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July 26, 2000

49 years and counting

Today is a special anniversary for me, one I was reminded of by Roger Spindler's letter in last week's Tribune. Roger lamented his "forgotten war", the one in Korea that started in 1950. It was called a "Police Action", and it had the support of the United Nations, primarily because the Soviet Union missed out on using its veto.

It was 49 years ago, July 19th, 1951, that I got on a bus in Santa Rosa with a bunch of other young men and became a part of the "Golden Gate Volunteers." Like more than one public relations effort the army has mounted, the GGV was somewhat of a fiasco. The original goal was two companies of volunteers from the Bay Area. (The other was the "East Bay Freedom Company"). It's been a long time, so forgive my faulty memory, but I think they wanted 240 men for each company, for a total of 480. We wound up with 160 total, and had to fill in the gap with draftees to make up one complete company. That didn't stop the army's PR flacks from taking my picture, right after I got my white sidewall haircut, and sending it to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which had the bad taste to publish it. That one picture alone may have turned away a dozen potential recruits. Some of us, me included, were through with basic in eight weeks.

I learned a good deal in that short period. Lesson # 1. Be sure your bayonet isn't broken. When we lined up to practice something called "the vertical butt stroke" my bayonet flew off the rifle and past the sergeant's ear. Luckily for me it was determined that the bayonet was defective, but that was a close call, for me and for the sergeant. I also learned what an M-1 pencil was. I am forever on the books of the army as a sharpshooter. No way, Jose. Everybody passed that Thursday, because the cadre, from the captain on down, wanted Saturday off, and if everyone shot as badly as I did, we would all have been back that weekend.

Solution: the M-1 pencil, which scored a good deal higher than I did. Luckily for both me and the army, I was never involved in combat. I fact I went to Germany, where I enjoyed wiener schnitzel, wonderful visits with my Italian relatives, and a three day pass to Paris. Some of my fellow Santa Rosans finished 16 weeks of basic training, then went to Korea, where they got a full taste of combat. A number of them didn't make it back. Would that extra Saturday of rifle training have made the difference for one or two of them? Probably not, but who really knows? The Korean War ended in stalemate. Three years. Thousands dead. A scoreless tie. I think it was worthwhile, but for the final answer to that, ask those who actually fought.

For me and a lot of other Pacificans, it meant three years of our lives (two for draftees), an honorable discharge, a college degree, and an affordable home mortgage. I missed a good conduct medal by about three weeks. I would have had to have been in the army three years and one day. As it was I was in two years, 11 months, seven days and six hours, but who's counting?

Some recent Reactor columns may be found at Paul Azevedo's website, http://www.wenet.net/~reactor/ Reach him by e-mail at reactor@wenet.net

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