My Grandpa Fred Woodmansey served in the Territorial Army of England during World War I. He signed up for a five year enlistment or the duration of the war. It turned out to be a week's difference. The territorial army is like the National Guard in the United States. He was very young. Of the five years he served, 3.5 years were in the trenches in France. He hated the British officers, as they didn't treat their men very well. With all the deaths on the front line, time and time again he had the chance to become an NCO or officer, but he refused.
After a year in the trenches, he refused to make friends, because everyone in his platoon would be killed and he was the only one to survive. It hurt him to the bone that his friends were killed. His secondary skill was that of a mule tender. He always said that mules were smart. You took care of the mule, they took care of you. But if you abused a mule, they remembered, and they would get their revenge.
One story that Fred told was that as a private training in England, they were housed with a family (unlike America, there was no constitutional prohibition from quartering troops with the populace). The woman of the house would cook breakfast for the men and she would say: "Eat hearty boys, there is more in the pantry." But in reality, she didn't cook much. One day, one of the privates said: "Well, mum, I wish you would cook some more up." The families resented having to house soldiers and didn't feel like they got paid enough, so of course, the soldiers didn't get any extra food.
The officers were given strawberry jam with their breakfast and enlisted were given orange marmalade while on the front lines. Grandpa Fred never would eat marmalade after the war.
One story was that in the middle of the night, Grandpa Fred and another soldier were bringing supplies back to the front lines. Grandpa Fred drove the wagon with mule beyond their front lines by accident. Grandpa Fred heard German voices in the pitch dark. Grandpa Fred turned the the cart around and headed back to their lines. The Germans heard the noise and opened fire. In the haste to escape, the mule got tangled up in barbed wire. The other man fled back to the English position, but Grandpa Fred got down and untangled the wire from the mule. He then went back to his lines and as he was crossing safely into his lines, he heard: "Yorkie, is that you? We heard you was dead!" Fred had some choice words for the sentry that let him accidentally go through the front lines. An officer came up and asked: "Is the mule ok?" To the British officers, mules were more valuable then the enlisted soldiers.
Grandpa Fred was shot in the leg two days before the end of the war. He spent 9 months in a hospital in Scotland.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Highwood in Korea
My dad went to Montana State College and was enrolled in ROTC. All males were in ROTC. He graduated with a four year degree and a commission as a 2LT in the U.S. Army. He went to Fort Sill, OK and became an artillery officer. He was proud. He had his Top Secret clearance, and was trained in missiles, to include the Honest John. His first posting was in Korea up on the DMZ. Dad was proud of the fact that he had a Top Secret clearance so that he could command a battery of Honest John missiles. However, his clearance papers went astray when he reported to Korea, never to be found. He couldn't work on the missiles.
He was assigned to an artillery unit instead. He said that his unit was constantly on exercises in the field. It would be bitterly cold in the winter. One exercise he was sleeping in the back of the deuce-n-half truck. His hillbilly driver didn't set the brake right, and the truck was pointed straight down the hill. Dad said that he dove out the back of the truck, but there was camoflauge netting being drug by the truck as it rolled down the hill. As dad dove out of the truck, he became entangled in the netting. He said that he would have been drug to death, except that the truck ran into a stone wall and stopped.
Dad lived in a quansut hut, a metal semi-circle tube. He said that they were cold to live in, not very well insulated. He ate in a mess-hall. Officers always ate last. If the food service officer screwed up and didn't order enough food, it should be the officers that suffer. One day dad was sitting at the table eating and a giant rat ran by. Dad said instinctively his right leg jerked out and his combat boot kicked the rat, killing it instantly. He said his fellow junior officers were duly impressed.
Enlisted soldiers were allowed to leave the base, but officers were not. That was so the officers, who were held to a higher standard, would not associate with the hookers that were in the bars off-post. Officers were assigned duty to patrol the bars go make sure that the enlisted were not getting into trouble. One day, dad was with a wizened old warrant officer as a duty officer making the rounds. They caught this enlisted soldier breaking curfew and they told the soldier to stop. The soldier panicked and started running away. The warrant officer took out his pistol, and aimed at the soldier's back. Dad hit the warrant officer's hand up in the air as the warrant fired, the bullet whizzing over the soldier's head. Dad didn't want to kill some soldier because he refused to stop.
In the summer, he was out in the field with a fellow officer. They started to receive fire as they were in a live fire exercise. They had to jump into the ditch, which was filled full of human sewage. That was how the Koreans fertilized their fields. He said it was better to smell then to die.
His commanding officer, a captain, was a poor leader. The CO was a librarian at Los Alamos who needed to punch his command ticket to stay in the army. He was not an enthused leader. There was an old cannon in the compound, and the CO told dad to get rid of it. Dad had it towed outside the wire and put in this creek. That night the "slicky boys" took it.
They had an inspection. They were lined up along this road and a full bird colonel was doing this review of the soldiers while standing in the back of the jeep. Dad said that the Colonel passed in review, but then the jeep stopped and backed up. The Colonel then proceeded to chew on dad for not having a crisp enough salute. (Dad always said that when an officer gets "chickenshit" on this shoulders, he gets mean, because he wants that one star.)
One time this hayseed sergeant came to the unit. He looked like he had fallen off the turnip truck. However, dad learned this guy could weld, so dad had him working on all these projects around the unit, to include the construction of a flagpole. The sergeant was there for about a month. Turned out he was an undercover CID major on a sting operation. Soldiers were buying tax free cigarettes and booze and selling it on the open market, which was illegal. Some soldiers went down on charges.
While in Korea, he ran into Denny Baugh of Highwood Montana. The Baugh farm was close the Phillips farm. Denny was a finance officer, a rare breed in the Army that handled money. Dad had to be paymaster for his unit once, he said it was nerve racking in that he had to sign for $2 million in cash for payday. He was assigned a driver with a carbine and a .45 caliber pistol. If he would have been robbed, he would have been responsible to pay back the money. He would never have gotten out of the military on his pay!
Dad said soldiers were desperate for something to drink while in their hooches. So they would try to strain wood rubbing alcohol. It made some men crazy and others blind.
When he returned to America, he worked at the recruiting station in Butte, Montana. He could then drive to Highwood on the weekends to help with the farm.
He was assigned to an artillery unit instead. He said that his unit was constantly on exercises in the field. It would be bitterly cold in the winter. One exercise he was sleeping in the back of the deuce-n-half truck. His hillbilly driver didn't set the brake right, and the truck was pointed straight down the hill. Dad said that he dove out the back of the truck, but there was camoflauge netting being drug by the truck as it rolled down the hill. As dad dove out of the truck, he became entangled in the netting. He said that he would have been drug to death, except that the truck ran into a stone wall and stopped.
Dad lived in a quansut hut, a metal semi-circle tube. He said that they were cold to live in, not very well insulated. He ate in a mess-hall. Officers always ate last. If the food service officer screwed up and didn't order enough food, it should be the officers that suffer. One day dad was sitting at the table eating and a giant rat ran by. Dad said instinctively his right leg jerked out and his combat boot kicked the rat, killing it instantly. He said his fellow junior officers were duly impressed.
Enlisted soldiers were allowed to leave the base, but officers were not. That was so the officers, who were held to a higher standard, would not associate with the hookers that were in the bars off-post. Officers were assigned duty to patrol the bars go make sure that the enlisted were not getting into trouble. One day, dad was with a wizened old warrant officer as a duty officer making the rounds. They caught this enlisted soldier breaking curfew and they told the soldier to stop. The soldier panicked and started running away. The warrant officer took out his pistol, and aimed at the soldier's back. Dad hit the warrant officer's hand up in the air as the warrant fired, the bullet whizzing over the soldier's head. Dad didn't want to kill some soldier because he refused to stop.
In the summer, he was out in the field with a fellow officer. They started to receive fire as they were in a live fire exercise. They had to jump into the ditch, which was filled full of human sewage. That was how the Koreans fertilized their fields. He said it was better to smell then to die.
His commanding officer, a captain, was a poor leader. The CO was a librarian at Los Alamos who needed to punch his command ticket to stay in the army. He was not an enthused leader. There was an old cannon in the compound, and the CO told dad to get rid of it. Dad had it towed outside the wire and put in this creek. That night the "slicky boys" took it.
They had an inspection. They were lined up along this road and a full bird colonel was doing this review of the soldiers while standing in the back of the jeep. Dad said that the Colonel passed in review, but then the jeep stopped and backed up. The Colonel then proceeded to chew on dad for not having a crisp enough salute. (Dad always said that when an officer gets "chickenshit" on this shoulders, he gets mean, because he wants that one star.)
One time this hayseed sergeant came to the unit. He looked like he had fallen off the turnip truck. However, dad learned this guy could weld, so dad had him working on all these projects around the unit, to include the construction of a flagpole. The sergeant was there for about a month. Turned out he was an undercover CID major on a sting operation. Soldiers were buying tax free cigarettes and booze and selling it on the open market, which was illegal. Some soldiers went down on charges.
While in Korea, he ran into Denny Baugh of Highwood Montana. The Baugh farm was close the Phillips farm. Denny was a finance officer, a rare breed in the Army that handled money. Dad had to be paymaster for his unit once, he said it was nerve racking in that he had to sign for $2 million in cash for payday. He was assigned a driver with a carbine and a .45 caliber pistol. If he would have been robbed, he would have been responsible to pay back the money. He would never have gotten out of the military on his pay!
Dad said soldiers were desperate for something to drink while in their hooches. So they would try to strain wood rubbing alcohol. It made some men crazy and others blind.
When he returned to America, he worked at the recruiting station in Butte, Montana. He could then drive to Highwood on the weekends to help with the farm.
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