasses out of the hill learn that
Speaker 2: Barker and I looking the activity on that hill, looked
Speaker 2: at me. They're trying to leave the hill, a bunch
Speaker 2: of them. And so I told Lieutenant and I said,
Speaker 2: there's a bunch of goofs on that hill. I said,
Speaker 2: it looks like they're trying to leave. So we put
Speaker 2: up in positions, putting the lead to him, and they
Speaker 2: sent They sent the right back to us and the
Speaker 2: artillery farm and fighting back and forth, and we're setting
Speaker 2: there and they're getting zeroed in on the closing clothes
Speaker 2: on shelves were going off and were flying from the
Speaker 2: shelves that actually was coming in. I told the Lutana
Speaker 2: and I said, got the heck, get the heck out
Speaker 2: of here, get out of sight. Beye sometimes he said, no, no,
Speaker 2: I said, We've got to wait till life know where
Speaker 2: that gun is. Decided to leave, and the sagont in
Speaker 2: charge of the two tracks, it was over me. The
Speaker 2: ten started bugging out and said and took his forty
Speaker 2: five one point and he said, and where are you going?
Speaker 2: It looked like he was going to run off and
Speaker 2: leave us to come back and try to bug out.
Speaker 2: Our church will come in and our scrapma hit him
Speaker 2: and killed him when he died later and UH got
Speaker 2: the battery, talked to the terminals behind the turrets of
Speaker 2: my gun was working in the walk bull. It's just
Speaker 2: apply both ways, probably more. I think we had better equipment.
Speaker 2: I know we did than they did. But two way back,
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, were you ever hit no land? All
Speaker 2: around me and never touched me? The good laders did
Speaker 2: mud life all planned for me. I guess what's.
Speaker 1: It like to be in that environment, the combat environment,
Speaker 1: day after day after day for months, every.
Speaker 2: Day it was not every day we were on the
Speaker 2: front lines all the time that we weren't the back
Speaker 2: and they were arresting. But a lot of days, it
Speaker 2: was calm. The enemy was over there and we were
Speaker 2: over here. A little shooting maybe going on, but not
Speaker 2: not a loss. Quite a few days it was fairly
Speaker 2: calm days. The nights were kind of scary. You didn't
Speaker 2: know who's going to be, who were sneaking around or whatever.
Speaker 2: We had were at once that there's a big push
Speaker 2: coming on, and I remember specifically that time, but we
Speaker 2: were all very concerned. So we dug in the same
Speaker 2: bay around the track so they actually wouldn't come blow
Speaker 2: the track for pat you know. And we had a
Speaker 2: battle and they did push us back for ways scar
Speaker 2: at the time, but I'd be able to keep my head. Sir.
Speaker 1: Your time in Korea ended in late nineteen fifty one.
Speaker 1: At that time, the war is not over, but you
Speaker 1: had to be exhausted at that point. So how did
Speaker 1: you feel about going back home?
Speaker 2: Oh? My word, and I love it. I'm about to
Speaker 2: tell you a story about that. Going back home. We
Speaker 2: knew what it was getting time because round eleven months
Speaker 2: to spend your career, and so he got rotated back
Speaker 2: and we were sitting around, we were back in the rear.
Speaker 2: They kind of lacky, I remember their name up and
Speaker 2: literally talking about that. We were sitting around and you
Speaker 2: spoke to among the guys, which one I forgot now
Speaker 2: I think it might have been Max, And I said,
Speaker 2: secondly asked him, how would you like to go home?
Speaker 2: You look right up and the rest of us kind
Speaker 2: of got a long face. There were six of us
Speaker 2: on the track, and we felt they were just put
Speaker 2: one to two off at a time and leave. Some
Speaker 2: of the old guys there had been fighting and knew
Speaker 2: more about it than any one's coming in. So we
Speaker 2: stared to walk off and run the lays and he said, oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, her and one of the other guys
Speaker 2: can't remember from them out now. He said, do pack
Speaker 2: your bags too, and just one old guy left there
Speaker 2: pretty strong. I could head back around the com and
Speaker 2: he said, oh, you can pack your bag too. Boy,
Speaker 2: did he kill her home? That up me would just
Speaker 2: surprised me. It took pretty in all of us guys
Speaker 2: that had been there for eleven months off at the
Speaker 2: same time. Don't think you know, I don't think that'd
Speaker 2: be very s Matt. But we didn't. We didn't refuge
Speaker 2: to the home. That was a very joyful time. Boy,
Speaker 2: was moment.
Speaker 1: Better voyage home than the voyage over.
Speaker 2: You're saying, oh yeah, the bob we went over on
Speaker 2: at like twenty five hundred the bow which come back
Speaker 2: on this post to hold about the same. They had
Speaker 2: six thousand men on it. You got two meals a day,
Speaker 2: get up to go to breakfast, get back in line.
Speaker 2: You had ten line prinier all day. You get back
Speaker 2: in get two meals in a day. We didn't care.
Speaker 2: We were headed home.
Speaker 1: So you did not return to Korea, and you actually
Speaker 1: did not stay in the Army much longer, even though
Speaker 1: the army offered you a chance to be serving with
Speaker 1: the Army Corps of Engineers, which was something you had
Speaker 1: been interested in earlier. Explain what happened.
Speaker 2: First of all, we wanted to take my rank. Plus
Speaker 2: I was looking forward to going home until that put
Speaker 2: ice on the take, I guess. And then they told
Speaker 2: me that. I said, now I'm going home. I might
Speaker 2: not just think about it. I said, Artner's got to
Speaker 2: take my rank. I don't know if it were to
Speaker 2: change my mind as a home, but that sealed the
Speaker 2: deal for me.
Speaker 1: Just a couple more questions in our conversation here, mister Fletcher,
Speaker 1: what are you most proud of about your service to
Speaker 1: our country.
Speaker 2: I'm right I was able to do my duty. I'm
Speaker 2: right I did it. I told somebody else I don't
Speaker 2: want to do it again. I love my country and
Speaker 2: always did and and I won't see any great hero said,
Speaker 2: but I'm glad I did.
Speaker 1: Lastly, sir, what does it mean to you for us
Speaker 1: to capture your story and share it with future generations.
Speaker 2: I do believe in the younger generations need to know
Speaker 2: about it because there's so much that they don't know,
Speaker 2: don't realize. There's so many people that had it so
Speaker 2: much worse than I did. The entrantrymen for shoulder stem
Speaker 2: rough terrific stuff, trying to take the hero and move
Speaker 2: it down pretty well in safety except for the artillery
Speaker 2: car and overhead for him.
Speaker 1: Mister Fletcher, it's an honor to speak with you, sir.
Speaker 1: I thank you so much for your time, and most
Speaker 1: of all, I thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: Sir. Yes, and you're very welcome, and I'm glad you're
Speaker 2: doing it because the younger generations need to know about it,
Speaker 2: and you need to know that we need to stand
Speaker 2: up for our country.
Speaker 1: That's Wayne Fletcher, a US Army veteran of the Korean War.
Speaker 1: He served as a fifty caliber anti aircraft gunner in
Speaker 1: support of American ground forces. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
Speaker 1: is Veterans Chronicles. Hi. This is Greg Corumbus, and thanks
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