It Almost Cost Me My Life
I went into the service in 1952, when I was a sophomore. I decided to go. It made a man out of me. I went into the Marines. My brother Charles was in the navy, and Richard was also. I made it back from Korea. I was proud to serve my country. When I got back, I didn't want to associate with the gangs. I was a man and I felt more important, at a higher level. It taught me a lot.
I was in artillery. There were cannons. The recoil used to come back at ninety miles per hour. The shells weighed ninety-five pounds. 155 Howitzers. It's a German name. It was a big gun. We had three batteries. We used to fire the illumination shell for the infantry. It would light up the sky almost like daylight for them.
I had a case of malaria there. It was snowing when I got it. They said, "Paul you don't look too good." They threw blankets on me, and I was still shaking. They called the corpsman and put me on a stretcher and took me away. The medical department was top of a mountain at a forty-five degree angle. Going up in a Jeep I told them, "You better have four-wheel drive, because I'm facing down this mountain back here." We made it all the way. But there were a lot of guys there that were shot. My illness was minor. I met a lot of real heroes up there.
I was the youngest Marine they had over there. My dad got really mad when I joined the Marines, because everyone was Navy in my family. So when the guy in dress blues came to my house, he thought he was going to have another sailor. Wrong. The guy was a Marine. And my dad didn't know until I was in San Diego. Then he asked, "What have you done, my son?"
I was proud of being a Marine, even though it almost cost me my life.
