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Valley veterans recall horrors of Korean War on its 60th anniversary
60 years later, combat memories remain vivid
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
Sixty years after its start, the Korean War, often referred to as the “forgotten war,” is far from forgotten by those who fought in it.
Richard A. Schulz of Boardman and Harold “Dick” Pitts of Girard, both 78 and members of the Korean War Veterans Association of the Mahoning Valley Chapter 137, recalled some of their experiences in that war as if they had happened yesterday.
The Korean War began June 25, 1950, when North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded South Korea.
Schulz thinks many people didn’t pay much attention to the Korean War at the time because World War II had ended five years earlier, and no one wanted to think about another war.
On June 27, 60 years ago today, the U.N. Security Council proclaimed the North Korean attack a breach of world peace and requested member nations to assist the Republic of Korea, thereby bringing the U.S. into the war. An armistice was signed about three years later on July 27, 1953.
Schulz had no adjustment period when he arrived in South Korea in July 1950.
Literally a half-hour after he got off the ship that transported him from Japan to Pusan, he was in combat, supporting the Army’s beleaguered 24th Infantry Division, he said.
Schulz, who grew up on Cleveland Street and Chalmers Avenue and quit South High School to join the Army at 17, was a member of L Co., 38th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
He was in almost constant combat, including five major battles, before he left Korea in August 1951 with the rank of corporal. Among his decorations are the Army Combat Badge and Silver Star.
Pitts had quit Girard High School and worked a couple of years when he was drafted into the Army that same month in 1951.
A member of the 5th Regimental Combat Team, 24th Infantry Division, Pitts was sent upon his arrival in Korea in January 1952 south to Koje Do Island to help put down prisoner-of-war riots.
However, it wasn’t long before he found himself in some of the fiercest fighting of the war in the killing cold of a mountainous area of North Korea nicknamed “The Punch Bowl.”
“We had regrouped at Inge Pass and were told to take this hill. First one company would go up and get shot up, and then another would take over and then another. It took us all day,” said Pitts, who was born in Sharon, Pa., and grew up on State Street in Girard.
While at Inge Pass, in the Punch Bowl area, Pitts was told he was going to be a machine gunner.
“I like guns, and that made me real happy until someone told me machine gunners were the first people to be killed,” he said.
Pitts, who was awarded the Army Combat Badge and several other decorations, said he should have died several times.
On one occasion, he was eating dry chocolate from his C-rations in a bunker, and his sergeant told him he was supposed to mix it with water.
“I bent over to get my canteen and a shell hit close by, and my assistant machine gunner, who was sitting up looking through an aperture, was killed when a piece of shrapnel went through his heart,” he said.
“What brought me to my knees were artillery and mortars. You couldn’t fight back,” Pitts said.
Schulz also had his share of close calls.
His unit was dug in on the top of a hill in 40-degrees-below-zero temperatures near the China border.
“I thought, I can’t live through this. Maybe I’ll get wounded and be sent home. Then a captain ordered me to the command post, which had heat, to work communications. God saved my life,” he said.
“It broke my heart to leave my buddy in the foxhole. In the middle of the night, we heard fighting. The captain told me to take a couple of guys up the hill to see what was going on. No one would go with me, so I went by myself. I saw thousands of Chinese. At the time, I thought they were North Koreans,” Schulz said.
His captain then sent him to find the 2nd Division headquarters and get help, but they refused.
“When I got back to my outfit, all the guys were dead. I knew which way was south, and I headed in that direction,” he said.
Staying off the road and paths, he managed to avoid the Chinese and North Koreans and joined up with a U.S. tank outfit. “We fought our way out, walking most of the way. When we got near Seoul, we found help and the outfit was reorganized. Only 21 of the 130 original members of Co. L survived,” he said.
“The funny part of it is, all my buddies that died ... I can’t remember their names. I guess I block them out,” said Pitts, who is getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The therapist wanted to help me remember the names, but I said ‘No, I don’t want to remember.’’’
With the rank of corporal, Pitts, was discharged May 22, 1953, to the Army Reserve and was a sergeant 1st class when he left the Reserve. He worked as an electrician at RMI in Niles 40 years. He is a member of several veterans groups, including the Trumbull County American Legion Honor Guard.
“I still like the military and to be with veterans ... we have a bond,” he said.
Schulz, who worked at Ohio Chair in Austintown until it closed, then at the GM Lordstown Complex 27 years before retiring in 1997, also suffers from PTSD.
He had frequent nightmares after he was discharged and sometimes still does. His wife, Gabrielle, said he used to sleep with a bayonet by his side.
“I haven’t forgotten,” Schulz said.