July 03, 2008 05:46 pm
—
I made a mistake last week when writing that Charles Eugene Emsweller was 21 when he volunteered for the Army. He was only 18. At 18 he said he didn't feel a lot of stress while in Korea. “I don't think I felt any pressure or stress, scared sometimes sure, but not stress.”
Emsweller was assigned to the 105th Howitzer guns at first but they soon gave the men the eight inch Howitzer. At first their ammunition was rationed, but after a few weeks they received more ammo. He was promoted to jeep d river for their commanding officer. Captain Thomas Keyhole, the third one and his favorite, didn't expect the men to do anything he wouldn't do himself. “The first morning he asked me where the Outpost was. I told him I didn't know because I'd never been there. He said, 'Go to the mess hall and tell the cooks to fix a hot meal and get a can of water for six people. There are men up there and we're going to find them.'
“We loaded up the supplies, got some maps and the captain, our young South Korean interpreter and I started out. We went through tank positions, mortar positions, the South Korean infantry, valleys and finally up the mountain to the Outpost which was just a large hole dug out of the ground. Timbers were built into a frame for a room and sand was bagged in with small observation holds. Barbed wire was strung all around the ridge. This was the Outpost for Finger Ridge and Capital Hill. The men had been living on C-rations and were sure happy to get that food.”
Emsweller looked through telescopes and saw North Koreans walking around. “Boy, was I ever glad to get off that ridge!” But, when they got back he learned that they would be making two or three trips a week. “When we went through the Korean infantry I'd see them carrying their dead to an old burner. They stacked them in piles where they later burned them. They saved their ashes for a later burial.”
He earned seven medals: Korean President Unit, President Unit Citation, Good Conduct, National Defense, UN Service, Korea Service and the Bronze with the V (for valor). He was turned in for the Bronze Star for driving through enemy fire to pick up wounded soldiers and take them back to the med vac hospital. He said he was never seriously wounded in Korea.
The armistice was signed while he was in Korea. “They had us on the run at the time. We were pretty much up at the front. After the truce had been signed I asked some North Korean men why they wanted to fight. 'Our leaders,' they said. They wouldn't let me take a picture of them and one said, 'Leaders kill me.' Although he thinks he was probably not supposed to he carried a camera part of the time. A CD has been made of the pictures he took while there. He let me borrow it which gave me a better picture of the Korean landscape and at least a little better understanding of what parts of that war looked like.
As far as how the service people reacted to the truce signed in 1953, Emsweller said, “I don't remember much changing except we were all ready to come home. Of course it was the end of shelling but not a lot was made of it.” .
When asked how he feels about the Korean War being called 'the forgotten war' at times Emsweller said, “I don’t think much of it. We did what we were told to do, a lot of good people died and a lot more were wounded, but there were no parades for us when we got home. I even had to hitch-hike home. I took a Greyhound bus from Indianapolis to Rushville, and from Rushville I started walking and hitch-hiking to Andersonville. A car picked me up and dropped me off in there and I walked about mile before a huckster truck stopped and picked me up and took me home to my foster mother. Then I spent two or three weeks at Camp Atterbury while I waited for my discharge papers.” Emsweller was released to the Army Reserves in 1953. He was 21 when he left the service.
After he returned home he worked in factories until he retired. He married Wanda Hatton and they have six children:
Chuck at Clarksburg, Richard Emsweller at Greensburg, David at Indianapolis, Scott at Fairland, Nancy Fletcher at Lake Santee and Rebecca Gault at Letts. He has 12 living grandchildren and three great grandchildren. One granddaughter is deceased.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
Greensburg Daily News