My father was a product of his time. His father was a Sergeant in the Brooklyn 14th with "Black Jack" Pershing in Texas and Mexico and WWI service. My grandfather's uncles were with the Brooklyn 14th (it was the NYS militia at that time). They were combat veterans of the English Army in India in the 1850's and came over to the US as one of the many Irish immigrants of that era. They went through all four years of the Civil War. When the war ended they sent for their youngest brother who became the Family Patriarch. The two older boys never married.
My father and his brother joined the Brooklyn 14th Regiment of the NYS/National Guard in the middle 1930's and stayed in it until 1940. My uncle was called up by that unit in December of 1941. He went through the next four years working construction on Army camps all over the Country. Pop got married to his sweet heart and got out of the National Guard. I showed up a couple of years later and Pop thought it would be a good time to join up and be a Marine. He was in the 2nd Marine Division. His unit was with the Division HQ. It was a photo interpetation and photo developement unit. Pop made the landings on Siapan, Tinnian, he was at Kawajalien and Pellilu and then of course Okinawa. His last post of that time was Nagasaki. He was there as soon as the peace treaty was signed and put into effect. He had all of his points and he was a Reservist so he got to come home in 1945. Two years in the South Pacific and then back to Brooklyn, no way. We moved to Tampa, Florida in 1946. A couple of hurricanes later in 1948 he joins up with the 10th Amtracs a USMC Reserve Unit as a Corporal. June of 1950 he goes to summer camp and the North Koreans go South for the Summer. He is called up while in summer camp. They didn't let any Reservist go home and all the others were called up too. The entire Marine Corps could only make one Division of Combat Marines, the First Marine Division. Half of them were Reservist and most of the Reservist were WWII combat veterans. There were any number of "kids" that were just out of high school that didn't even get to Parris Island for boot camp in that group of Reserves. It was a mixed bag. And it was the best damn thing that ever happen to a military unit. Everybody wanted to get back home. And if they had to do some fighting to get there then that is what was going to happen. I remember Pop leaving from Drew Field. It is now the Tampa International Airport. Back then it was a General Aviation air port that was a WWII fighter base. They left in August of 1950. By September they had made the landings at Inchon. Then he went to Seoul and then he made the landings Hamhung and up and back down the "Road". His unit was attached to Fox Company, Captain Barber's unit. They weren't with that Unit at the Chosin, but they were they "were there" at the Chosin and all of that fighting for all of that entire campaign. When you see photos of that battle that say SSgt. Kerr. They were both Pop's and Frank Kerr's pictures. Any movie pictures were made by Sgt Bill Wolfe and Cpl. Walter Six. Bill Wolfe was in WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. Pop and Frank were WWII and Korea. The only "rookie" in that unit was a 19 year old camera man from Cincinnati Ohio, Walter Six. He saved my father's life a time or two and should have been awarded any number of medals for his action in that situation. But like it has been said before, it was just the way it was for everybody that was there "uncommon courage was the most common virture", God Bless them All. Pop was made a Sergeant while in the Central Highlands. And he got his Bronze Star there too. Now I never knew why he had gotten it. And now I do, thanks to one of your Marine letter writters. Pop was in the Corps for over 3 years. He had joined in 10/43 and gotten out by 11/45. Then he was back in from 6/50 until 9/51. Some where in there was a day that came and went that was a third year in the Corps. Most of that was in combat as a Reservist. So they gave him his star. "V" for valor, I'll look at it to see if it is there.
My brother and I joined the same unit as our father did only by the time we joined it, it was the 4th Amtrac Bn. in Tampa, Florida. We were a month apart in our enlistment dates and three years difference in our ages. Pop didn't want us joining the Air Force or the Army or Navy so he had the Marine Recruiter down at the County Court House give us a "heads up" if I was going to drafted and then he would go down with me to the Reserve Center and sign me up. The Recruiter told us that I would be called up in February of '64 so Pop had me sign up by the first of January. My brother signed up under the 180 day plan for high school seniors. What we didn't know was that our Dad went down to the Center and tried to join up with us at that time. He was 43 had six kids and was a Borden's milk man who could run with over ten pounds of milk in both hands in the summer heat down in Florida. They could only bring his age down to 40. It needed to be 36 in order for him to join up. I didn't find that out until I was 50 years old.
The "Old Breed", the Corps, the Greatest Generation….we stand on the shoulders of Giants…….
To the Chosin Few All of Them…..God Bless and Keep Them