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HomeMy WebLinkAboutP.M. "Mickey" Donaho Korea The Fogotten War "° s Z° S } 3 .' "'MS,.0. .. d N' of Kati ' . o . u`i Ot�unt' � "'' fih 041 n ar ., >Y^� '^sec. sr. w? a ,a. .. > ..w• 4g Cw,>„ i -jr s2•, .. £, „ t if �: , - 44 ' s f 4 i'-ce,,,,,D,";-, ,, w, 11,1, _it . 4' .° 04 • * 4;41.:: i ': c31,y � I M .' . $ . P.M. "M "Donaho By Bill Youngkin of our way. In Seoul, it slowed down as we had to dear Special to The Eagle the town house by house, which took about a week. P.M. "Mickey" Donaho of the George Community "General Macarthur decided we needed to head north so we boarded ships to Wonsan. We had to wait in Madison County was, and will always be, a Marine until the day he dies. He still wears the flat top hair cut in the harbor for the navy to clear mines. The town was with si the day dies. e Marine and when the flat rests h hair in our hands because Bob Hope and his troupe were there before easy chair he does so under a drawing of General Lewis we disembarked. From there it was up hill and moss B. "Chesty' Puller. It is as if he is still serving under mostly up a narrow bumpy y d dirt road to Chosin the famous WWII and Korean War General. But, it is Reservoir. the scars that remain on his body that are a reminder "It was cold and it only became colder. When that he has earned the everlasting right to be a proud we reached the reservoir we couldn't dig in because Marine. everything was frozen. It was 20 degrees below zero that for Donaho began on March 1, 1933, in San night and with the wind chill, it was reported to be 50 Life Diego. for was born the son a career Navy man. H n is degrees below. That was when the Chinese poured over D He D ego. would was born n the son a s career Navy theYalu River and down those mountains at us.They only father e would retire as a three star Navy ACavy man. Captain He and Hi hi s had machine guns, mortars, rifles and hand grenades y may but there were thousands and thousands of them. have been born into the Navy but he always wanted to be a Marine. While in Washington D.C. in 1948 at the "We held out and finally started back where we age of fifteen, Donaho, without his parent's permission came from with the Chinese trying to swarm over us. or knowledge, enlisted in the Marine Corps. The Chinese reminded me of a fire ant hill. We fought According to Donaho "I had decided I was as them off our right flank for thirty to forty miles. We d According needed Donaho be and I decided to join the carried everything we brought, including our dead, educated as I into to the and I recruiter's to j anoin ie in trucks. Over a thousand North Korean civilians were Marines. I walked Washington D.C. and told the recruiter I wanted to following us trying to get away from the Chinese. enlist. 1 had been shaving for a couple of years and "After we made it back from Chosin Reservoir, we re- looked older than fifteen. He said he would need a equipped and headed back to try and push the Chinese birth certificate. I told him it had been burned in a fire. out of Korea. On June 2, 1951, 1 was setting up my He told me to go to the principal of the last school 1 machine gun so we could settle in for the night when a attended and get him to sign a letter identifying my Chinese mortar hit about six feet from me. It blew holes age at the time I was in school. 1. went home and wrote in my stomach, side and leg. They carried me down the the letter he requested and brought it back to the hill to an aid station where a doctor and two corpsmen recruiter the next day. The recruiter accepted the letter laid me on a crate and worked on me for a while. They and I was on my way to being a Marine. closed twenty -six holes in my intestines and picked "I was on my way to basic training at Paris Island shrapnel out of my body for quite some time. before my Dad found out. I guess he figured the Marine "1 was transferred to various hospitals undergoing Corps just might be the education I needed so he never surgeries along the way, finally ending up at the New said anything.1 had made my choices and he was going York Naval Hospital on Long Island. The doctors offered to let me live with them. When the Korean War broke to have me medically discharged but I wanted to stay out I remember asking where Korea was and my 1st in the Marine Corps. I did stay until getting married to Sgt. asked me if I would like to volunteer and see it Nancy and deciding to move back to the family farm in person. I thought yea, I would. It was off to Camp at George. And that's what we did. I became a cattle Pendleton, California where they where assembling baron, part time carpenter and full time husband until Marines into divisions. It was reported there where Nancy died about a year and a half ago. more cops in New York City than there where Marines "Whenever I go to see a new Dr. and he sees on active duty in 1950 and I think that was about right. me without a shirt on, they always remark, "what I became a machine gunner for Dog Company, 2nd happened to you," I tell them I ran into a little shrapnel Batallion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division one day. Then the new doctor or nurse will ask'what's and Gen. "Chesty" Puller was my commanding general. shrapnel: I wish 1 hadn't been shot up so bad because it I think any men who ever served under General Puller has affected me physically. But, I liked the Marine Corps was proud of that fact. You didn't have to look behind and what it stands for." I'm sure General 'Chesty' Puller you to see where the General was, he was up there would say to Donaho, Semper fi with you. P.M. "Mickey" Donaho's name is on the Brazos "On September 15, 1950, I landed on the beach at Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, to Inchon, Korea. I now knew where Korea was and would make a contribution, or if you know a WWII or Korea learn more than I wanted to about the country before War Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact I left. We didn't have too much resistance on the way the BWM at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill to Seoul. It seemed as if they where trying to get out Youngkin at (979) 776 -1325.