Interview with James Dykes, Korean War Veteran. CCSU Veterans History Project

I'm now at Richfield crossings in which war did you serve I served in Korea what was your branch of service the US Marine Corps what was your highest rank videos any private first class in what locations did you serve yeah in the Korean Peninsula I was activated from the Reserve which I had joined to avoid going to Europe as a replacement troop but then Korea jumped in and I was activated and sent directly to Korea okay the question here is were you drafted or did you enlist well I joined the Marine Corps Reserve when I was in high school 1946 and was activated in when the Korean War broke out in June of 50 and I was brought in in October of 50 so I was one of the quick replacements to be sent in to stem the tide after the Chosin Reservoir debacle and I was deposited in Korea and joined the 1st Marine Division at Pohang which is a seaport on the on the east coast of Korea where where were you living at the time you enlisted I was living at home at Fort Washington twelve newless diving home for Washington Long Island in what year was that and what day well we're talking 1946 to 1952 as the timeframe and 1946 is a reserve Marine Corps Reserve sign up and the active I was activated after the Korean War broke out in June of 1950 how many years were you went hard to say the counting the marine accounting the reserve time for years and actual in uniform sir this time two years what did you pick the branch you joined I figured that if I was going to have to be involved in shooting I'd want to have guys alongside of me that were a little more gung-ho and some of the army fellows I'd seen so I was looking for the right companionship in case of combat tell me about your first days in the service when you first joined you went to boot camp when I was activated from civilian life I I in 1950 I was at st. Lawrence University in Canton New York and do you remember your boot camp I don't I didn't have any boot camp I was activated from the reserve okay okay and did you have any training before you went to Korea a little bit diamond camp was new in Camp Lejeune some rifle work not much training it was a quick urgent time and they didn't have too much time for training me after you were activated you went to Camp Lejeune yes it then from Camp Lejeune you went to where aboard the ship William old Darby and that took you to Korea it took me to Korea by way of Japan I was all taken off the troop ship at you on them on the way to Korea and spent a week or ten days in Japan while paperwork was being cleared then I was shipped to Korea what okay what was your first assignment in the Marines when you are in active duty it's difficult the first first action though when you when you went to Japan and then you were sent to Korea what it were you a rifleman where you I was a Shingen person I was I was put in a machine gun Petone as an ammunition carrier and worked with a teammate pulling carts that are filled with ammunition so my first duty was as an ammunition carrier in the weapons company of Sir marine you do you know which unit you were with with you know the platoon company battalion you remember the name or weapons company is the first third Battalion George how an item third but I know fifth Marines 1st Marine Division and you went there as a replacement or as as a total unit as a redundant vidual replacement ok and where was the replacement center Paul Wang ok and there they assigned you to that unit that's correct and were you in that unit for the whole time you were in Korea yes ok in the same job know several different jobs what other jobs did you have progressed to from management carrier to squad leader and remained that way until we were brought back off active duty in in June of 1951 how long were you in Korea five months February March April May now through November us through the end of November so oh it's a lot more than that I was 11 months okay so you you were activated and when what month and what year activated in October 1951 then you were sent to Korea and you were in Korea from starting when October 1950 I'm sorry October night let's see if we can straightened out I don't know okay you what you were were activated into the Marine active Marine Corps in October of 50 50 or 51 October 1950 okay then you went to Korea approximately you said about February February 1951 okay and then you did 11 months in Korea yes okay and you were basically in the same unit the whole time that's correct okay well you wounded when you were at Korea I would not want it okay what was the typical day in the service there wouldn't and a typical day what did you do well when I first went to Korea joined the do you like something to drink yeah I think I could when I went from Japan to Korea in February of 51 we were it was a scramble they there were no main lines of resistance there was no organized North versus South denying it was all being contested on a guerrilla basis did you so were you in trenches were you up on top of mountains how did that work for the first four months I've lived in honor and they foxhole and did not I remember thinking women finally we finally got back off the line that it was the first time I had opened and closed the door for five months and that was the February sir woman what man then after that you were did you move around a lot or did you stay in the same general area we moved incessantly up one mountain and down the next the it was a sick it was a climb this hill and fire at the top of the next hill riflemen go underneath the fire and take the objective and you go on to the next hill it was one hill after another that's all it was and the only town that I remember seeing now on the way was Papa hanging which is where I came in so we had been circling around in the mountains for four months so when you were there you saw combat right yes I did and did you shoot the machine gun and shoot rifles and things like that I shot my rifle I did not shoot a machine gun which was an m1 a carbine okay did you unit have many casualties by my unit that would be the weapons company which means heavy equipment 40 mil 60 millimeter mortars and the only thing is the heaviest machine gun was our water-cooled 30 caliber okay but did you have many people that got hurt or killed in that particular unit the from one battle to the next there would be we wouldn't have direct casualties in the machine gun platoon okay that was a little bit behind the frontline Marines yeah in a firefight near the end of active duty we had two fellows hit both of which were on my Hill on the knoll and were held down by a sniper on the next hill which is probably 350 400 yards away something like that and two fellows got hit and not affect one of the fellows got hit and they were standing between me and the rifleman so it could have been me and not him I don't know what happened to him and the rifleman probably still playing cards which is why I knew him did you receive any medals or citations I have the list of medals and citations is given on that my DD 214 right they talk about three Korean service medals Bronze Stars right no the Presidential Unit Citation I think yes yeah okay see if they didn't make too much fuss over of things like that when we were in Korea right all that came together after we finished sir did you sustain in any injuries while you were in Korea no I didn't oh no I did not how about something like frostbite and things like that got cold a lot what was the temperature like there it felt like a hundred and fifty below zero but it was below zero and you know when you're in a when you have a heavy machine-gun that's in your care you have to dig it in every night right so digging and in the frozen mountainside was a lot of a lot of duty how did you stay in touch with your family letters back and forth when we got back off the lines in June May or June where some packages caught up with us okay what type of food did you have C rations and how did you they were cold right well until we if we were in an area where we could a little fire warming up we did did you have enough supplies yes did you have did you feel stressed when you were up up there in the in the front I felt stressed as when bullets came came and kicked up dirt and I didn't think I could get down below the line of fire I thought I would not made it but apparently there was just enough distance so that I was let go and when you were there were you fighting the Koreans of the Chinese it we never could know there was one occasion where we were coming to the end of the Acton action active duty probably April or May and we in our advance from one perimeter to another we passed a an army outfit that said fellas say they don't ever stop coming you better you know just get out of here and so our our people set up a perimeter that night there was a pretty good pretty good-sized firefight and in the morning for whatever reason I'll never know as a Chinese or south or north korean company of men marching two abreast came marching around and no in front of us and below us we had all our machine guns up on the perimeter and we waited until they got around the corner and then the first gun down at the left opened fire and then we decimated them that was the most firing I witnessed in Korea did you take any prisoners no prisoners no sir no matter of fact the lieutenant of one of the companies went out and used this 45 to finish off a couple of the enemy that were still moving when you were in Korea did you have any sort of good luck charm or anything like that no I never did okay other people entertain themselves play cards anything like that cards and dice those was it two thing okay did you see any USO shows yes thank you Bruce bought hold you saw Babu I think it was I why should I have trouble remembering that there's the Marilyn Monroe did did you go on leave when you were Korea no once I went into the weapons company I would I was there for the do okay were there any particularly humorous events while you were there what was one event that I don't even know if I should talk about it has to do with the treatment of our men after they had been captured at the time we were there one of those tenants was careful to say that he didn't want anybody talking about what they saw as far as captured Americans are concerned yes okay let's put it this way they were all dead there were no prisoners what did you think of your officers and fellow servicemen that's pretty pretty pretty good guys I'd say you keep a journal no I did not keep a journal so you were in Korea for 11 months when you got out of Korea where did you end up going San Diego Marine Corps Base how long did you stay there just a muster out okay and you remember the day you were discharged just before Christmas okay what was your homecoming like that was very joyful my brother babe Bernard was over in Korea and we passed one another I was coming home and he was going out he was in that he's in the tank or so my homecoming was joyous it wasn't complete because his being still in Korea and what did you do after you got out let me ask you a question you got out of Korea and you were mustered out of the Marine Corps that would stand in your service that's correct okay so after you got out of the service what did you do you got a job lois : i'll working on oil burners okay go back to school afterwards I did not I did not a sad mistake but I was lucky enough to make up largely make up for it and and the work that I did okay so you never used the GI Bill right never agree you never used mention you got a bill did you have any close friendships in the service a half-dozen fellas and nobody from Port Washington was was there at the time so I didn't have any any local contacts just buddies that you go out and have like have a beer with and one fellow communicated for a few years name is dumped hackus doesn't campus yeah so you didn't continue any of those relationships beyond that time for now you go to any sort of reunions yeah never never never after you got out of the service what did you do as a career I went to work with the gentleman and Port Washington whom I had you know growing up he was forming a company did form a company to advise and consult retailers on how to handle products made of the new man-made fibers were long and Dacron AK rely on things like that and Robert shook associates is the name of the company and doctor shook was the head of it I did a lot of selling and traveling with that group about 1953 that was not a good year to start a business it was very very bad and we went under and it's 50 string what did what did you do after that I mean basically in your life what types of jobs have you done well as part of they my part of my duties with Robert shook associates I came across I came into contact with quite a few people in the man-made fibers industry one of which was a gentleman from DuPont company in Wilmington who recommended me for a position with the pun and of course I'm skipping over very important part we got married in December the civil December 27th 1951 no 52 it's all a blur was your wife's name Carol okay so you work for the punt for a number of years two years and then I was hired to come to New York to work with Stanley hunt in his textile Economics Bureau trading on the experience with the DuPont company okay how did your military experience influence your thinking about war or the military in general well I don't want to be too critical but I was moved so pretty fast when you ask did I ever shoot a machine gun in Camp Lejeune yes but okay what would I'm asking you is how did your military experience affect your life and the way you think about the military I think the military is an impossible organization and the methods they have I wanna say first of all anybody who's been as close as I was to biting the bullet would never want to go back again to the frontlines at least I wouldn't as so much happens so much confusion okay certainly I'd be against any war I think war is absolutely useless did your service affect your life positively in any way I don't say good i need direct and to finish off my business career I was recruited by Owens Corning fiberglass to work on product development and market development with a new fiber that they have developed called beta just to find a finer diameter fiberglass and why I took the job I'll never know because I knew the opportunity for that kind of product was so limited and would cover would always be subject to health and life risks so in any case after owens-corning work with Jack Warner on the in warning management consultants and was hired out of there by ITT Ray in there to promote their radon products was picked from a group of men to be a senior vice president of wood pulp sales for ICT rayon ever and that's where I spent my last eight years the company was what the name of the company was what were you were the last eight years I - I teach here a anair re y ou an I er what did they make they own timber lands we've got the trees and okay cook them up and so it has wood pulp okay is there anything you would like to add that was not covered in this interview I don't think so okay I would like to thank you for your service and taking your time to be interviewed today you

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 1,005

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Keywords: USMC, Marines, Marine, VHP, Veterans, History, Project, CCSU, War, Korean

Id: giKuxch8ipM

Length: 38min 45sec (2325 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018