Lee

Lee Phillips: My father Lee Phillips was also raised on a ranch around Highwood, Montana; he went to Montana State College where he enrolled in ROTC. At that time all males that were in college went through ROTC or else you would be drafted after leaving college (and losing the college student deferment). It was far better to be an officer than an enlisted soldier; the pay is much better and the quality of life for an officer is higher.

He told me a couple of ROTC stories. One was that he was an ROTC cadet in charge of the rifle range at ROTC Advanced Camp, Fort Lewis, WA. The cadre sergeant assisting him told dad that the easiest way to deal with the expended brass was to have the cadets kick dirt over them. So he had the cadets do that. The TAC Office was not dumb, however, and he figured it out. He verbally savaged dad for not having the cadets pick up the brass. Dad quickly learned that doing it right the first time around paid dividends rather than taking the easy course.

The other ROTC story was that dad was a crack shot. He grew up on a ranch, and handled guns at an early age. He was a crack shot with both a deer rifle and a shotgun. He was very proficient at the ROTC rifle range at summer camp, and he was offered a chance to compete on the Army team for the Olympics. But that would have meant going back to Camp Perry, Ohio in August. He promised his dad that he would help harvest at the Phillips farm between Salem and Waltham, Montana, so that he had to decline that offer.

He was commissioned a field artillery officer. He went to Fort Sill, OK for his FA Officer Basic Course which lasted around six months. The only thing he really talked about at that location was this sheer cliff that Geronimo had ridden a pony down on that military reservation. He was given a top secret clearance to work on the “Honest John” missile. His orders were then to go to Korea. The military sent over his clearance paperwork which was then lost in transit. He was unable to work on that missile his whole time in the Korean theater.

Most of his experiences that he conveyed to me were in Korea where he was stationed for 13 months. They are not great stories, they are horrible stories about the abuse my father suffered in Korea from superior officers. I liked the Army stories anyway. Most officers have both been around “toxic leaders” that are higher ranking and have abusive personalities. Dad talked about Korea being bitterly cold and staying in Quonset huts, tin half-circles that look like giant culverts that had no insulation. His unit was always on field maneuvers up on the De-Militarized Zone. Now, this was not during the Korean War, it was after the Korean War in the late 50’s. But Korea was still not a hospitable place. South Korea and the U.S. Army were concerned that the North Koreans were going to punch across the lines and attack.

One of the stories that he told was, he was sleeping in the back of a deuce and a half truck in his sleeping bag. The truck was faced downhill and he said he had this “hillbilly” driver that didn’t set the brakes and the gears disengaged; the truck started rolling downhill. Well, Dad got out of the sleeping bag and he jumped out of the back of the truck to save himself; he got tangled in this camouflage netting that was draped on the truck. He would have been dragged to death but for the fact that the truck hit a stone wall as the truck hurtled down the hill. There were stone walls all over Korea.

Another time the troops were standing at attention in line, saluting, on this muddy road and this full bird Colonel stood in the back of the jeep as it roared down the road; The Colonel was reviewing the troops as everyone was saluting and, the jeep goes down the road fifty yards, stops, and backs up to where my dad was standing. This full bird jumps out of the jeep, comes up to my dad, and starts screaming and yelling at him that he had a terrible sloppy salute. What kind of officer was this full bird that he would do this? As an aside, Dad always told me that when an officer got “chicken shit” on this shoulders, he got mean. The “full-bird” Colonel could smell that one star rank.

Dad, as a lieutenant and a warrant officer, both on staff duty, were sent into this village. They were tasked with looking for enlisted soldiers who weren’t supposed to be in there; the reason the enlisted soldiers would go into the village was because they wanted to drink and they wanted to shack up with the prostitutes. And so, they saw this enlisted soldier in the off limits area; the soldier started to run away after being told to freeze for questioning. The crusty old warrant officer pulled out his .45 caliber pistol and he aimed the pistol at the soldier’s back; my dad hit the Chief’s hand sideways and the gun went off. The gun shot harmlessly into a building. My dad told me that the guy was running, so disobeying a lawful order but my dad was not going to kill the soldier over it.

Dad also said that he was on-duty checking the guard posts. The soldiers worked all day and then they also had to pull guard duty at night. Guard duty was essential because you didn’t want enemy soldiers overrunning the billeting areas while the soldiers were sleeping. Dad caught this soldier sleeping on duty. At that time, a soldier found sleeping when on guard duty could be put to death. Dad said the soldier got on his hands and knees and pleaded with dad not to turn him in. Dad did not turn in the soldier.

Dad said that the West Point officers would not drink while stationed in Korea. Korea was a wild place, and a harsh place. The temptation to continue drinking would be large stationed at that location. Dad said he followed the West Pointers’ lead and he didn’t drink while he was in Korea as well. When he had some R&R, he went to Japan. We still have pictures of him on leave in Japan.

There was another time when my dad was eating in the mess hall and there were rats everywhere. A rat ran across the mess hall floor and his leg just reflexively jerked out and hit the rat in the head, killing it. All the other officers, junior officers that were with him were very impressed on how that had happened and my dad said he didn’t even think about it, his leg just reflexively jerked out, pegging the rat.

One time he and another officer were walking across a field. A unit was doing a live fire exercise and bullets started whipping around the officers. They had to jump in a sewage lagoon to avoid being shot. He also said that when they arrived in Korea, they were told, do NOT eat the kimchee. His friend, a Ranger, fancied himself to be tough and ignored the directive. The Ranger ended up with some form of hepatitis and lost a lot of weight through sickness.

Dad talked about the slicky boy, that theft was a real problem, in Korea. He said that he had this company commander that said he wanted this old World War II cannon that was sitting in front of the commander’s office, gone. Dad ordered some enlisted soldier drag the cannon from the headquarters building to this creek and the next morning the heavy and cumbersome cannon was gone. The slicky boys had somehow come under the wire and he never did figure out how they got it out of there but they did. They were very industrious.

Dad told the story of this sergeant that unexpectedly reported to the unit. He looked hayseed with ears that stuck out, red hair and a cowlick. Dad found out this sergeant could weld, so dad had him welding a flagpole; the company commander wanted a flag flying out front. Turns out this “sergeant” was actually a CID Major; he was investigating soldiers who were buying untaxed American liquor and cigarettes in the Post Exchange and then selling them on the Korean black market. Some “enterprising” soldiers ended up when getting court-martialed when the CID agent gathered the evidence and then revealed himself.

At the end of the 13 months, Dad was given the chance to work at the Butte, Montana MEPS station. So he finished out roughly 18 months there, driving to help out at the Phillips farm when he wasn’t on duty. He then spent a few years in the Army Reserves in Helena. He rose to the rank of Captain. He was good friends with fellow officer John McKinnon. John had a son, Michael McKinnon, who went to West Point. Tragically, Michael was killed in Iraq after he took company command of a California National Guard infantry company; Guard officers were relieved and replaced by active duty officers. I visited Michael's grave at West Point in the fall of 2009.

Marvin Costello

Marvin Costello: My Aunt Mary (Woodmansey) Costello married Marvin Costello who had a ranch out of Stevensville, Montana. Marvin had gone Montana State College and gotten an Air Force commission. He did his initial tour in Alaska. The story that I remember him telling was an Air Force senior NCO was a Medal of Honor winner. He was also a raging alcohol. The NCO would get on a bull dozer drunk, and do bad things, but his misdeeds would be hushed up because he had the MOH. Marvin’s heart was not being on active duty, so he came home after his initial three years was up. He did stay in the reserves. He would drill for points, having a four hour drill every Wednesday night at the local bar. He was the commander of that local unit. They had an Air Force Reserve slot mailbox where they could put reserve related material. He got paid for his two weeks of annual training in the summer, but he didn’t get paid for his Wednesday night four hour block at the bar. But my aunt liked to say that he could go for a beer on Wednesday night and he would get enough reserve points to get a “good year” for retirement purposes. He got his twenty good years, and he retired as a Major. I just remember in the basement of the farm house, he still had an Air Force issue back pack, compass, “Mickey Mouse” cold weather boots and the shell of a military park complete with fur fringe on the hood.

John Reynolds

John E. Reynolds: There is a story of the ultimate family sacrifice that the Woodmansey clan tells. My Grandmother Kathryn (Reynolds) Woodmansey had a brother, Earl Woodmansey. Earl was known as a rolling stone. At one point, he had a ranch around Sidney Montana and he sold it for pennies on the dollar, even after oil was found on the land. Earl had a son, John, who enlisted in the Army in the 1930s. John was born November 9, 1920. This was during the Great Depression, jobs were hard to find. John was not fond of the Army and he begged his father Earl to make a payment to the Army so that he could be released. Earl told his son that he had enlisted, he needed to finish his enlistment. The records show that he was with Co. B, 31st Infantry in the Philippines at Corregidor. The Battle of Corregidor, fought May 5-6, 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Philippines. Reynolds was shown to be in a “beleaguered status” from 8 December 1941 to 6 May 1942 (Public Law 490, Section 14). The Japanese Government reported to the International Red Cross, who then reported to the Army Provost Marshall the death of John Reynolds. He was reported Missing in Action and was originally reported deceased on 16 June 1943, from “Dysentery while a Prisoner of War.” Subsequent records received showed the date of death as 21 September 1942, the corrected date. He was originally interred in a Manila cemetery, but the Army sent a letter to Earl Reynolds on 28 November 1951 telling him that that SGT John Reynolds was buried at Grave 38-C, Section 82, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, in St. Louis, MO. Woodmansey lore was that Earl Reynolds went to his grave devastated that he didn’t pay for his son’s release from the Army before World War II started. The paperwork shows that the Army was diligent in constantly informing the family of John Reynolds’ status and then where he was buried.