461st Ordinance Ammunition Company, Wonju Korea 1951/52

Our Company was made up of draftees from the upper middle west, primarily from Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and some from Michigan, Wisconsin and South Dakota. The average age was about 22/23 years. Some had just finished college, others just beginning new jobs and a few newlyweds. The training cadre was a reserve outfit from Massachusetts. Basic training took place at Camp Atterbury, Indiana and advanced Ordinance training at the Aberdeen Proving grounds, Aberdeen, Maryland as well as those with a different MOS to other training areas. We were then gathered at Atterbury and shipped to Korea in mid 1951 by way of Yokohama & Sasebo, Japan and on to Pusan, Korea, then by train to Wonju.

We took over a large ammo dump (as they are known) and spent our entire service there. We established a second ammo dump at Inge, Korea just north of the 38th parallel. We were not in what they would call a combat area, although we were really not that far from it. The fighting was and had been moving north.

A main truck route came through our area and the one thing that really brought the fighting and sacrifice to us by our GI's and Marines, were the trucks (refrigerated) that were known as the Graves Registration unit and frequently went by in convoy with the bodies of those who had made their everlasting sacrifice and were making a final journey home. Now this all took place 62 years ago and a never to be a forgotten time for us.

Many of our comrades have now passed into everlasting life and the others are in their mid eighties. Many from the Chicago and Minneapolis area, grew up and went to school together. Most came home and picked up on their hopes and dreams very sucessfully. We've enjoyed reunions every 5 years for the first 15 to 20 years and then every year. Number 59 is being organized for 10/06/2012 in Minneapolis.

Our thoughts and prayers these days and for the years that have transpired are with these same fighting services that have endured through the years. May God bless them all. Surely their sacrifices cannot be denied by our current and subsequent leaders in their dealings world wide, but at the same time keep a strong military position for the world to know. There certainly is no room for partisan positions when dealing with the lives of our military personnel or the future of our great nation.