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Contact Info
Home Town Evansville
Date of Passing Feb 11, 2019
Location of Interment Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery - Evansville, Vanderburgh Co., Indiana
My Homepages: Turn on your sound, several pages.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/ws/sweettater33/bobsplace.html
My Tribute Pages,Turn on your sound, there are 3 pages.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/ws/sweettater33/mytribute.html
My Army Site: army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp
My Tribute Page for Lt Col Henry Hampton:
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Was in the home and apartment construction business for 50 years. I have been retired since 2003 along with "The Light of my Life" (my wife of 64 years).
I spend a great deal of my time working around my house and yard. My Kids kept telling to get a computer but I said I lived without a computer for almost 70 years, But I finally gave in and bought one. WOW!!!, I wish I had bought one years ago.
I am on it a good deal of time each day (especially in the winter). I am getting involved in a lot of things going on in the world, Government, and Ancient Roman and Greek history, EBay, etc. It has sure been a way of keeping my mind active.
I received thirteen weeks of Basic Training with Company C, 13th Armored Infantry Battalion, Combat Command A, 3rd Armored Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Then, I got 30 days leave at home. Then, I traveled to Seattle for shipment overseas.
On a side note, there was three of us who boarded the train in Evansville to Seattle. One was another buddy from Evansville (Bob Willett) and one from Oakland City, and one just up the road (Ralph Jenkins). We were traveling on Military Vouchers. We had to change trains in St. Louis. When we got there, another trainee from Fort Jackson South Carolina. joined us. The only thing available was a 4 person suite on the Streamline train named "The City of St Louis" and the conductor let us have it. WOW!!! We had a steward in the car that we called back to order ham sandwiches. When we gave him a tip of $5 (back in those days a great tip), he really took care of us for the entire trip. We got to Seattle two days early, and we were pretty well broke. We didn't want to go to the base early as we wanted to see some of Seattle. So, we got our pennies together, and had enough for me to call home and have my Mom wire us some money to Western Union in Seattle. We reported in base on time.
I shipped out on the USNS General Patrick for Yokohama, Japan. We could tell two days out of Japan that we were close, because of the smell it was awful. Since, I had joined the Army with Armored Cavalry as my preference, I thought I would be assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. I was sent by train to Sendai, Japan. I remember pulling into the station where men were urinating in outside urinals, and thought, "Oh boy, what have I got into?" In Japan, at that time, they used human waste to fertilize the rice paddies, and transported it in what American's called a' honey bucket' cart so the old saying if you drove a vehicle of any kind was, "Go off the road, drive into a ditch or hit a tree before you crash into a Honey Cart" .
I was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division G-3 (Operations). When the Korean War broke out, we were moved to Gotemba at the base of Mount Fuji for maneuvers and amphibious landing training. The 7th Division had been stripped of a lot of officer and NCOs to augment the Divisions already in Korea. We were augmented with Republic of Korea troops. At the time, they were not worth much. When we boarded the troop ship to head to Korea we were assigned threemen to a bunk, that's how crowded it was. When I got down to my rack there were two ROK soldiers sitting on it eating dried squid which stunk to high heaven. I managed to get it to them that they were not going to use my rack and they had to sleep on deck. I noticed later that one of them left his Japanese made Kodak camera on the bunk. I never did find him and still have the camera to this day. We made an amphibious landing with the 1st Marine Division at Inchon, early in September 1950. But, that is another story. In Korea, I participated in the following: �
Amphibious Landing at Inchon
1st taking of Seoul
Amphibious landing at Iwon
United Nations Summer Offensive
Chosen Reservoir campaign (drive to the Yalu)
Thank God I was not caught in that trap. I made it down the main supply route (MSR) before the Chinese cut it off and encircled the troops at Chosen Reservoir.
From what I recently saw in the news and read online, it appears VP Joe Biden on his way home recently from his trip to China, made a stop in Hawaii. While there he made a speech to some of our Military troops, in which he claimed the present US military forces were the best that ever served this country. It seems the Vice President, when speaking, has a hard time keeping his foot out of his mouth.
As a Korean War Veteran, I have always supported our military to the fullest extent, and I think our men and women in the military today are doing a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances. But, to say they are the best ever is a bit much. Albeit they are probably the best trained, best eqipped, the best supported by the people than any other War since WWII. Ie, armored vehicles, armored vests, sophisticated high tech weaponry on the ground/air/sea, etc, and are an all volenteer force.
The troops in the Korean War (The Forgotten War), didn't have the above and fought in horrendous conditions in the mountains of North Korea, In less than 3 years they took casualties, (KIA, WIA, MIA, almost 8000 that have never been accounted for), that would dwarf the numbers lost in 10 years of the Iraq & Afghanistan wars put together.
The War in Vietnam was longer than the Korean War but the same applies to the troops that fought there. Yet, they were spit upon, vilified, and called baby killers, by the people, when they came home. Which will always be one of the greatest acts of shame the people ever administered to the Armed Forces of this country. At least when we came home from Korea we were not spit on, vilified, or called names, instead we were just forgotten, because it was the first time the US Armed Forces were not allowed (by the Politicians), to win a war in the history of this country.
Having said all this, I still give great credit and honor to my brothers and sisters, and their families who are equitting themselves with courage, skill, and honor, in the wars of Iraq & Afghanistan, plus all the other little places the American people don't know about.
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Other Comments:
Notes: I served in the U.S. Air Force reserves from 1955-1968, as 1st Sergeant (E-7) with the 71st Troop Carrier Squadron for 13 years.
Description MacArthur planned an amphibious landing at Inch' on, a port of the Yellow Sea 25 miles west of Seoul, to be followed by an advance to recapture the city and block North Korean troop movements and supply routes there. Concurrently the Eighth Army was to break out of the Pusan Perimeter and move northward, driving the North Koreans into the Inch'on landing forces which would be driving south. Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond, commander of the newly activated X Corps, was to be in command of the invasion troops.
Early on 15 September a Marine battalion of the let Marine Division (which had loaded in Japan for the Inch'on Landing), covered by strong air strikes and naval gunfire, quickly captured Wolmi Island, just offshore from Inch'on. By afternoon, Marine assault waves rode the high tide into the port itself (UN Offensive-16 September to 2 November 1950). The remainder of the 1st Marine Division disembarked and pressed toward Kimpo Airfield, the Han River, and Seoul. The 7th Infantry Division came ashore; some elements turned southeastward toward Suwon, south of Seoul, while the remainder of the division joined the Marines in the advance toward Seoul. Kimpo Airfield was captured by the 18th, and put in use by the cargo-carrying planes of the Far East Air Forces to augment the stream of supplies being landed by the Navy at Inch'on. The 187th RCT was flown into Kimpo Airfield to strengthen U.N. defenses in that area. After heavy fighting between advancing U.N. forces and the determined North Korean forces, which had resolved to fight for Seoul street by street, MacArthur announced on 26 September that the city was again in friendly hands; but fighting continued there for several days. On 29 September MacArthur returned Seoul to President Rhee in a ceremony held in the blackened capitol building.
The Eighth Army began its offensive northward on 16 September. The ROK I and II Corps were in position on the north side of the perimeter. The U.S. I Corps, composed to the 1st Cavalry Division, the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the 24th Division, and the 1st ROK Division, was on the Taegu front. The remainder of the Eighth Army, positioned along the Naktong, included the U.S. 2d and 25th Divisions and attached ROK units. Progress was limited at first, but as the portent of the converging attacks became clear to the North Koreans, they fled north with heavy losses in men and materiel. Elements of the 7th Division (X Corps) and the 1st Cavalry Division (Eighth Army) made contact late on 26 September just south of Suwon, thus effecting a juncture of U.N. forces. Organized enemy resistance continued in the Eighth Army sector until the last days of September. Although large numbers of enemy troops escaped through the eastern mountains, more than 100,000 prisoners were captured during this period; by 30 September the North Korean Army had ceased to exist as an organized force below the 38th parallel. However, remnants of the army, fighting as guerrillas, continued to pose a considerable threat to the security of the U.N. forces.
During the latter part of September the Eighth Army was reinforced by a battalion each of Philippine and Australian troops. Early in October the U.S. 3d Division arrived in the Far East.
Meanwhile Walker's ROK I Corps crossed the 38th parallel on 1 October 1950 and advanced up the east coast, capturing Wonsan, North Korea's major seaport, on 10 October. The R0K II Corps also crossed the parallel and advanced northward through central Korea. In the west, Walker's remaining forces relieved the X Corps in the Seoul area and crossed the parallel on 9 October toward P'yongyang. By mid-October the U.N. forces had penetrated about 20 miles into North Korean territory.
In the second half of October 1950 the advance quickened as enemy resistance weakened and thousands of enemy troops surrendered. U.N. objectives were the destruction of the remaining Communist divisions and the capture of important North Korean cities. ROK troops spread through central and east Korea. Some turned north toward the industrial area centering around Hamhung and Hungnam, others west along the Wonsan-P'yongyang road. In the west the 1st Cavalry Division, after fighting through pill box defenses at Kumch'on, a few miles north of the parallel, progressed up the Seoul-P'yongyang railroad. The 24th Division drove to the south bank of the Taedong River in the vicinity of Chinnamp'o, the port for P'yongyang. The 1st Cavalry and 1st ROK Divisions entered P'yongyang on 19 October and secured the city in the next forty-eight hours. On 20 October the 187th Airborne RCT, complete with vehicles and howitzers, dropped on Sukch'on and Sunch'on, about 30 miles above the city of P'yongyang, to trap North Koreans fleeing northward. In northwest Korea a ROK regiment, leading the advance of the Eighth Army, entered the town of Ch'osan on 26 October, thereby becoming the first U.N. element to reach the Yalu River. Farther south additional U.N. forces crossed the Ch'ongch'on River at Sinanju and pushed toward the Manchurian border. For all practical purposes the North Korean Army had dissolved by the last week in October, and had melted away in the mountains adjacent to Manchuria and the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile Almond's X Corps had been withdrawn from combat and prepared for amphibious landings on the east coast of Korea. Since the rapid advance of ROK ground units and the fall of Wonsan made a combat landing there unnecessary, the 1st Marine Division carried out an administrative landing at Wonsan on 26 October, despite the heavily mined harbor which caused a long delay in unloading. On 29 October the 7th Division landed unopposed at Iwon, 80 miles farther north.
General Almond, adding the ROK I Corps to his command, set out to capture the industrial and communications areas, the port installations, and the power and irrigation plants of northeastern Korea. The ROK I Corps moved up the coastline toward Ch'ongjin, 120 miles north of Iwon. The 1st Marine Division moved 50 miles north of Hamhung and its port of Hungnam, then turned inland toward the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir, 45 miles to the northwest. Elements of the 7th Division attacked northwestward toward the Pujon Reservoir and the Yalu River.
