Memories of the Korean War: an Interview with David Gilchrist

This interview took place at the Canton Public Library on Thursday, May 22nd 2003. This interview is part of Veterans Voices, project that connects high school students with local veterans.  This project helps open the doors of history for young people by fostering intergenerational communication and letting students learn the real life experiences of war veterans.  It is an opportunity to learn what cannot be taught in a classroom.  I was extremely nervous as I waited at the library for the arrival of Mr. David Gilchrist, who had served in the Korean War.  I had never met him before, had no idea what he looked like, and had only briefly talked to him on the telephone.  I was afraid that I might ask questions that would offend him or lead to those awkward silences.  When I finally met Mr. Gilchrist, all of my fears left me.  I was able to completely relax and focus on the interview.  The following is only an excerpt of the interview.

Melissa: Which war did you serve in?

David Gilchrist: The Korean War, which was 1950-1953.  I served for two years from ’50 to ’52.

Melissa: What was your rank?

David Gilchrist: I was a Corporal.

Melissa: Can you explain exactly what a Corporal does?

David Gilchrist: Yes.  I was a gunner in a machine gun platoon, and gunners are Corporals.  That’s the rank you attain when you become a gunner.  Um….You’re in charge of a machine gun, which is what they call a Crew-Served Weapon.  You have a squad with you, and that’s about eight people.  There’s an assistant gunner and everybody else carries ammunition.

Melissa: Did you have any discipline problems?

David Gilchrist: Um, yeah, some, but they were relatively minor.  You have to keep in mind that people in 1950, which was only five years after the second World War, were a lot more used to discipline and regimentation than a lot of young people today.

Melissa: Where were you stationed?

David Gilchrist: We trained in the south of the United States, in Virginia, actually.  We were then sent to Germany, where our primary base was Munich, Germany.  For two weeks out of every month, we patrolled the Czechoslovakian-German border.  At that time Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Russians.

Melissa: Um…What did patrolling the border involve?

David Gilchrist: Well, in a heavy weapons machine gun platoon, we would set up machine gun emplacements at strategic places where you had a good field of fire.  [Laughs]  Supporting rifle companies, and rifle companies are companies that are literally staffed by riflemen, and they would physically patrol a section of the Czechoslovakian border.  A company would only have a company front of, you know, less than a mile.  So, it wasn’t a big area we covered.

Melissa: Were you scared when you were patrolling?

David Gilchrist: No, not really.  I never felt that there was a real threat of Russian action.  I’m sure that if Russia was about to do something, there would have been all kinds of signs prior to any real action.  It’s not something I would have looked forward to.

Melissa: But you think you would have been warned in advance?

David Gilchrist: I would think so.  I think it would have been very hard to have a surprise invasion.

Melissa: Why did you decide to enlist?

David Gilchrist: I was in high school, a junior in high school.  Actually I was with a friend one winter night when our car broke down.  And we were picked up by a guy and taken to a service station.  He was a sergeant in the National Guard, and he ended up recruiting the two of us.  The two of us were….ended up being in the National Guard as a result of our car breaking down.

Melissa: How did he convince you to join the National Guard?

David Gilchrist: Ah…he made it sound very interesting.  In retrospect, it was not too bright of a decision, frankly.  [Laughs]  But he made it sound very interesting, and on a balance, it worked out very well.

Melissa: After the National Guard, did you go straight to Germany?

David Gilchrist: Well, I was in the National Guard for a little over a year, and the Korean War started a week after I graduated from Canton High.  And we were what they called ‘federalized’.  We went from being National Guards to a regular army division.  And we were sent to Virginia, where we trained for, I think, about eight months and then were sent to Germany.

Melissa: How was the trip to Germany?

David Gilchrist: We went to Germany on troop ships.  Everybody flies today; but in those days you would move troops on a 500 foot troop ship, which carried about 3,000 soldiers.  And, ah, we left Newport News [Virginia] in November, and it took us ten days to get to Bremen, Germany, which is in the north of Germany.  You go through the English Channel to do that; and, the Merchant Marine Crew on the troop ship were paid hazardous duty pay because there was still mines in the English Channel left over from the Second World War.  We didn’t get hazardous duty pay.  [Chuckles]  The North Atlantic in November was very, very rough.  A troop ship with 3,000 seasick soldiers is not a nice place.

Melissa: How big is a troop ship?

David Gilchrist: It is 500 feet long, um, I forget what the beam is, how wide it is.  But there’d be a main deck and then two decks above that which was where the officers stayed.  We [the soldiers] stayed below the main deck, as far as three decks down.  And the bunks were very small, and they’d be about six high.  So that you’d be sleeping in tiers of six people.  It didn’t pay to be on the bottom bunk, when everybody’s seasick. [Laughs]

Melissa: Ewww.  What bunk were you on?

David Gilchrist: Uh…I was someplace in the middle, but I didn’t get seasick.  For some reason, motion sickness didn’t… is something I’ve never had a problem with.

Melissa: Was it hard to say goodbye to your family when you went off to Germany?

David Gilchrist: For some reason. we all thought it was something of an adventure.  The answer’s ‘no’.  The families didn’t take it as hard as I think they would today.  Again, because it was such a short time after the Second World War.  And in the Second World War, everybody had someone that was in the service.

Melissa: So they were all used to the idea?

David Gilchrist: Yeah.  It was not something very new to us.  But you know, unlike today. Even in the Korean War, most all of the guys that were in my class served.  Very, very few of them did not.  The only ones that did not, would probably have a physical defect.

Melissa: Do you get a certain amount of pride from knowing that you served in the war?

David Gilchrist: Well, sure.  Yeah, at the time we thought it was important, part of our duty.  So sure.  I was and still am proud of it.

Melissa: How did you feel as you headed off to boot camp in Virginia?  Were you excited, scared…..?

David Gilchrist: Well, as I said, we all looked at it as an adventure.  You got to meet people from all over the country.  We were a Connecticut National Guard Organization, but we did not have anywhere near the troops a division should have.  So, they filled it up with guys from the South, and from the Midwest.  And I ended up being very good friends with people from New York City.  And that’s a different, you know, a guy from Canton in 1950…It wasn’t a big town.  These guys were from Brooklyn and the Bronx and, ah…it worked out very well.  I still correspond with people that I served with.

Melissa: Did you have any experiences with any good buddies that make you laugh….or that stand out in your memory?

David Gilchrist: Uh….Yeah.  You tend to remember the funny things.  When we were preparing to go to Germany, they took people that they called Profile 3’s.  A Profile 3 was somebody who was physically unfit for combat.  My best friend was blind in one eye since childhood.  Of course he passed the initial physical [health exam] going in with no problem at all.  As a matter of fact, when I got home from taking that physical, my mother said to me, "What did the doctor say to you?"  And I said "Next!"  [Laughs]  It was a very easy physical.  Anyway, he was accepted, being blind in one eye; but he was a Profile 3.  They sent us to Germany, and he got sent to Korea!

Melissa: Really?  Did he have to fight?

David Gilchrist: No.  Fortunately he could type, so he didn’t have to leave Pusan [South Korea] so he stayed in the rear areas throughout the rest of the war.

Melissa: So, he never saw any action?

David Gilchrist: Never saw any combat, no.

Melissa: Going back to the doctor’s exams, what did they check for?

David Gilchrist: Well, they checked for your eyesight, your heart, your hearing.  I frankly don’t remember having my blood pressure taken.  But… not a lot.  The old story was that if you could see lightning and hear thunder you passed.  [Laughs]

Melissa: So they were very lax about it?

David Gilchrist: Very lax.  Yes.