“I can’t find the words to explain it,” he said. “It was a very honorable thing to be able to serve my country.”
Having served 18 months in combat in Italy during World War II, Greene had no idea that just a few short years later he would once again have to leave his family for a combat zone thousands of miles from home.
Not a career soldier, Greene had served with the 91st Infantry Division in the European Theatre during World War II. A veteran with a young family, Greene was not draft material. So how did he wind up serving in Korea — he joined the National Guard.
In early 1950, two of his close friends, Austin Redmon and Jimmy Woods talked him into joining the newly formed National Guard Unit in Middlesboro — the 916th Medical Ambulance Company. With his prior combat experience, he was told he would automatically be made a sergeant in the unit.
Having at one time considered making a career of the Army, the idea of being a sergeant intrigued him, and with a young family to support he also liked the idea of the extra money he would make in the Guards.
“Every time I saw one of them (Redmond and Woods) they asked me when I was going to join the unit,” said Greene. “They told me they could really use someone with my expereince and that I would make sergeant. The pay sounded good, so I finally signed up. I don’t think any of us thought we would be called up for active duty.”
In August of 1950, however, just six week after the Korean War had erupted, Greene and members of the 916th were at Fort Knox, Ky. for a two week summer encampment. Halfway through it the word came down — the unit had been called into active military assignment.
The only question now was when and where would they go. The where for the unit was Camp Pickett, Va. The when varied, as the men of the 916th left Middlesboro in three stages, the first troop members departed Middlesboro on September 11, 1950, the next group departed on September 21, and the final last members of the unit left for Camp Pickett on September 28.
Greene was among the last group of the Guardsmen leaving Middlesboro for Camp Pickett. As other members of the 916th were transferred out as replacement troops, Greene, because of his prior expereince, was kept at Camp Pickett from September 1950 through December 1951 as a platoon sergeant with the responsibility of training new soldiers.
He was accompanied to Camp Pickett by his young wife, Juanita, and their son, Chuck, age 3. While stationed there they welcomed a new addition to their family, another son, Steve. His young sons were only four years and five months old when Greene’s commanding officer, Captain Roy Moore, came to tell him he was being sent to Korea.
“We were in a jeep together, when he told me. He put his hand on my shoulder, told me I was one of the best non-com (non-commissioned officers) he had ever worked with, and that he was very sorry that I was having to go back to a war zone.”
He left Camp Pickett in late December 1951, and spent the first two weeks of the new year in California before leaving for Korea by ship. He landed at Inchon and was assigned to the 185th Engineer Combat Battalion at an aid station in the mountainous region of Korea. He was later transferred to the 568th Medical Ambulance Company as a platoon sergeant. His platoon was repsonsible for transporting injured soldiers to M.A.S.H. units.
By this time, there was very little territory change between the two sides. The front had basically been established when peace negotiations began in July 1951, as UN Forces came to a halt at Line Kansas, which was just north of the 38th Parallel. From July 1951 to July 1953, although peace negotiations were under way combat continued. Principal military engagements were fought around the “Punchbowl” - in the east, Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge in 1951, the battles for Old Baldy, in the center, and the Hook, in the west, during 1952-53, Battle of Hill Eerie in 1952, and the battle for Pork Chop Hill in 1953.
It was in the area of the Heartbreak Ridge that Greene found himself once again in a combat zone in January 1952. It was winter, and as portrayed on the television series M.A.S.H., the temperatures were often frigid.
“Korea was a cold, rugged country with very rough mountains, but I was a lot better off there than in Italy in WW II. In Korea, we had artillery guns near our tents, but I was never near the front and I never came under direct gunfire,” said Greene.
The young father was only “in country” for approximately six months before he was shipped back home in June 1952. His return home from Korea was also unlike that of WW II.
Returning soldiers from WW II were greeted with cheers and flag waving, as the United States and its allies triumphed over Germany, Japan and their allies.
Veterans of Korea — The Forgotten War — returned home quietly to their families and everyday life and Greene was no different.
Since that summer day in 1952 when he returned home he and his wife, Juanita, added four more children to their family , daughters, Beverly, Donna and Cathy, and a son, Jeff. He also now has 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He had a career in construction that spanned over 30 years, and he is a longtime member and deacon of his church, Cannon Creek Primitive Baptist Church. He will tell you that God has been good to him and has blessed him with a good life — and he will tell you that he is proud of being a veteran and of his service to his country.
A half of century has passed since the days Camp Pickett and his time in Korea. At age 83, it is natural that some of his memories of that time have faded. Once a year, he and many of his buddies from the 916th along with their wives, many who like Juanita followed their husbands to Camp Pickett, gather at the National Guard Armory on 30th Street. They talk over old times, about their children and grandchildren, their aches and pains — and they always take time to remember those who served with them who through illness or death can no longer join them.
A monument to Greene and the other proud patriots of the 916th Ambulance Company now stands at Centennial Park in Middlesboro. It is a tribute to them, and as a reminder to generations to come of the sacrifice and service of those who fought in The Forgotten War.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A history of the 916th Medical Ambulance Company, written by Middlesboro native and 916th veteran Robert E. Roberts, is available at the Middlesborough-Bell County Public Library and the Bell County Museum.
Lifestyles Editor Donna Greene can be reached by e-mail at dgreene@middlesborodailynews.com.
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