Buck Matthews
Dogpatch Days
Recollections of a Non-Combatant in the Combat Zone
Family
We loved and missed our mothers and sisters and sweethearts and begged them all to write to us as often as possible because we feared the slow, steady pull of separation from them.
Hard as we tried to keep their faces in focus, there was no denying that our real family was the seven other guys in the tent and the other men in the squadron with whom we shared the duty.
Even now, separated from them by more than a half century of civilian life, I can hear the voices of Luttrell and Harolson and Kupinski and Almeda and Coslow and Premak and Malcolm and Dugger and Hebert and Koerner and Birdsey and Juzang and Frost and Sheahan and Pasquale and Moriarty and Thiede and Godfrey and Lamb and Rosas – and even Captain Murphy.
First names, which we hardly ever used, are nearly all lost – as are other details.
We had a lot of New Yorkers – Kupinski, Premak, Coslow, Malcolm, Sheahan – Murph, too.
Hebert was from Illinois, Dugger from Idaho, Juzang from Alabama, Koerner from New Jersey.
I remember Bob Moriarty and John Thiede well because the three of us shared the only R & R we ever took.
Bob was from Massachusetts, as was Almeda, and John from Minnesota.
We did the war as we were trained to do it – happy not to be shot at, also a little guilty.
We came into each others lives briefly, then disappeared. I see their faces in my photo albums and hear their voices in my head - but I only know the whereabouts of one of them. John Thiede is buried in Shakopee, Minnesota, where he died of a heart attack 14 years after coming back from Korea.
[Note: if any of these Veterans read this post and want to contact Buck, feel free to do so at the BelleAire Press "contact us" button. He'll be happy to hear from you and we'll be happy to include your posts about your service in Korea.]
© Copyright 2008 Buck Matthews. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes without permission in writing from the author. Used with permission by BelleAire Press as a tribute to those American servicemen and women who served during the Korean War.