Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBob Middleton TranscriptionCity of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Bob Middleton Interviewer: Tom Turbiville Place: College Station, Texas Project: Veterans of the Valley Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt 00:00: Tom Turbiville (TT): And I’m especially excited about having a, a Korean War vet, because as you said, it’s sometimes regarded as the forgotten war. And, and. 00:09: Bob Middleton (BM): It’s, it’s. There are a lot of people that just, don’t even know that that existed. TT: Right. 00:14: BM: And. I’m talkin’ about, grown people (already?) forgot about it. TT: Exactly. I did a, a show this last weekend with, Bill Youngkin. 00:25: BM: We saw it. We saw it. TT: Yeah, who’s writing the articles in The Eagle and he mentioned on there about how the Korean War. You know we talk about the World War II and how they’re gettin’ old and movin’ on. Well you know, Korea came right after that, it was. 00:39: BM: I kind of said we might not be it, what they call the greatest generation. But we’d, we were their baby brothers I think. You know, brothers. TT: [laughs] That’s right. 00:48: BM: ‘Cause I was just, couple of years away from enlistin’ when the war was over, ‘cause I already ti-, I, I was ready to go. TT: Sure. Now you were A&M class of ’51? 00:57: BM: ’51. Huh-huh. TT: Where, where did you grow up? Where did you? 01:00: BM: In Tomball, Texas. TT: IN Tomball? 01:01: BM: Huh-huh. That’s when it was just a town way out of Houston. TT: Yeah. 01:05: BM: And now it’s just almost a part of Houston. TT: Now it’s part of Houston. 01:07: [Unidentified Woman]: UW: That wasn’t where you were born though. TT: Where were you born? 01:09: BM: I was born in Iola. Do you know where Iola is, right across? TT: Oh sure, of course. Of course, yeah. 01:14: BM: But I didn’t live there. My mother’s, family’s. My, her father had a farm there, a small farm and raised seven kids there and. When they, my, my when my father went, was ready, when they were ready to have me, my father took her back home and then he, stayed around long enough for me to be born and headed back out to the packer liner. He was a packer liner in Houston. TT: Yeah. 01:34: BM: And. I went to s-, s-started first grade in Navasota. And I went three years school in Hearne so I was. TT: So you’ve been all over the map. 01:41: BM: Bounced all around here. TT: You, you’ve bounced all around. And, but, you, you had most of your youth in Tomball is that right? 01:47: BM: Most of my, from seventh grade to ha-, to college and onto life. Got out of the Army. TT: Yeah. Tomball was your home. 01:54: BM: Tomball was my home. We. (This is?) nice, this, this town. Small town here. Class-B sports and now it’s 5-A. They only have one school but. [chuckle] But it’s a. TT: So you graduated high school in what, ’47? ’48? 02:11: BM: ’47. TT: ’47. 02:13: BM: Hmm-hmm. TT: Okay. And you were a freshman in ’48. That was year I was born. You were a freshman. UW: Everybody looks now. TT: [laughs] And, and class of ’51. So, the war was, the Korean war was, was goin’ pretty strong when you graduated. 02:31: BM: It started in the summer of ’50. TT: Right. 02:34: BM: And then I had another year then. Uh, I graduated in the summer of ’51. And so it had already been goin’ on and actually the class of ’50 is the one that caught the brunt of it. They went over and made the invasions and, and, went through the, the Chosin Reservoir thing and I, that’s what I. And fortunately I missed that but, I got over there in time to, there was still a lot of action goin’ on out there and, and war was over about two years after I got there then. TT: Right, right. Now you were in the Army? 03:08: BM: I was in the Army infantry. TT: Army infantry. 03:10: BM: Hmm-hmm. TT: So you were on the ground? 03:12: BM: Yes. As I went to. The first. I reported to my company command post on Heartbreak Ridge, the first night that I got there. It, you had to wait to night to go across because you had to right down the valley and, and we went Heartbreak Ridge and they assigned me to a platoon that was across. Heartbreak Ridge came down and then I went right straight across the valley and there’s a little river goin’ right, about a third of a way, across the valley. It went north and south and. And my platoon was on the low ground which is the worst place you can be in, in combat. For, in infantry. So you always want the high ground. Well, mine was (slow? Slope?) because I was the last guy there and they gave me the (slope?). Well I had 55 men on my, my first assignment was the third platoon, had 55 men straight across the. It started a little bit on Heartbreak Ridge and came down, across the valley and started back up the other side. And I had 55 men which is a large platoon but they had extra men assigned because, length and width of the (ground?) lot to cover. TT: Now you were the, were you the platoon leader? 04:27: BM: I was the platoon leader. TT: You were the platoon leader. 04:28: BM: Hmm-hmm. TT: So straight out of Texas A&M College and before long you find yourself commanding a platoon in Korea. 04:35: BM: That’s correct. That’s right. That. TT: That’s quite a, quite a leap isn’t it? 04:38: BM: Actually they, they took infantry officers, and I’m sure the other branches, services does, do the same thing, but they took us infantry officers when we graduated and were called on to active duty almost immediately. And they sent us to Fort Benning, Georgia for a sixteen week. TT: Training. 04:56: BM: Training. Associates. Army Officers Training School. And they kind of went through the basics of, got right down the nitty-gritty and did the, did the training and, and. TT: They were training you specifically for what you were going to do. To go to Korea. 05:08: BM: Right. I was already an officer and they were showing me how to be one. [chuckle] And it was a, it was an excellent school. I, stayed there sixteen weeks and then we went. I was already assigned to the sixth infantry division at Fort Ord, California. My original papers said I was to, to go to Fort Benning and then to Fort Ord. And I got there and we, and I was assigned to a company that, that was you know, training troops. They were training new recruits. And, and that was good training for me too. We brought in a, a cycle of new troops that had just been drafted. And, made soldiers out of ‘em and most of ‘em went to Korea. And, we trained another, but halfway through the next cycle they brought in, well I had my orders to go to Korea. TT: Yeah. 06:02: BM: At that time, usually be, the reserve officers went to Korea. Which was called F.E.C.O.M.—Far East Command. And the regular Army officers went to E.U.C.O.M.—Europe. And so most of the officers, unless they volunteered, were regular, reserve officers. Now a lot of the. I say a lot, some of the West Point officers they wanted to get in action and get medals and stuff as soon as they could and they volunteered to go to Korea. We did have some West Point. But most of the other regular Army officers were sent to Europe. TT: Right. So you’re, you’re infantry, you’re platoon was, was front line. 06:52: BM: Yes. TT: In Korea. That obviously generates some stories. 06:57: BM: Yes. We had. Well the first thing, that happened when I. I, I actually flew. From, soon as I got my orders well I took, her and we had a little baby by that time. I took them back to Tomball and she lives was in (city name?) and she’s (Mrs. Tom Pattenford?). And I just left them there and got an airplane at Hobby which was Houston Airport at the time and, and flew to San Francisco and was ordered to, and went to Camp Stoneman and they they, saw that I was an infantry officer and of course that’s, that’s what they need. My M.O.S. meant Military Occupation Specialist was 1542 which meant Infantry Unit Commander. Not just to that everybody. So they flew me to, to Tokyo. And then they flew me from Tokyo to Seoul and, and. Flew me from Seoul to regimental headquarters and, and I was, talked with, meeting the commanders and everything there and then sure enough they had a helicopter with, went regimental to, to battalion. So I went by air all the way from Houston to the combat zone. TT: To where you were. 08:15: BM: And then I, I got there in the morning and the. And this valley was north and south. And that’s, like I said it’s called a Mundung-ni Valley. And that’s, and you couldn’t go. Once you turned, there was a (little finger?) there, the battalion headquarters behind in the mountain. And once you hit a road, once you’ve turned that road, you were in direct sight to everybody for miles. I mean it’s, on a clear day you could see everything. And so you bec-, you came under fire soon as you rounded the curve in the jeep or whatever you came in. TT: So you recall when it got serious? When, when you, when you had your first combat? 08:52: BM: It got serious as I made that first turn. When I made that first turn is when it got serious. TT: When it got serious. 08:57: BM: And it was night. TT: Yeah. 08:59: BM: They didn’t, wouldn’t allow any traffic in the daytime unless it, they had to. And they turned the lights off in, in your transport, no one (light?) your jeep. And there was a sign. A big sign that just, behind just before you made the turn to hedge right up the valley, it says. It says something like, “Caution. From this point on, (Joe Chink?) directs your traffic.” And it was Chinese out in front of us. And they did. And there was always, all day long, there was, artillery and mortar shells coming in and going out. When I, I first went out when it was a, what we call a quiet 50s. Which was .50 caliber machine guns and (tracers?), they, and, you might have seen they’re old now and they, they don’t have ‘em anymore but they were, they were, impressive. TT: Yes. 09:58: BM: And they were shootin’ and they were firing tracers all the way across, over my head to the mountains and we were seein’ ‘em fire back ‘cause tracers work both ways. You can see where they came from and to be able to see where they’re goin’. And, and so, the enemy’s tryin’ knock out the machine gun, the machine gun’s tryin’ to, to just harass us. They, they were tryin’ to knock ‘em out. So that was my first experience. And they took me up to Heartbreak Ridge. The, company, my company’s commander there. And. And, they told me where I was gonna me and they called for the sergeant to come get me. And he introduced me said, one thing I told me that, as soon as I get down there and got established was go over and meet the pla-, tank platoon leader and ‘cause they were (I?), had that tank, that platoon of five M206 tanks attached to my, to my platoon. So he was at, the tank platoon leader was in one bunker and I was supposed to be in the other. And. Preceding this I, there was a lot of Aggie, Aggies, from when, when I went to Fort Benning and (Ord?). It and. Of course everyone who had graduated in ’50 and ’51 were, were all around. And when I went to this, this sixteen week school, there was a lot of Aggie, of Aggies there and they. We, of course we got together a lot. And one of which was a guy in the infantry there named (Ken Shopey?). He was a, B-Company and, B-Company infantry. I said, (“We’re not.”?) And I saw him right in Fort Benning and I when I got to, to Fort Ord and I was assigned to C-Company. When I got there, he was there. He was, he was one of the platoon leaders in C-Company. Same company. And, and here we’ve gone from coast to coast still together. And what I’m leading up to, is when I went over the next morning to meet my tank platoon leader, guess who it was? (Ken Shopey?). TT: I’ll be darned. 12:11: BM: Same guy. And, he said something like, “Where’d you been? I’ve been waiting for you.” [chuckle] Something like that and so. But that’s a, interesting tale and we were goin’ to front lines together the entire time. TT: I’ll be darned. 12:25: BM: Yeah. [UW]: And he was involved of the battle that you got the Silver Star award. TT: Right. Talk about that. The battle that you got the Silver Star in. 12:34: BM: Well, by the time we got there, the lines were, there was trenches. That we, we had to, we had a front line and they had a front line. All dug in. Of course we were, my front line was right across the valley so everybody was seeing me and we. And. Of course it was a place that they would attack so we got a lot of people comin’ in probing all the time and we, had a lot of action and, we. We sent patrols out. Every night we sent a patrol out. I, I call it an ambush patrol. And it’s just to stop somebody who isn’t, if an attack was comin’ they’d be the first ones to see. And of course they would be gone. But, but they’d be the first ones to see it. And every night we had somebody out there. And, once or twice a week, they went, we, we sent another, a bigger patrol that just went around trying to find the enemy. And contact ‘em and, and you try to (attack their prisoner?) or. It wasn’t attack somebody and, because that all came back from, d-, from headquarters but. We’d go out and patrol the lines. And, we made several of those. And, and one time when I had to go out, well I took. I took about, I think it was, see it was seven men, I, I had about twenty-one men there. And I left seven and took, went out, was kept ‘em in the, reserve and then fourteen went on and an-, another one went, stayed (about?) behind us. And we go (after?), go, we had three separate places to go to and we camped at one place for a while and then moved to another and a third place we went there, we, we were there about five minutes and we were, being, a-, I looked up and I saw about eight, of the enemy comin’ down over, across one of the knolls there and. Actually what happened was is, we looked up and there was some more on the other side and so we’d actually, sort of walked into a trap. TT: Yeah. 14:52: BM: Not, not really but. So we maneuvered around and, kind of got set before the firing (heap?) started to, to, (get?) protection and. We had preset, at each location we were goin’ to. Artillery and mortar fire to come in if we, had to have ‘em in the tanks also. There about five tanks down there, that (shots would?) come in. Well they had zeroed in and I, when I told ‘em whatever position I was at for, they knew which (exchange?) and knew where to fire at. Well we did have a, quite a big, skirmish there. They ended up, there was seven of us. And when they started, the other seven that was behind us came up and then we had the reserve back in, was in one place and I called them up too. We ended up, having quite a battle there and, and we estimated we, killed about twenty of ‘em. And we, and thought maybe about five or six or more that we’d hit. But we saw twenty of ‘em fall. And, I lost. Well I had one guy that got wounded. And he got knocked down and got back up again. And one guy was shot. And we had to, get him. And I had to crawl up, around a rock and grab him, and, and pull him back. And he, and. We, he ended up, when we got back to the front lines, he was, he was dead already yeah. We sort of presumed that he was killed immediately. TT: Hmm-hmm. 16:34: BM: And. We had to call in fire on top of it, we couldn’t get out then and so we had to call in fire on, on top of us but. Kind of soften things up so, so we can get it out. TT: Wow. 16:49: BM: And at first the artillery and the mortars wouldn’t. They were real slow, ‘cause they knew we were there. And even though they, that’s what they supposed to have done, I guess they hesitated. And. Human nature I suppose. But, I got a hold of, my friend, with in, with the tanks. And, and he came right in and, and fired and they were pinpoint accuracy. And they, I believe that that saved all of our lives then when he did that. And. And then after he started was the rest of the artillery and, and the mortars and things started firing and. TT: And that gave you the cover and bought you the time to, to get out. Yeah. 17:28: BM: Hmm-hmm. And. I did, I won, I got a Silver Star for that and so did (he? D?). He was a soldier, was a corporal that got shot. ‘Cause he had his B.A.R. wrapped under, and he got right back up and started firing again and I didn’t get hit. The whole time I was over there I didn’t get. TT: Wounded. 17:46: BM: Hit. Wounded at all. TT: During this, this battle. Explain to me exactly what. You were carrying a rifle? 17:58: BM: Yes. TT: And you were. 17:58: BM: I was carrying a car beam. TT: A car beam rifle. 18:01: BM: Hmm-hmm. TT: And you were just, down in the mud in the dirt, just. 18:06: BM: It was actually in the snow. It was in the winter time. TT: In the snow. 18:09: BM: And we had to he-. You’ve seen the, pictures, or, or maybe you’ve seen it in person of the Korean Monu-, Museum, or the, whatever they call at Washington. TT: Right. 18:22: BM: And it shows the soldiers walkin’, down a, scattered out, with covers on? TT: Hmm-hmm. 18:29: BM: Well those are white covers and during the snow, we had to wear them. We, that’s why we had. We, we had to have our white on. And it. TT: Yeah. So that’s what you were wearing. 18:38: BM: Huh-huh. TT: Was white as a, as camouflage. 18:39: BM: Just a, just a cover over our, uniforms. TT: Right. Right, right. And were you down on the ground doing most of this? On your stomach? Movin’ on your stomach? Just? 18:44: BM: Yes. Yes sir. Yes. Hmm-hmm. Or. TT: Or however you could. 18:51: BM: We had to move around some. TT: Do your job and. 18:53: BM: Yeah we’d get, but you’d fall down (and to?) shoot and everything. TT: Yeah. How about how long did this battle last would you say? 19:00: BM: Oh about, twenty to twenty-five minutes. TT: Yeah. 19:06: BM: And it was. It was quite disturbin’. That’s the biggest battle I’ve been in. But we had had some, shots fired back and forth when, when we. TT: Right. 19:17: BM: That was. That was quite a, experience. TT: So you count yourself fortunate to. 19:24: BM: (Prayerfully?). TT: Been one of the ones who, who was able to, to survive the war. 19:28: BM: Yeah. TT: How long were you in Korea? 19:30: BM: I was in almost a year. TT: Almost a year? 19:32: BM: A little less than a year. And it was. I thought of something else, maybe I’d think it. TT: Yeah. Now eventually you left, the Heartbreak Ridge area right? And you went. You, you had talked about. 19:45: BM: We were relieved at one time and went back for training. And we, started training. And, you know, you never, you never get to rest in the Army so they pulled us off and we were supposed to, we immediately went, in training. And we, just to get us off the line. They do that to relieve us for some other division. And then, put you back up front again. Which we did. Another time in a less, a less active area I would say. But then right after that, we were, they had the uprising in Koje-do Island, the prisoners? TT: Hmm-hmm. 20:22: BM: And. The prisoners actually captured the commander and the, and the lieutenant commander. And held them hostage and, and Colonel Boatner who was the commandant at A&M the four years I was there. And when I left, he left too and he went to Korea and, and he was assigned to, to quell the riot. To do what he could to get. And they actually put all those prisoners in 5,000 to 10,000 men compound. Which was wrong to start with, you can’t control that many people. TT: Right. 21:01: And interesting, amusing thing is that it, it’s supposed to have been, said that, when they asked him, did he think he could handle. Afterwards he said, “I handled Texas A&M Mother’s Clubs for four years.” [laughs] Nothin’ like. Anyway. [laughs] TT: [laughs] That’s what Boatner said? 21:21: BM: That’s what Boatner said. TT: [laughs] 21:22: BM: And he. They made him a general after (he’d?). But we, we went down there and helped him, broke it, broke ‘em down then to five hundred men, compounds. And they were very easily manageable then. TT: Right. 21:36: BM: And. And it was, just a matter of. TT: How many prisoners were, were there? 21:41: BM: There were about thirty thousand. TT: Goodness gracious. 21:45: BM: And those were mostly the Chinese see. North Koreans they kept on land. I’m not sayin’ they’re all Chinese, just most. And. TT: Was this prison camp, was it a, like what you normally think of prison camps with, high fences and or and, and? 22:04: BM: Yes it was all fenced. Fenced area and it was on an island. So these (mumble?) Alcatraz was is. TT: So it was an island? 22:14: BM: On an island. Koje-do is an island. TT: Where, where is that do you reckon? 22:16: BM: And jut off the south, southern tip of Korea. TT: Southern tip of Korea. 22:21: BM: Busan is where you usually. TT: And did you get there by, by boat or? 22:24: BM: By boat. TT: Yeah. 22:27: BM: I’m sure there’s an airstrip there now. TT: Right, right, right, right. 22:30: BM: And there were people livin’ there. It was a. They were already (went there?) people. They’re in a war. They’re in a war zone. There are people living there. Just people, farmers and things like that. TT: Just goin’ about their business? 22:41: BM: Hmm-hmm. And they would come in at night. We’d. They helped build the trenches and everything. They was, hired people. They would come in and work at night to sandbag the trenches and things like that. TT: Yeah. 22:56: BM: Of course we had to watch ‘em because we didn’t know who was who. You never could tell who, whether. How you tell a North Korean from a South Korean. TT: Right, yeah, sure. 23:05: BM: And there was a lot of spies over here. TT: Right, right, right. 23:09: BM: And you had to watch your men on a, personal time because there’s a lot of prostitutes up in the mountains. And they were apparently easy to find ‘cause they would slip off. And, and, and they were just up in the mountains there. And then they would, than they. TT: Yeah. Yeah. 23:25: So we’d catch. We had. We even had to send patrols behind us to catch the guys that. TT: Oh is that right? [chuckle] You gotta keep track of your men. 23:34: BM: Yeah. TT: So when you finished at, what was it Koje-do is that how you pronounce it? 23:38: BM: Koje-do. TT: Koje-do. When you finished there, were you, were you finished in Korea or what were you doin’ from there? 23:44: BM: I actually we were, we got relieved in Koje-do. I. And, we were pullin’ out on L.S.T.s. And I put my, had my platoon on, had three L.S.T. that the platoon was on and my equipment on everything. And we were leaving to go, land somewhere and, and I guess relieve somebody on the front line but it was. And. Somebody came. A jeep came pulled in front my L.S.T. and said, a lieutenant jumped out and said, “If Lieutenant Middleton can get off. We got orders he can go home.” And so, I got off, I had to g-, go up. They were already hosin’ down the ramp, the L.S.T. and I had to jump off the thing in the water, but I made it. And, and, it was. And I was five days off in my ship goin’ back home when the war ended. TT: I see. 24:39: BM: So it. We probably would have no more, had no more contact. Combat at that point in time. TT: Right, right, right. 24:48: BM: I hope I talk better because my (thing?). TT: No you’re doin’ great. You’re doin’, doin’ great. So you came home and then what you do after that? 24:56: BM: I came home and took some leave. I had some accumulated leave and then went to Fort Sam Houston and I, given a release from active duty. I wasn’t given a discharge and I, was, stayed in the reserve until 1964 and then I was, discharged completely which is, a good time because I would’ve been in, in Vietnam pretty soon afterwards. TT: Hmm-hmm. 25:25: BM: I missed the Vietnam War but I, served in the reserves. TT: Right. 25:32: BM: And I sometime, I was given the opportunity, when we’re back in Koje-do when, when I, I was already. By that time I was the Company Executive Order which is the second in command and. And the Company Commander was rotating out. And, they told me if I would sign over for another stretch that they’d make, make me a captain. And, I was a first lieutenant by then. And that could make me a captain and give me the company. I decided I wanted to come on home because I really wouldn’t a, (mumble?) and. And sometimes in retro-, retrospect I, kind of wish I had stayed in there. TT: Right, yeah, yeah. 26:15: BM: The service is somethin’ that. I like, I, I admire people who were in the service and. TT: Right. What you do after you got out of active duty? What was your career? 26:24: BM: Oh. I went to work for an oil company. I went to work for the ol’ Pan-American Petroleum Corporation. And worked three years for them. TT: In Houston or in? 26:35: BM: It was actually in Alvin. TT: In Alvin. 26:37: BM: In the Houston area. But after about three years they, had went through a merge and I, I was let go. But, but then a, week I went to work for what was then called the Magnolia Petroleum. It was actually Magnolia Pipeline. I’m, I was a pipe runner through my whole career. Which became Mobile. But not Exxon Mobile, (that?) wasn’t a part of Exxon Mobile. My father was an Exxon. Retiree. TT: You’re father was an Exxon. 27:06: BM: He was an Exxon Retiree. TT: And you were Magnolia which was the, the precursor of, of, of Mobile Run. And you were a pipe liner. 27:14: BM: I, built. We built pipe liners and operated pipe liners. And I worked, various parts of the world. I was. I was, work, worked on the design of the Alaska pipe line and I worked on, the colonial pipe line which is, takes gasoline up to the east coast and, and. Eventually I, I also, we designed a, we. Our company with seven other companies got together and we were gonna design a deep water off-loading port off the coast of Freeport. And that was called C-Dock. And I, we worked at that. I worked for years there and. Just on loan. And that, fell through because the government red, red tape and everything. That was all the money spent was. Mobile pulled out. And they sent me to Norway. TT: Norway? 28:10: BM: Huh-huh. TT: Yeah. 28:12: BM: Yeah. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I worked in, I actually worked in Libya, Norway, Saudi Ara-, Arabia, and Qatar. And nobody heard of Qatar till now and that’s where, the military headquarters is. It’s a small thumb off Saudi Arabia. It’s north actually. It’s got a lot of oil. TT: Yeah. 28:33: BM: And I retired from overseas and we moved, actually we moved to Bay City, Texas. And they were there several years because that’s where my wife is from. And, she took care of her parents she. They both passed away and. I spent so much time up here, I’d workin’ for the Corps. I liked to work for the Corps Development Council. And, show up many athletic events as I could. We just decided to move up here. TT: Yeah. 28:59: BM: It’s been (great in season?). TT: Yeah. Well wow, what a career. So you retired, when did you retire? From, from, the oil business? 29:08: BM: 19-, middle or early 1990s. I, I did some, consulting work after that. And did, went to Pennsylvania a few times and, and finally after about five more years I just decided I didn’t want to work anymore. TT: Well you did more traveling in your, in your adult career than you did in the military didn’t you? 29:27: BM: Yes I did. TT: [chuckle] 29:29: BM: Hell we’ve. She was able to go with me everywhere except to, Libya. She, I was, she didn’t go to Libya but. But she went everywhere else. And enjoyed it. She was, very active. And we, we had a good time. Even Saudi Arabia was a, at that point in time was a very nice, good place to live (as a I say?). They took, if you worked for a large company, well they take care of you wherever you go. TT: Right. Do you all have children? 29:56: BM: Yes we have two daughters, grown of course and. They have two children each. And I have. One of my daughters graduated from A&M 1978. And one of ‘em went to, East Texas State in Commerce, which is now Texas A&M Commerce. TT: Right. 30:15: BM: And they both have two children of which, one has got his Bachelors and Masters here at A&M. Another one has just graduated last year as an architect from A&M. And, my granddaughter is, is a senior here now and she’s been livin’ with us but she’s moved out with some of her friends into a house. TT: I see. 30:36: BM: And. The other one, moved up here just as soon as he got out of high school. Still lives here but he, was never able to get into A&M. He went to Blinn. TT: Yeah. 30:46: BM: But he’s a big Aggie as the rest of ‘em. TT: Sure. 30:48: BM: And he still lives here. He’s 23 years old now but he. TT: So you’ve got two grandkids that have graduated from A&M. And the other grandkids, one’s that’s fixin’ to graduate and the other one that, that’s, that’s here has been going to Blinn. 31:00: BM: Yeah well he doesn’t now. He’s, he and his father actually own a, a Napa store in, Giddings. TT: I see. I see. 31:12: BM: They were from Bay City too. And, and. TT: So are any of your grandkids married? 31:18: BM: No. TT: No? 31:19: BM: Just waitin’ to. Waitin’ to see. [chuckle] TT: [laughs] 31:23: BM: I. Don’t have any, don’t have any great-grandchildren. I have. TT: What have we got there? I wanna see what you got. 31:31: BM: I’ve gotta put somethin’ I wrote here. TT: Good. 31:34: BM: And I’ll let you have that. And I, I just sat down here sometime ago and, and decided to write that. TT: Oh I love these. I will, I will, I will. Oh well thank you very much. 31:45: BM: And. That was Britain. Somebody here is writin’ a book about the Aggies in the military. It’s supposed to be published real soon. TT: Hmm-hmm. 31:54: BM: And one of my classmates coordinate our class for years and he, dropped somethin’ in town. And I thought I was gonna get a page or two and I ended up gettin’ ten pages. TT: Yeah you did a little. Yeah single space. [UW]: You showin’ the picture? TT: Yeah I wanna see. [UW]: Page 55. 32:13: BM: The front line. TT: That’s shocking. 32:14: BM: Hmm-hmm. He was the tank platoon leader. And then we were in front of us, my command post there. TT: Oh my goodness. This will show up good on the T.V. You got some more stuff there? 32:27: BM: Yes. My wife’s a, she left me a scrapbook. I didn’t say anything about all this war. When we came back home and I went on back with my business and, and try to forget it and it’s kind of hard to forget it. And, in fact I still have nightmares. I have, a (trickle things?) come to my mind and, and she has to wake me up every once in a while. TT: Is that right? 32:49: BM: We had a kid. One of our patrols that went out. Just our regular ambush patrols. TT: Well I’d think I’ll get this back to you on, on Wednesday if that’s okay. Anything here. Good. 33:04: BM: But, one of ‘em came back. Usually they leave ‘em at night. Half, at midnight or halfway through. And when they showed up, well the assistant squad leader was missing. Nobody had heard anything, he was comin’ from the back. He was coverin’ the rear. And, and so I had to take some men out to, try and find him. And, we had found his helmet. But that’s all we found. And, oh we found his rifle and three other helmets. His helmet. We just found, picked, we’d thought maybe we, that was his. But we, got b-, got back to (business?), three helmets that somebody had lost ‘em and shot at. Shot at ‘em before and. You always pick up things like that in battlegrounds and. And. Two days later my company commander called and told me, gave me the coordinates to, get my glasses and (took?). And they had this guy staked out. On a ridge. Way out in front, about 2000 yards. They had him staked out, with his helmet besides him and, and had him taken his clothes off so his white t-shirt would show. And they had actually, got him, killed him and then put him up for display so we could see. And that’s, that kind of. And I. TT: Is that what wakes you up at night? 34:38: BM: Partially yes. TT: Yeah. 34:39: BM: I still remember that. And, I just can’t understand how anybody can do that to somebody. That’s just. TT: Yeah. 34:48: BM: Very depressing. And. Anyway I thought I was gonna have to. In fact I got a, people, volunteers. I, I went out there and told ‘em somebody, we were gonna have to go get him. TT: So did you go? 35:00: BM: And we were set to go. We already had our plans made and everything and we were set to go and we got, orders from regimental headquarters not to go. They said this come down from the top. They said, no need to sacrifice. TT: Right. 35:17: BM: Now the Marines can talk about, not leavin’ a man behind, but I just wonder if they would go, get somethin’ like that ‘cause. That was, eesh, they just had it there, see if they come and get. ‘Cause you know, they, they had. TT: Yeah it was a trap. 35:30: BM: Thousands of people ready, to, to get you when you. But we were gonna go. TT: Wow. My goodness. 35:36: BM: Yeah. TT: Wow. Wow. Well I wanna start. Let me see what you got. 35:38: BM: Okay. [shuffle] 35:43: BM: My wife and her friend put this together. TT: Oh man, she’s a scrapbooker I can tell. My wife does the same thing. 35:49: BM: And this is a picture of, this is Heartbreak Ridge right here. [looking at photograph] TT: Huh-huh. 35:53: BM: And, and it comes down across and that’s the Mundung-ni Valley. Straight up this way. And. And we were right. The lines went across there and then, then across and back up the other side. You can’t see the part I was in on this one but. TT: So this, this indention that I see here, that’s the valley? Or? 36:11: BM: No. It’s goin’ this way. TT: Okay. 36:14: BM: It starts here and. TT: Oh I see, I see, on the other side of the ridge. That’s the, that’s the valley. Okay. 36:16: BM: Yes. This is two different sets of mountains there. TT: Okay. 36:21: BM: And this is what (Boatner?) called Heartbreak Ridge. There I am as a senior. TT: Wow. 36:30: BM: And there I was, me as a young. TT: Oh some great pictures here. 36:34: BM: Young officer. And. There’s. I married. We got married right after I went into the Army. TT: Huh-huh. 36:46: BM: Here’s a picture of me in my at Fort Ord in my, in my ’51 Ford Victoria. TT: Oh right. 36:52: BM: Which I wish I had back. TT: That was a machine. 36:54: BM: [laughs] I loved that car. Uh. Now this is, this is the picture that you just looked at. TT: Right. 37:07: See 51 years later, 52 years later here’s the sa-, these two guys standin’ in the same position. TT: This is. [UW]: Ken Shopey. TT: That’s Ken right there? Right here. 37:15: BM: Huh-huh. That’s Ken right there. TT: I’ll be darned. 37:18: BM: That might be a good thing. TT: Yeah oh no absolutely. 37:20: BM: Can show both of these. That, that thing can just hone in here. TT: Yeah. 37:24: BM: So that’s, the same guys in the same, standin’ in the same position just about. TT: And when was this taken? 37:33: BM: That was taken in, last year. TT: This last year. 37:36: BM: Last year. And this was taken in ’52. TT: Goodness gracious. 37:45: BM: And there’s my orders for the Silver Star. TT: The Silver Star. 37:48: BM: And there’s some writers in the papers. And here’s some of my, platoon leaders in my company. That’s me and, three others. I can’t remember their names now. And that was taken in, Koje-do. [shuffle] 38:14: BM: About that, I carried a pistol around and they wanted, a .45 caliber pistol. That’s what I didn’t. Here’s some of, there’s a minute here, medals or somethin’. This is the ship I came back on. TT: Yeah. 38:34: BM: That’s somethin’ else. That’s my great, grand, great-great-great grandfather. Was in the Civil War. There’s more pictures. TT: This is a wonderful scrapbook. 38:51: BM: All right, here’s, here’s a picture. Of the, my (trenches?) comin’ in. And actually it came down here and I, this is about the beginning. Yeah, I’ve got a check right there. That’s my first, where my, platoon started. TT: Hmm-hmm. 39:07: BM: And it came down here and this was the river that went down. And that was about a fifteen foot drop across here. You had to go down on a brokeback. And. And then across the river and this was all leveled up in here. But this is a good picture of the, of the front line and this, is taken from the inside. Goin’ up next to bunker of one of the, where the, where the front line soldiers slept. And then they manned positions up and here. And it went on up, and it goes up this mountain here and that’s pictures of the front line. That’s a, a good picture of the trenches there. TT: Hmm-hmm. 39:54: BM: There’s my bunker right there. Where, that’s where I stayed. And that’s another, you can see the same picture you saw a while ago. And that came right across here. That’s just a picture down, down the valley. [shuffle] 40:27: BM: And that’s just some sandbags on the ground, front lines there. And there’s a picture of, deer in the winter. TT: Oh man. And during this battle that you were talking about, is this what it, it’d look like right there? 40:47: BM: Hmm-hmm. (mumble?). Actually I got. Some pictures, almost. And I think I got a picture of almost where it was. Actually it’s not on this, but it was back. In this area back in, right along in here. TT: Hmm-hmm. 41:11: BM: Right there where, where’d it happen. Here’s the line right back here. And you didn’t have to go very far before you met the enemy. TT: No I guess not. Yeah. 41:21: BM: But most of the battles didn’t last as long as that one did. They were determined to get prisoners too and we were gettin’ prisoners. And we ended up. We didn’t get a prisoner, but we took two of their dead back with us. And determined what, from that, what we were facing. They wanted to know what the company. TT: And about twenty of them died during that? 41:41: BM: Huh-huh. TT: Yeah, yeah. 41:45: BM: I don’t know how, how much of this you might want. TT: Oh no this is, this, this is, this is great. If I promise to be real careful can I take this until Wednesday? 41:56: BM: Certainly. TT: I will, I’ll be very, very careful. I better ask her for permission. 42:01: BM: Yeah you better ask her, she’s the (word?). TT: Can I take this until Wednesday? [UW]: It’s all right with me. I have a question too. Is there any way we can get a, a VHS or something like that. TT: Yes. Absolutely. I give a VHS and a DVD. [UW]: Perfect. TT: Of, of (point?). I’ll get you the VH, I’ll get you a couple of VHS tapes pretty quickly after it airs. And then the DVD it’ll be, probably a few more weeks until they get that to me, from KAMU. But absolutely. Yeah, yeah, we’ll be doin’ that. We’ll be doin’ that. It’s a great story. Uh, I can’t wait to do that show. And this, this scrapbook, this, this book is wonderful. My wife does scrapbook. And. [UW]: That’s my one attempt at it. I’m a quilter instead of a. TT: Oh. Well you’ve done, you’ve done very good at it. Oh my goodness. 42:46: BM: This is what I have, padded balls instead of. [UW]: But I am so glad, so thankful for what you’re doin’ and, bringing all this to light. TT: Well you know, it’s, it’s, it’s really my, my honor to do it. I, I, I guess I got my. 43:02: BM: Yeah. And. I wanna. TT: Absolutely. 43:07: BM: (He was?) an officer. TT: Right. Oh yeah. 43:09: BM: If I wasn’t a professional soldier, would I, went on over there. Over there. No one knows? TT: Right. 43:17: BM: Citizen soldier. TT: Yeah. 43:19: BM: And I wanna sh-. I wanna tell you one thing. I’m not very, I don’t protect myself very well. I have a little problem. You might have to. [UW]: He’s shy. TT: No. 43:32: BM: You’ll have to ask me a question or somethin’. TT: Well no, no, no, what we’ll do, no you’re not gonna be makin’ a 30 minute speech. It’ll be a conversation much like we’re having right and like you’ve seen the shows. You’ll do most of the talkin’, but I’ll lead you in the direction. And then when I think it’s time to go into another direction, I’ll lead you in that direction. 43:50: BM: But I’m not like Bill Youngkin, he’s a lawyer. And he can, he can, he can. TT: I, I need to, I need be conscious of the time because you’d be amazed how fast twenty seven and a half minutes goes. That we’ve got to, to do it in and, and to show the photographs and all that. But this will be a, this will be a, a good show. And what we’ll do is, we tape it at 1:30. You know where KAMU is? Where their? 44:12: BM: It’s right on Houston Street isn’t it? TT: Right, exactly. Right there at the same place they’ve always been. That one story building there on the left. As you’re goin’ to campus on Houston Street. And you can just park in the back of it. Right back there where the old tennis courts used to be. And you, there’s, there’s 24 hour parking spaces and you can just park in one of those. And we, we try to start taping at about 1:30. 44:33: BM: And what day is this? TT: Wednesday. 44:35: BM: Wednesday. TT: Wednesday, day after tomorrow. We start, tryin’ to start taping about 1:30 so if you could be there about 1:15 that would be great. And by the time, they get us all mic’d up and get all their, stuff goin’ and their cameras focused and everything like that and get the voice checked and all that. We usually actually start the show about, 1:45 or so. And we go straight through. We don’t, have, we don’t do take two. 45:01: BM: Don’t do tape over. TT: No, no we just go straight through it and. 45:03: BM: These amateurs, they don’t have to. TT: [laughs] We just go straight through it. Because, you, it’s a pretty easy show to do it, it’s just a conversation between you and I and, and. So you oughta be, you oughta be out of there by 2:15 or so. And then I’ll get you a tapes. And it’ll air this weekend. 45:19: BM: All right. I might have to stop and get a drink of water or something. TT: Oh no, well that’s fine. You can bring your own water. We’ll, we’ll have water with the. That you can just have right there. 45:26: BM: Okay. TT: And when, when I’m askin’ the questions or when we’re showin’ the pictures you take a swig of water anytime you want, just so you’re comfortable. That’ll be fine. And you certainly, welcome to be there and come and sit and you’ll have a monitor there that you can watch if you want. So, love to have you there. [UW]: Thank you, we’ll see. TT: So that’d be, that’d be wonderful if you want. [UW]: I understand. Yeah. But if you wanna come that’s good. Can you get there okay if, if, in? 45:50: BM: Yeah. TT: I don’t need to come and get you or anything like that. 45:52: BM: No, I’m military. TT: No that’s fine. 45:54: BM: I was gonna park in the parking garage, that parking is. TT: No, no, no just park right behind KAMU. 45:58: BM: When you go by it, the side of KAM, from Houston, from Houston Street? TT: Yeah. Yeah, you just turn left. You, you pass the building. And you take an immediate left right on the far side of the building. And that’ll just take you around to the back of the building. Of, of KAMU. And there’s parking spaces right behind the building. Now you don’t have to park at the parking garage. You can park right behind the building. And there’s a ramp, that comes up the back, the back entrance. And I’ll be there to meet ya, when you, when you get there, or somebody will be.