The Four Deuces: A Korean War Story [Paperback]

These memoirs are not an attempt to answer, solve, or resolve the problems arising from or about the three-year-long Korean War or the much longer stalemate that followed. This story was written to let you know how one very young, very scared marine saw his very first war and how he reacted to the killing and the mayhem of it. The stories are my view of that war, a war gone to ground in the trench lines. Dig into the stories and you may find something you were not expecting.

I am well aware that my view of the Korean War has no historical importance. Still, it is my view, and I want to share it with you. I do not have a cause to plead or an ax to grind, and that alone ought to count for something. My memoirs are selective and most certainly tainted with time. My recollections are a lot like boot mines, and ought to be approached with caution.

I was a grunt, a Four Deuce forward observer, assigned to duty with a marine infantry company every time the 1st Marine Regiment went back up on line. During the time I was in Korea my boondockers were firmly planted in trench-line mud. When I came home in September 1952, I was proud that I had helped in the attempt to stop Communism in Korea. I was proud of all the men I served, and served with, and I was a little bit proud of myself, too.Prologue
 
The Korean War began late in June 1950 and for the first fifteen months raged fiercely up and down and across the peninsula of that country. Both North Korea and South Korea were devastated. After the war machines of the United Nations command, of the Chinese communist forces, of both North Korea and South Korea had chewed up the country, spitting out only waste, much had been lost and very little had been gained by either side. The fight to gain land—for one side or the other—ended almost exactly where it began along the 38th Parallel.
 
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