Korea
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Artesian Joe Gray is pictured in the middle row, third from right, in this photograph of the crew aboard the U.S.S. Munsee taken in May 1950 in Hong Kong. Gray served in the U.S. Navy from 1949 until 1954, traveling the globe on a non-fighting, fleet tug. Gray holds a photograph of the U.S.S. Munsee, 50 years after he served as a deck rigger and a qualified diver on the tug. U.S. Air Force F-86 fighter planes are parked between walls of sandbags at Kimpo Air Base, Korea, where Artesian Mike Meinke served as a jet engine mechanic in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Workers are pictured in a rice field in Korea. Fifty years ago this week, the U.S. 1st Marine Division was encircled by the enemy and was fighting its way south from the Chosin Reservoir to Hungnam. On Dec. 24, 105,000 U.S. and Korean forces were evacuated from the area. Don Bowen, who served in the U.S. Army's 7th Artillery Division, is pictured at an Army encampment near the 38th Parallel. Bowen, the father of Artesian Kraig Bowen, served first in the 3rd Infantry Division and later in the 7th Artillery Division during the Korean War. Bowen is pictured writing home to his wife, Tommie, who he had married only two weeks before receiving his draft notice. Soldiers were given free Air Mail service, but letters they sent home were often delayed, arriving an average of three weeks after they were mailed from Korea. Mike Meinke is pictured (top, right) with other jet engine mechanics who were members of the 5th Air Force, 4th Fighter Wing, 335th Fighter Squadron and stationed at Kimpo Air Base, Korea. Despite a number of direct attacks by the enemy, Meinke recalls that he "enjoyed every minute" of his time in the U.S. Air Force. Mike Meinke holds his photo album that contains dozens of photographs and 50-year-old memories of his time in Korea. Jet engine mechanic Mike Meinke at Kimpo Air Base in Korea. |
Newspaper headlines across the country on June 25, 1950, told of 135,000 North Korean soldiers invading South Korea, marking the beginning of the Korean War.
Artesian Joe Gray remembers exactly where he was that day. A qualified diver and deck rigger in the U.S. Navy, Gray was aboard the U.S.S. Munsee, a navy tug, when the news came.
"We were halfway between Manila and San Francisco. We were at sea," Gray said.
He recalled that the whole crew was asked to fall out, in formation, on the deck of the ship where the captain addressed them.
"The only thing he knew was we were at war and we should start thinking that way," he said.
In the coming months, the Munsee, described by Gray as a "fetch and carry" tug, traveled the globe picking up and delivering war cargo.
Once, the Munsee and its crew was called to the southern tip of Korea to remove a ship that had gone aground. The S.S. Cornhusker Mariner, a civilian ship under contract by the United States government, had gone aground near Pusan at the southern tip of South Korea.
"It was our job to get it refloated," Gray said.
It took the crew three months to free the Cornhusker Mariner and get it to dry dock in Japan. "We had about three months of the hardest work I've ever done in my life," Gray said.
Earlier, in June 1950, the Munsee and its crew performed a rescue operation 160 miles southeast of Guam where a B-29 from Andersen Air Force Base had been ditched in the ocean.
The crew of the Munsee combed the area searching for the survivors, and was later praised for rescuing the eight crewmen of the ill-fated B29.
"Survivors were generous with praise for the Munsee crew," an article in the June 27, 1950, issue of the Guam Daily News said.
The crew of the Munsee spent quite a bit of time in the Inland Sea west of Japan, where that part of the ocean was scattered with Japanese mines.
"A lot of our work was trying to clear the mines," Gray said.
Gray served in the Navy from 1949, just after graduating high school, until mid-1954.
Artesian Jack Butler began his service in the Navy on Feb. 16, 1951, eight months after the Korean War began.
At 17 years of age, Butler made up his mind that he wanted to serve his country and entered the Navy.
"I just wanted to go into the service," he said.
Butler went to boot camp in San Diego, Calif., and was transferred to Mare Island, a naval shipyard at Vallejo, Calif., where he served for 18 months aboard a YTB 264 yard tug.
He was later transferred to the Commander Fleet Airwing 6 at a naval air station in Alameda, Calif., before leaving for Japan, where he served aboard the U.S.S. Whiting.
Butler recalls that he was on the deck of the Whiting on July 27, 1953, when the United States, North Korea and China signed the armistice that ended the war.
He was discharged from the Navy on April 15, 1954, and thereafter served in the U.S. Army Reserve and then in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Artesian Mike Meinke recalls that he was "young, innocent and naive" when he joined the U.S. Air Force at age 17 in 1951, when American forces were deeply involved in the war.
"I didn't know what I was getting into," he said.
He had a brother in the military service in Korea at the time, and that led to his decision to join the Air Force.
Meinke shipped out from California and arrived in Iwakuni, Japan, where he was detained and not immediately allowed to go to Korea because of his age.
"They kept me there because I was too young to go to Korea," Meinke said, recalling that it took a phone call to his parents, and a lot of pleading on his part, before his parents gave their permission for him to go to Korea.
He was then flown to Seoul, Korea, and driven to Kimpo Air Force Base, the northernmost air base in Korea, positioned just three miles from the front lines of combat.
The first night at Kimpo, Meinke was startled as enemy planes flew directly overhead and bombed the air base. No one was injured in the attack, but buildings at the base sustained damage.
Despite the threat of enemy attacks at Kimpo, Meinke said he "enjoyed every minute" of the four years he served in the Air Force.
"I was probably a very fortunate GI over there," he said. "The Lord held his hand over me the whole time I was there."
Meinke worked as a jet engine mechanic at Kimpo, serving in the 5th Air Force, 4th Fighter Wing, 335th Fighter Squadron.
"We were fourth, but first. That was our motto," he said.
Meinke received a letter of commendation on April 3, 1953, from Lt. Col. USAF Carroll B. McElroy which said, in part, that Meinke's "ambition and experience in the maintenance field has been of great value to this organization."
After Korea, Meinke served in the 6th Bomb Wing, 24th Squadron, at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell.
Recently, in October, he attended an Air Force reunion in Roswell, seeing friends he hadn't seen in years.
He was particularly happy to be reunited with Hulon E. Nanney Jr., of Jackson, Tenn., who he had not seen or talked to in 45 years.
"You stand there and you hug and you look at one another and you can't believe what you see," he said.
Gray, Butler and Meinke are only three of the many Artesians who are Korean War veterans, and who generously shared their stories and photographs.
On this, the 50th anniversary year of the Korean War, the Daily Press salutes all those who served the United States in every branch of the military, all around the world during the Korean War.
Artesians Alvin Price and Myron Stuffelbeam were also in the Korean War. Price was featured in the December 24, 2000, issue of the Daily Press and Stuffelbeam was featured in the January 16, 2001 issue. Their stories can also be found in the Profiles section of this website.