korea DMZ X corps artillery 1954 145th bn bloody ridge heartbreak ridge korean war John Sexton

1. For a while when I was new in the section I was given the rocket launcher. We kept it hanging on the wall in the bunker. When we had an alert I was to get the launcher and a case of rockets and put them in the jeep. On one alert the jeep was in the motor pool. The battery vehicles were assembling down the hill. Had to rush. As I came out of the bunker with the launcher and a box of 3 rockets I tripped and dropped the box. It flew over the lip of the hill, broke open and the rockets went bouncing down the hill. I had to run after them, gather them up, along with the broken box and hurry down to the battery area. I guess a rocket doesn't explode until its fired. 2. Tobacc and I are having our photo taken in front of one of the tracks. He had been a dance instructor before drafted. He was giving our tent a lesson one night when one of the guards stopped in to get warm. He looked at us, shook his head and walked out. 3. We had a great place to swim. At first battalion HQ made it off limits. It was outside our barbed wire and about a block up the valley. One afternoon Wingfield and I snuck out through the wire and headed for the water. As we came around the hill we saw our battery officers swimming. They welcomed us and said the water was great. I think, our officers were great. A point of information: the north koreans threw there garbage in the river upstream and our drinking water was taken from the river downstream. 4. Up in the hills on a sunday, and as usual throwing rocks. There were a lot of rocks in korea. Back to Photo Index Page