Veteran's Voices: Transcript of Interview

Andrew or Pete Bouchard (as his friends and family call him) was a medical officer during the Korean War. Although he believes he played no lasting role in the conflict, he assisted with the training of many new recruits and was a trained medic, responsible for the well being of other soldiers. This interview was conducted on Sunday, May 26, 2002 at around 10:00 in the morning. I had to tear Mr. Bouchard away from his work in the fields of Applegate Farm, and we adjourned to the living room of his near by house. Partly because of the pleasant and comfortable atmosphere, and partly because of Mr. Bouchard's willingness to answer my questions, the meeting went smoothly.

Q: What area of the U.S. military were you a part of?

A: Yeah.. okay.. I was a part of the 11th Airborne Legion; we were stationed in Campbell… Campbell, Kentucky.

Q: Let's see… How long did you serve for?

A: Umm… exactly two years and one day.

Q: One day?

A: Yeah, they kept me one day longer than they were supposed to. Uhh..I was an RA, which means I enlisted. When I got out of high school, a bunch of us went in to enlist because the draft was coming.

Q: Right, so did a lot of your friends enlist also?

A: No they all backed out!… in the last minute, I was the only one to make it on so.. I went on by myself. I was an RA; my number is an RA, which means I enlisted, not drafted.

Q: Where were you living before you enlisted?

A: What town?.., We were living in Unionville.

Q: Did you undergo any special training?

A: Well, we took a basic training course, and during the time I was taking basic training, I was down in Camp Picket and it was for the medical corps. I found out when I was down there, that it was all the guys who didn't want to carry rifles, so the first thing they wanted was volunteers that would join the Air Force. I was the first one to raise my hand, I wanted to get out of there.

Q: Did you have a commanding officer during your training? And what was he like?

A: Oh he was just like any other person. Airborne training was a lot different though, you had to become prepared.

Q: So it was more difficult, you would say?

A: Yeah, like when we were training, you never could walk, you could never walk any where. You had to double-time. You had to be able to jump off a 35-foot tower with out hurting yourself; you had to jump backwards off a 6-foot platform, which doesn't sound hard, but it is hard to jump backwards.

Q: After your training, what jobs were you assigned?

A: I was actually in the medics; when someone got hurt, they went to see you.

Q: Were you very active? Did you get to do a lot?

A: Not really. We used to give a lot of shots, to the new recruits. We would line them up every day, and give up to 100 shots each day.

Q: Were you stationed in the United States, or were you a part of the war abroad?

A: I was in Kentucky most of the time, but we ended up traveling to Alaska, to see how fast we could take over Alaska. We started in Anchorage and then moved to Fairbanks.

Q: Did you wish you had traveled to a foreign country, or were you content with staying in the U.S.?

A: Oh, the biggest part of the company did go over to Germany, but I happened to be home on leave when they took off to Germany. When I happened to come back, they were gone, so I stayed down, training recruits.

Q: What did you like or dislike about the war? Before you mentioned it didn't agree with you?

A: Yeah… just you have to do what you’re told, there were many rules and regulations. You couldn't do what you wanted.

Q: Are there any special stories or events that stick out in your mind?

A: Well several people got hurt while we were jumping. We had a broken back, couple broken legs. We had done a total of 1,000 jumps out of the planes. It was funny because after I was at Camp Picket, a lot of my friends got drafted; and they were at Camp Breckenbridge which was about 80 miles away. So I had my car at Camp Picket and they all had their civilian clothes in the trunk of my car. So when we wanted to go out and have civilian clothes, we would have them stacked away in the trunk of my car and we could get dressed up in our 'civies' and go out.

Q: What did you do directly after the war?

A: When I got out, I had done a lot of printing and work in a printshop, so I figured I had to do something so I checked in with the Secretary of the Printer's Association and that became my job.