September 1953 recap

September of 1953 was when the World Away got to be up close and personal.  Dad had never been any further away from home than Wichita, Kansas and now he finds himself walking the streets of Yokohama and waiting in Sasebo Japan for orders.  The "boys" as he calls them were together in Sasebo but one by one they received orders that split them all up.  Although Zink, our neighbor on Lake Drive back in Independence, was not part of the "boys," it was just a fluke he was with them, but alas he got orders to go to a Chemical and Biological school.  Many years later dad told me that the "boys" were split up so there was a higher possibility that they may get captured by the North Koreans. If they did they would be able to use the skills they were taught in that special school they all went to.  As far as I know none ever got captured.

Dad had no idea where he would end up while waiting in Sasebo.  He was still hoping to stay in Japan.  Even when he was sent to Korea he had no idea where he was most of the time.  He mentions the 38th parallel often and the "front" being 20 miles from him.  He told me again years later that they would have a lot of alerts and everyone took them seriously because no one knew if it was practice or the real thing.

In his letters he remarks about things his mother must have told him in her letters but I cannot tell a lot of what he was answering.  For instance he mentions a bomb in Fairmount.  But what it was and circumstances surrounding it are at a loss to me.  He asks about his cousins and his friend Jim and Rosalie several times, and apparently he heard from his basic training buddy Martin.  Martin ended up in Fort Lewis, Washington.  There were others like Arkie and Theiderman but other than Jim I never heard much about any of them, other than hearing mom say once that she did not like Arkie.

Dad was a little older than most of the guys so he was a little more brazen when it came to authority sometimes.  Like when he some how slipped out of a formation so he and a couple of guys could walk back to camp and not have to march and when he was put guarding a prisoner who had gone AWOL he became good enough friends with him as to have the prisoner wake him up when dad would fall asleep so dad wouldn't get into trouble.

He developed some strong feeling about the Koreans, none very flattering.  But I suspect it was the influence that the vets had over him.

He was very proud of his unit, the 5th RCT.  He was proud to be a soldier and the longer he lived the more proud he became.  He went one time to a 5th RCT reunion in Branson but did not stay for the parade because he did not feel he could walk the whole way.

The high light of the month was him be selected to participate in the change of command ceremony and part of the honor guard  for the 5th RCT as they passed in review.  I am interested to see how the parade went.