Macy+and+Autumn

Macey Dundore Autumn Light **Research Paper** Glenn Fleagle, a Korean War veteran was a cable splicer, eventually leaving the United States Army as a corporal in February of 1953. Undergoing lineman basic training and cable splicing training, he was in the Air Force branch of service. Mr. Fleagle served from February 1951 through February of 1953, he was drafted from his Stouchsburg residence and telephone company job. Bringing service to broken radar towers became his army profession and led to an achievement of three medals; United Nations Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, and Bronze Campaign Star. Mr. Fleagle served in the Korean War as a cable splicer in the 440th battalion with a service lasting three years beginning with basic training and cable splicing school. Of course, the Korean War was set in the 1950s where people were drafted into service. In addition, the gas only cost twenty five cents a gallon and a house normally would cost 10,000 dollars. By this time there was no such thing as a computer, the disease of AIDS, shopping malls, and microwaves. 3-D amazed people, it was new in the movies and people never before saw such an experience. Most people got married and when they would, it was normally younger. Due to so many marriages, birthrates were at an all-time high and America grew. Even though many men had went into the armed forces service, the many babies replaced America’s population loss. Lastly there were no video tapes, and cameras were still towards the future (Updike). The 1950 was different from today’s standards of technology, increasing divorce rates, and four dollar gas prices. Nevertheless, the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950. It all started when Northern Korea invaded Southern Korea at the 38th parallel. This conflict dragged at least twenty other nations into the skirmish and the United States sided with South Korea (Kaufman). Soldiers were quickly sent into both Korea's to set up communications centers with the radio towers (Rauch). It was this dangerous and hard working job that was given to our veteran. However before the Korean War, Korea was controlled and owned by Japan from 1910 to 1945 with thirty million citizens in the country. In 1945, the Soviet Union had plans to attack Japan and then to take over Korea. This was not needed anymore because Japan collapsed. The United States and the Soviet Union both took control of the new Korea, but were split on the government that the countries wanted to rule Korea with. The 38th parallel was formed between the divided country. North Korea was mostly invaded by the Soviet Union and became a Communist, even though most North Koreans wanted independence. Kim Il Sung became the leader of communist North Korea. Sung then made the Democratic People's Republic instead of a communist Korea, then the U.S. left Korea (Brown). With the help of the U. S. troops, South Korea and North Korea fought barely gaining any land for about two years. Finally the armistice was agreed on July 7 1953. America's losses totaled 37,000. A treaty was never signed and final peace was not achieved (The 1950s: Korean War). Glenn Fleagle was in service during these years of fighting, and it all started with a draft letter. Eventually his brothers would each get drafted too along with many other Americans. As a result of Mr. Fleagle’s draft letter, he was placed in the United States Air Force, consisting of 1,865 members. From February 1951 to February 1953 he was in the army. After eight weeks in basic training, Mr. Fleagle underwent a thirteen week training session for the signal corps. He was employed by the armed forces, soon becoming a member of the 440th battalion of the Signal Corps (Raines). Signal communications became essential for the war with the 440th battalion’s motto as, “Maintaining Contact.” Their picture is of telephone lines with a spark of electricity lighting them up. This symbol represented how the battalion would bring electric across the Korean mountains ensuring communication between the army leaders and generals was met (Raines). Later the Eight Army was created which had two construction companies, two radio relay companies, a depot organization, signal service detach meets, and service battalions. In the signal communications, there was no corp so the Eight Army was in place of them (Lieberberg). For this reason Mr. Fleagle’s job was not easy. It consisted of long work days of hiking up mountains and hills to get to the best available spot to set up a communications tower. It generally took the soldiers anywhere from an hour to three hours. Most of the time, the wires that were given to the Signal Corps were damaged or split, but the handy men that were the Signal Corps were able to rework the wires back into usable and well-made pieces of the communications equipment. They also had many dangers of the enemy. These communication men were easy targets to the North Korean snipers and gunmen. In fact, a group of about eighty Signal Corps men were reduced to about twenty because of the snipers (Rauch). Furthermore the communication was done through radio frequency during the Korean War. The workers used four cable spiral lines that had up to a twenty-five mile frequency. To fix a cable the cable splicers, like Mr. Fleagle, would have to carry up 330 pounds in a two ton wagon up the mountainous Korean landscape. Workers found it difficult to get food and water resupplied to them with such a difficult and unusual terrain (Lieberberg). In a total, by October 1950, the main line communication went across 3,400 miles starting from Pusan and connecting it to the capital of Korea, Seoul. By the end of October 500 more miles were added onto the cables (Mossman). Although the workers got the job done with fixing cables, the terrain was difficult to work through. Korea is scattered with mountains and surrounded on three sides by water. Also Korea has a coast of 5,400 miles The Yalu and Tumen Rivers are located in North Korea. The Sea of Japan and Korean Strait are only five hundred miles below China. The Yalu and Tumen are next to the Soviet Union and that is where the Soviet’s border meets with the Korean border. Korea is five hundred twenty-five to six hundred miles in length and in width is ninety to two hundred miles depending on the location in the country. The large mountains drop into deep water and harbors in areas along the large Korean shoreline (Brown). Now, these acts of service and dedication to the Korean War did not go unnoticed. Mr. Glenn Fleagle received three out of nine possible medals to be earned during this conflict. The first was the Korean Service Medal. This medal was bestowed to any member of the United States Armed Services that had served at least one full day, doing some kind of military act in the Korean War. This medal was created by President Truman (“Korean Service Medal”). Another medal that our veteran received was the United Nations Service Medal. Any soldier who served at least one day while under the command of the United Nations during the Korean War could be given this medal. A soldier could receive this award from June 27, 1950 to July 27, 1954 (“United Nations Medals”). The last medal that he was awarded with was the Bronze Campaign Star. The Bronze Campaign Star was awarded to those in the Armed Forces who had had a part in a campaign in the Korean War (“Bronze Campaign Star”). Glenn Fleagle came out of the Korean War alive and never harmed. He lives to tell of his events as a cable splicer to this day. Through hard work and training for a total of twenty-one months, Glenn had a drafted service of three years. Mr. Fleagle received three medals as a recognition for his work ensuring that communication is working between the army. Due to his experiences in the telephone company, he was transferred from lineman to cable splicer. His service is an example of an American hero. ** Questions **  Macey Dundore and Autumn Light __Opening__ This is Autumn Light and Macey Dundore. We will be interviewing our veteran, Mr. Glenn Fleagle. He was born on December 13, 1928. He was in the Air Force and his highest rank was corporal. This interview is taking place on Monday, October 8, 2012 at his home in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. This interview is being conducted for the Veteran’s History Project at the Library of Congress.

__Biographical details__ 1. Where were you born? 2. What is your date of birth? 3. Do you have any siblings? 4. How close were you to your siblings? 5. If yes, were your siblings drafted or enlisted into the army? What did they do in the army? 6. Did your brothers enter before or after you? 7. What were your parents’ occupations at the time of your service? 8. What was your job before you were in the armed forces? 9. What age were you when you went into the army?

__Early Days of Service__ 10. How did you feel about being drafted? 11. Did your family do anything special for you when you left for war? 12. If you had not been drafted, would you have enlisted? 13. Where was your basic training held? 14. How long was that training? 15. How long was that training? 16. How was a normal day in training? What was the schedule like? 17. How did you feel about your departure for training camp? 18. Did you receive any specialized training? 19. How long was cable splicing training? 20. What was a normal day like in the second training camp? Schedule? 21. Was training in another camp physically difficult? 22. What food were you served in training camps? 23. Did you make many friends in either of the training camps? 24. If yes, are you in contact with any of these friends still? 25. Was it difficult to adapt to military life? 26. What did your uniform look like?

__Wartime Service__ 27. Where did you serve, during the Korean War? 28. How did you get to that location? 29. How long was the journey? 30. What was the date you entered the war? Was it towards the beginning or end of the war? 31. How was Korea different from America? 32. What was your basic day like in the Signal Corps? 33. What was it like living in a tent? 34. How many people were in the 440th battalion with you? 35. Did you witness any combat action? 36. Did anyone in your battalion ever get shot by a sniper? 37. Did you ever witness a casualty? 38. If yes, what was your reaction to this? How did you feel about it? 39. How often did you fix cables during the day? In a week? 40. When you and your battalion were fixing the radar towers, how did you travel from tower to tower? 41. How did you fix the radar towers? Please explain. 42. How did you stay in contact with family and friends back in the United States? 43. How often could you talk to them? 44. What did you do after the war? 45. Where did you go for R and R? 46. When we completed the biographical data form, you told us your bag was stolen. Can you explain this?

__War's End, Coming Home__ 47. How did you return home? 48. Did the war impact your life when you returned home? 49. We know you received the Bronze Campaign Star, what campaign were you part of and how was this earned? 50. How did people of the community treat you when you came home? Was it different? 51. Did your family do anything special when you returned from the war? 52. What lessons did you learn from your military experience? 53. Are you in contact with anyone from your military service still?

**Transcript ** Light: This is Autumn Light and that is Macey. We are interviewing our veteran, Mr. Glenn Fleagle. He was born on December 13th of 1928. He was in the air force and his highest rank was corporal. This interview is taking place on Monday, October 8th, 2012 at his home in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. This interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. Dundore: What is your name and relation to Glenn Fleagle? Sue: My name is Sue and I am a friend of Glenn. We’re friends. Dundore: Ok. Where were you born? Fleagle: It’s 12/13/28. Sue: Where. Dundore: Where? Fleagle: East Stouchsburg. Dundore: What is your date of birth? Fleagle: 12/13/28. Dundore: Do you have any siblings? Fleagle: I have a son and a daughter. Sue: Siblings. Dundore: Siblings. Sue: Brothers, brothers and sisters. Fleagle: Oh I have three, two sisters and two brothers. Dundore: How close were you to your siblings? Fleagle: What was it? Dundore: How close were you to your siblings? Fleagle: Very close. Dundore: Ok. What were their names and like how old are they? Fleagle: My brother, Stewart Fleagle he was the oldest son, boy and he passed away. Then Gerald, he was another son and he passed away, he was fifty-four, had a heart attack. I had two sisters, they are both living today. June and Helen. June Weber, her husband deceased. That’s mostly it. Dundore: Were they drafted, or did they enlist into the army at all? Fleagle: My two brothers were both drafted. They were in Korea for like one year and then came home. Dundore: Did your brothers enter before or after you were in the war? Fleagle: My brothers, they went in after I was in. After I came home they went in. Dundore: What were your parent’s occupations at the time of your service? Fleagle: My father, he was a AT&T employee. He was a foreman and a construction superintendent. Dundore: What was your job before you went into the armed forces? Fleagle: I worked as a lineman, I worked for AT&T, and I also worked with the cables and the coil. Then I went into the service. Dundore: What age were you when you went into the army? Fleagle: What was that? Dundore: What age were you, when you went into the army? Sue: How old? Dundore: How old were you? Fleagle: Lets see, geez, probably around twenty-one. Light: How did you feel about being drafted? F leagle: Oh I didn’t mind that at all. In fact I was glad I went into service, it’s an experience for you. Light: Did your family do anything special for you before you left for Korea? Fleagle: Did I do any special? Light: Did you do anything special with your family before you left? Fleagle: Oh not really, no. They never knew we were going to Korea when we left. You didn’t know where you were going. You could go to Alaska, or Japan, or different places, Germany, but I went to Korea. That’s when so many GI’s were getting killed over in Korea when we went in. So we thought when we were in the sixpart we thought we would live, next day we thought we’d die. It was something else. Light: If you weren’t drafted, would you have enlisted? Fleagle: No, my mother didn’t want me to enlist. My neighbor, he wanted me to enlist with him and my mother cried so I didn’t enlist. So then I was drafted, I got out in two years instead of four. If you enlist, you would of been in for four years, so it turned out real good. Light: Where was your basic training held? Fleagle: I was in uh Concord in Georgia, I went down there and had basic training and I also went into cable splicing school down there. When I came back from the service I went to Breckenridge, Kentucky and was in the 101st airborne. And they put me in the MPs because I had a good record and they didn’t need cable splicers over here in this part of the country, they didn’t need splicers. So they put me in the MPs, Military Police, that was in Breckenridge, Kentucky. Light: How long did your basic training last? Fleagle: Basic training, I think was probably about, I’d say, four weeks. Something like that. Light: What was a normal day like in training? What was a normal day like when you were training? Fleagle: I can’t hear her. Dundore: Uh, What was a normal day like, when you were training? Sue: What was a normal day? What did you do? Fleagle: What did I do? Sue: In training. Fleagle: Oh in training. Oh well we shot all kinds of guns. Uh bazookas, we threw grenades, uh dug trenches, and we did a lot of hiking. We start out hiking five miles and then we went to ten miles, fifteen and we ended up with twenty-five miles hiking. Yeah if you, you want to be a machine gunner you had to carry all the machine guns and the ammunition. You had about three men, you were in a team. One carried the gun and the other carried the ammunition cans, things like that. I thought that would be a good job, but I changed my mind if you have to carry that thing twenty-five miles. So I gave that up quick. Light: How did you feel about your departure from the training camp? Fleagle: I didn’t hear you. Light: How did you feel about leaving the training camp? Fleagle: Oh, leaving the camp? Well it wasn’t bad, uh. They, uh, decided if you were going to Alaska, whether you were going to Japan, or Korea. And you sort of picked where you wanted to go and I picked Korea Light: Did you receive any specialized training Fleagle: Special Training? Yeah cable splicing school in the army was real good and I was glad I got that training because when I came back I went with AT&T to splice cables. Then, uh, it’s a good job working for a telephone company. Light: How long was that training? Fleagle: The uh army was thirteen weeks you went to school. You had to take lead and you had to wipe it on a broomstick and if it didn’t hold you’d flunk out of the school. If you could do it, you stayed in the program. I pitied some guys that couldn’t do it, they got, they just flunked out. Light: Was the training in this camp, um, was it difficult physically? Fleagle: Physically? No it wasn’t bad at all. Light: Was it difficult in a different way? Fleagle: What was that? Light: Was it difficult in another way? Fleagle: No. Light: What, food? What kind of food were you served in training camps? Fleagle: Well they had real good can, food in cans. You had all you wanted to eat almost, so the food was real good. The K rations overseas were good with everything else. If you worked in the mountains, over there putting cables up you had C rations and K rations. So that’s what they lived on when they were working over there. Light: Did you make any friends in either of the training camps? Fleagle: Make friends? Yes I, a lot of good buddies. You make, you pick your own friends and it seems you get together with the other men, and you like the same, you have the same thing, the same ideas. So. Light: Are you in contact with any of these friends today? Fleagle: Uh, no not at this time, everybody scattered too far away. Light: Was it difficult to adapt to the military life? Fleagle: No. Dundore: Um, What did your uniform look like? Fleagle: My uniform? Dundore: Yeah. Fleagle: My uniform is so small now it won’t fit me. I tried it on just this afternoon and it won’t fit. I still have the Ike jacket. The pants, they’re, I wore them out. So, the uniform was good. They all, they had good clothing, good shoes. I was, I hated when my bag got stolen, my duffle bag, cause I had all shirts tailored and everything real nice. They sold it on the black market. I was in charge of seventeen men over there, in that, uh, tent. I lived in a tent and we got the cables up and after we got them up, uh, then I’d get called to splice them. So we had one going across a run, we, that was a big cable. We had to make the splices right at the runway. They were taking off all day. It was something to be there. Dundore: Ok, um, where did you serve during the Korean War? Fleagle: What was that? Dundore: Uh where did you serve, like in Korea? Fleagle: What city? Dundore: Yeah Fleagle: I was in Seoul, I worked there. And I also, I worked in Busan. I went on a microwave tower. I had to put new lines up, they didn’t have any communications. And then we went to eight air bases. I went with a major to figure out what kind of communications they need. We did eight landings in one day and so I had a pretty good time doing that. Dundore: Uh, How did you get to these locations? Fleagle: Well, uh, by airplane to those airbases and where I worked, had my own truck. We call it a weapons carrier, we could go anywhere with it because cable splicers could not be late. We had to be sat in the front and they left us go anywhere. Dundore: Uh, how long was the journey to get to Korea? Fleagle: One year I was in Korea, one year. Sue: How long did it take you to get there? Dundore: How long to get there? Fleagle: How long? Uh, fourteen days on the ship. Going over we stayed in Honolulu, then we went to Japan, and then to Korea. We flew to Korea from Japan. Dundore: What date did you enter the war? Was it toward the beginning or the end of the Korean War? Fleagle: Fifty, fifty-one and the war was still going on. Um, I have two brothers they went over, and they were lucky. They came home too. Dundore: Uh, how was Korea different from American life? Fleagle: See. Sue: How was Korea different than here? Fleagle: Oh. Well its, uh, more mountainous. The mountains are higher and stuff and, uh, the people, they live different. They have huts with tar roofs and stuff like that whatever they could build and, uh, the women wash their clothes in the big streams. They, they beat them on rocks and stuff like that and its strange. Its hard to get used to that when you‘re over there first. Dundore: Uh, what was a basic day like in the Signal Corps? Fleagle: I didn’t hear that. Dundore: Uh, like during your job, what was your basic day like? Fleagle: Oh the job was good, we uh, when I got there they didn’t have any cables that we could splice so I had 17 men, and we went out and I had them put the cables up, big cables. The cables were about, uh, oh about three and a half inches thick and we’d put them across runways. We worked right aside of where the jets took off. You had to cover your eyes so the, uh, pebbles wouldn’t hit you in the face. And, uh, we got the cables up and then after awhile you could splice, them and I had two Koreans working for me, and they used to jump on these splices and push them down and I thought they’d break the lead joints on them, but they didn’t. We got along pretty good. You couldn’t talk too much Korean, but they understood what we wanted to do when weworked together, so. Light: What was it like when you were living in the tent? Fleagle: What’s that? Light: What was it like when you were living in the tent? Fleagle: In the tent? Well we lived in the tent for I’d say three months in the winter time and when we got into a building again we thought we couldn’t breathe. That’s how good the air was in the tent. It was so good living, I’d say. It wasn’t that bad. Uh, we had to get out at night and put oil on if we ran out of oil. You had to lift those fifty gallon drums up and sometimes they‘d freeze up and then the fire would go out so you had to go out there and kick it and light the fire again. It was all, you were young you don’t mind that, so. I had a pet dog and we had a couple pet dogs and those people would kill the animals and they’d eat them. So they got my pet. That’s the way it is. Light: What was, what did you name it? Fleagle: Hmm? Light:What did you name your pet? Fleagle: Where did we live? Light: No, what did you name the pet? Fleagle: Oh, I forget, I forget. Light: Did you? Fleagle: I have pictures already in there. Light: Ok, um. Fleagle: Do you need anything else? Dundore: Um, how many people were in the battalion with you? Fleagle: In our unit? Dundore: Yeah. Fleagle: Over in Korea? Dundore: Yeah. Fleagle: Uh, there were see we stayed in a tent, we were in a compound by ourselves. We might have had, uh, there might have been 30 men in the unit and I was away from their, the uh, main outred, I was away from them. I worked for this lieutenant and his father passed away and then he got called back and we were on our own more or less. So, but we knew what to do with the cables. I had, I had about a thousand private telephones I took care of par take one of the airbases, so. Dundore: Uh, did you witness any combat action? Fleagle: No, no combat at all. Uh. Sue: Glenn, tell them when you landed. Fleagle: What? Sue: When you flew in there the first time. When you flew in the first time. Fleagle: Oh when we flew in, we landed at night and it was black dark and they were shelling the airport or something, dropping some kind of rockets or whatever. And they put us off the plane and we didn’t know where we were and somebody grabbed us and pulled us under a flap of a tent. We didn’t know where we were and we thought we‘d be killed the next day. When we went in, the Soviet, they bombed out holes, they drove in the dark. And, uh, we thought we’d all be dead the next day and they put us in a building, it was freezing cold, we didn’t have no blankets or nothing. We put everything under, out, of our duffle bags to sleep we covered on top of us. Then the next day they gave us blankets and it was better. So we thought we’d die the first night! Dundore: Um, did you ever witness a casualty? Fleagle: Can you say that again? Dundore: Uh, did you ever witness like somebody getting hurt? Fleagle: I just can’t hear her. Sue: Did you ever see anybody get hurt or killed or anything? Fleagle: No. Never saw anybody get killed. Dundore: Um, did you ever see like the snipers when you were on your job? Fleagle: Uh. Sue: Snipers? Fleagle: No. We uh, we had to work on the ground all the time. They never, we never went up telephone poles when we were up on the mountains because the snipers would shoot you if you went up on a pole. So we laid everything on the ground and we all carried guns and we had people looking out all the time. So we’d stay up on the mountain all day, we’d go up it was that steep. Uh, you had to be awful careful coming down the mountain they were real high. Dundore: Uh, how often did you fix the cables? Fleagle: Well whenever they had trouble, uh, on the cables at the airport. One time they had a leak at one, it was right under the main office, we fixed that. And another time I fixed the cable, a man put his calves through the cable and they have what they call a black room where they get their orders from when they fly off, take off, they get their orders. And he, uh, knocked this cable out so I had to go fix it. It was that cold that I was up there and I could only splice a few wires at a time, but as soon as I got all the wires together, the planes started taking off two at a time. And, uh, so I knew as soon as I got the wires together they were to taking off. Light: How did you fix the radar towers? Fleagle: What’s that? Light: How did you fix the radar towers? Fleagle: Fixing the cables? Sue: The radar towers. Fleagle: Well, they’re copper wires, you splice them together and you got snips, they call them snips to slice. You skin the wires and you wrap them together and as soon as you get the wires together you can talk over them, you know, and its so the the planes can take off, ‘cause they were grounded for many an hour and nobody could take off. They call it a dark league, they get all their orders where, how to fly and stuff. Light: How did you stay in contact with your family and friends in the United States? Fleagle: Well, I’d write letters home and my family would write back to me. We never got too much mail, but you always looked forward to the letters from our family, and we were glad to get it, and we were glad to get mail. Everybody around me would see if they got any letters. It was pretty good. We got quite a few packages of food and stuff like that, and you’d share with your buddies, and even they got something sent to them, you’d share their food with everybody else. That’s how we did that. Light: How often did you get to contact you family? Fleagle: How often did I contact the family? Well, I’d say about, maybe twice a month, something like that. You write ‘em letters. Dundore: What did you do when you had free time in Korea? Fleagle: What? Dundore: What did you do with your free time in Korea, when you weren’t splicing cables? Fleagle: I can’t hear. Sue: Your free time! Fleagle: Free time? Sue: Yeah. Fleagle: Oh, I’d go hunting and fishing. Sue: In Korea, Fleagle: Huh? Sue: In Korea! What did you do with your free time in Korea? Fleagle: Oh, in Korea. Oh, well, you couldn’t do much. Mostly, reckon, you’d go to sleep. You sleep. I hunt. We hunted deer over there. A couple times I went up and I shot a spy buck and we took it down to the tent and cleaned it, and they fed it to the GI’s and I found out later I coulda sold it for $300 on the Black Market. We had, we fed all the GI’s at the one outfit. And, we went swimming and stuff like that if we had a couple hours off. We’d go to some lake and go swimming. It was like that. We didn’t work all the time. Light: Where did you go for rest and relaxation? Fleagle: What was that? Light: Where did you go for rest and relaxation? Sue: R and R! Where did you go to recoup? You went to Japan! Fleagle: Japan for what? For relaxation? Oh, yeah, you’d get to take, they called it R and R, relax and rela-, you’d relax. I’d go to Japan. I went to Shiahitz, skiing down the snow in Japan. It took us all day to get up there. The snow was a/eight foot high and they taught you how to ski and I went up to the top of the slope when I went on a lift and I saw a sign. My buddy went down. He went over about a fourteen foot jump. He said ‘Come on down’ and I said ‘no’. I saw a sign that said “detour’’ and I took the detour and I fell 50 times getting off the mountain. I fell and hit ice and I just slide right off and I’d fall. I made myself fall. So, it was a lot of fun. Light: How long did you get to stay in Japan? Fleagle: You only stayed there five days. You were only in Japan for five days, so, when you were done for R and R you flew back to Korea. Light: How many times did you get to go to rest and relaxation? Fleagle: I think I was over there at least three times, probably in that time. Light: When you completed the Biographical Data Form, you told us that your bag was stolen. Can you explain what happened? Fleagle: (Confused look) Light: When you lost your bag. Someone stole it. Fleagle: Well, when they stole my duffel bag? Light: Yes. Fleagle: Yeah, they stole it. They took it down in Daegu. They took it down to the Black Market and they sold everything: my cameras, and my peer glasses, everything like that I had in it. All my pictures and everything he sold. I had the CEA/CDA check on them and they found them. They went down and they caught him and they fired the houseboy and the other guy got six month extended duty in Korea. And I knew a supply sergeant and he gave me all new clothing and stuff like that, so I made out alright. But, I had custom shirts made and everything and they were all gone, so. He wasn’t too happy that he got six months extended in Korea. I met him in a hallway once and he gave me a dirty look, so. Oh, well they threatened to kill me and everything else. They, they didn’t want to work. When I got over there they looked they were all, their eyes were way back in the head and they were drinking that socky all the time. They didn’t get any work done, so I had to take over and we put up the cables so I could get them to work and splice them and things worked out pretty good, but the lieutenant that had me, that was in charge of me, he had to come home because his dad died, so I never got any promotions in rank, ‘cause I was away from the unit all the time. Dundore: Did you return home by airplane? Fleagle: Yes I did. I flew home from Japan. Light: Did the war impact your life when you came home? Fleagle: Did I do what? Light: Did it impact your life when you came home? Fleagle: I can’t... Sue: Did the war impact your life, majorly. Fleagle: No, no. Didn’t bother me at all. Light: We know that you received the Bronze Campaign Star, but what campaigns were you in, in Korea? Fleagle: (Confused look) Sue: What campaign were you in? Fleagle: Well, I was, I was, I don’t know, what it would be. Sue: I don’t know either. Fleagle: I was in the 440th Signal group, if that’s what you mean. Here’s what it tells you (shows interviewers a paper). Light: How did you feel when you received all your medals? Fleagle: (Confused look) Sue: How did you feel when you received your medals? Fleagle: Well, I only got a few. They weren’t really medals, they were just little patches like, and it didn’t bother me at all. I, I wasn’t anxious to get medals. Light: How were you treated when you got home from the war? Fleagle: See, my hearings so bad... Sue: How were you treated? Fleagle: What? Sue: When you came home. Fleagle: Real good. I mean, it wasn’t like the Vietnam War. We came home and we just went back to our job and that was it. Light: Did you family do anything special when you came home? Fleagle: Oh, well, we might have had a party or so. We might have had a party. My two brothers, they went over after I came back, they went over, and we all got back safe. So, that, that was great news. Light: What lessons did you learn from your military experience? Fleagle: (Confused look) Oh...? Sue: What did you learn from being in the service? Fleagle: Being in the service? Sue: What did you learn from being in the service? Fleagle: Probably, being with all the friends and stuff. I don’t know what else to say. Do you have anymore...? Dundore: Are you in contact with anybody from, like, the military that you were friends with? Fleagle: With who? Dundore: With, are you in contact with any of your friends from the military still? Fleagle: No. Dundore: No. Dundore: What did you do after the war? Fleagle: Well, I went and came home and I went back with AT and T. I went to New York City and applied for my job and they hired me as a cable splicer helper, and that’s how I got my job, and I just kept working up till I worked in Scranton, I worked in Harrisburg, and I worked in York, and I went to Lancaster and retired there; 37 years with the company. Light: Would you mind explaining these things on the table? Fleagle: Well, this is, explain what it is? Well, this is from the 101 Crest Airborne. You’d wear that on your neck, you’d put it on your neck. You wore that in the (something inaudible ) all the time. That was the Signal Corps Emblem. Everyone that was in the Signal Corps wore them. The young GI’s that saw you walking down the street, they’d salute you, they thought you were some sort of kind of an officer or something. They’d used to salute you and you’d have to salute them back, but you were just the same person. I thought it was funny. That’s about it. I had a good time, as far as, working was hard, but it was fun. I didn’t mind working at all. Once you got cables and you could splice them, then, you got everything going good down there you could take a lot of work into a thousand private telephones. Some nights, they’d send each other Air Bases, and one night they used the IGuy guns and the other planes flew over what and they started shooting at those IGuy guns and we never had any hot and cool cells. So that’s about all I can tell you. Dundore: Is there any pictures that you would like to explain, here? Fleagle: These here are basic training, pictures of basic training when we, we all got together with the friends. I had my buddies, we all, we exercised on the weekend when didn’t have to exercise, we did exercise. These are Koreans walking, they’re probably going to the store or someplace nearby. I loved how they used to laze the country when they knew fighting was going to come. Those are, kids came running to us for candy all the time. Here are planes flying over from (Something inaudible) They’d fly low over. Dundore: Did you ever learn how, like, to fly a plane? Was that part of your, part of your requirements? Fleagle: What was that? Dundore: Did you ever have to learn how to fly a plane? Fleagle: No. Dundore: No. Fleagle: Alright, no, we, they took us in planes everywhere we went if, if I had to do some splicing, and, like, in Puscan(Something inaudible), they’d fly me down there with all of the equipment and I’d get GI’s to help me and we’d go on the mountain with all the cables and wire down over and then splice them together and they’d work till the tower went up in the mountain, so then they’d fly me back to Seoul again. I did that a couple times. Light: Could you please explain what these are? Fleagle: These here are, these are ration cards. This was a men’s ration card over in Korea. You’d have to have it to get any cigarettes at the PH and stuff like that. These are Army Fort Passes. They gave you a Liberty Pass when you’d want to go anywhere. They’d write you a pass up so you’d get off in the hours. They gave out, I was in the 440th Signal, and you had to have one of these when you went off duty, and I just saved it. That’s a menu (mumbled). That’s a food menu for in South Korea, Seoul, in 1951. Here you have and it was a Christmas menu, what we ate for Christmas. We had a big feast for it. It has all kind of good food: Roast young turkey, we had. Dundore: Did they celebrate Christmas, like, different in Korea, or the same? Fleagle: What was that? Dundore: Did they celebrate Christmas different, like when you were in the Army? Fleagle: Did we have Christmas? Dundore: Yeah. Fleagle: Yeah, we had Christmas. We had, like, a special meal and stuff like that, even in Korea. Any, any special like Thanksgiving or Christmas, they had a meal for us, something special. The food was real good. We never complained about food. Light: Would you mind explaining these papers too? Fleagle: They’re, this is, this is Script. They used to call it “Script”. Like, you’d give it to the GI’s and every now and then when they got too much on the Black Market, they’d call all of this “Script” and the people that got it on the Black Market, if they couldn’t exchange it, they’d lose that money. They used to change that Script every now and then. And this was over in Japan. This is Japanese money. I just brought some on home. I don’t know. That’s a fifty. Fifty dollars, I guess. I just saved some of it. Dundore: Do you wanna explain these pictures please? Fleagle: These here? This here, this is a very sedimentary thing to have of a Battalion. You’d march the whole camp. This was, like, kinda how a camp worked, and you all got to march on a Saturday, and when you were done with the parade, they’d give you off, the evening off and then you’d do whatever you want. Here, I was lining up to go up to pitch fires in the cold and before we had cables, we used to do that. Here are jets taking off. We used to work right aside of the runway, and like I said, the (something inaudible) would be flying in your face. They’d take off, and they used to crash at the end of the runway. They couldn’t get off. Their bombs were too heavy and the, it was too hot and it kept them from taking off the runway. They’d, they’d smash up. Most of them, some would parachute up, they, they’d check themselves and they’d live. They might have had broken legs and stuff like that. Here, we were up in the mountain. We were, they had cables up the mountain for the radar stations. Here it tells you about all the safety rules and stuff about that mountain. That’s how we made the cables go onto the road, so the snipers wouldn’t get us. And that’s a bombed-out building. Now, that was in Seoul. Here girls were begging for candy; they always beg for candy. There’s a road going up the mountain. We had to be awful careful. Here the women are doing their wash. That’s in Seoul. That’s the type of truck I had, one like that. Here are children playing and stuff in the street. Here we were just moving around, exercising and clowning around. We did that; it wasn’t always serious. If you wanna see other pictures you can look at that photo album. Light: Could you explain this paper here? Fleagle: This here, this here tells you you are in the 440th Signal Aviation Military, I guess. Its a special order. My name is right there. It had some kind of awards. I don’t, I forget what it was at the time. It has restricted security information. It told you about normal expenses, you had to pay your own expenses while you were in R and R in Japan. They didn’t pay your expenses, you just had to pay that yourself. That’s all that tells you about. Light: Do you have any other mementoes and things from the war? Fleagle: What’s that? Light: Do you have any other things from the war? Fleagle: Any..? Sue: Anything else from Korea? Fleagle: No. That’s about all I can tell you. Did you have anymore questions? Dundore: No. Thank you for your interview and thank you for your time! Fleagle: I couldn’t hear it. Sue: Thank you! Fleagle: Oh, thanks!

** Biographical Narrative **

__Glenn Fleagle__ Glenn Warren Fleagle was born December 13, 1928 in East Stouchsburg. His highest rank was corporal that he received in the air force. He currently lives in Womelsdorf Pennsylvania with his close friend Sue. At the present time, Mr. Fleagle has two children, a son and a daughter. He also has four siblings of which he was very close to. His first brother, the oldest, was Stewart Fleagle who is not living today. Also his other brother, Gerald, passed away at the age of fifty-four from a heart-attack. His third sibling would be June Weber who is still living today. Her husband has passed away though. Lastly, Mr. Fleagle has a sister named Helen who is also living today. Both of his brothers had been drafted a few years after himself. Before the time of Mr. Fleagle’s draft, he was a lineman for AT&T company. His job included working with cables and coils, so he was drafted around the age of twenty-one into the United States Army. Mr. Fleagle had a positive outlook about being drafted, explaining that the army was an experience. If he were not drafted, he would have wanted to enlist. His neighbor had insisted they enlist together, though Mr. Fleagle’s mother cried at the very idea. It was decided that he would not enlist due to family issues. Instead of the enlistment service years of four, his draft only had a service time of two years. Upon leaving for training, his family did not know in what country Mr. Fleagle would serve. Eventually ending in Korea, he could have also been sent to Alaska, Japan, or Germany. He was told that he would be sent to Korea due to the mass amounts of GIs being killed in Korea and the need for cables used for communication. Therefore Concord, Georgia was the place of his basic training and later also for specialized training in cable splicing school. In Concord he spent a total of four weeks in basic training. In basic training Mr. Fleagle learned to shoot many types of guns which includes bazookas and throwing grenades. Also he dug trenches as part of assignments. Lastly Mr. Fleagle would have to hike for many miles in basic training. The start was five miles which increased to ten, then fifteen, and eventually twenty-five miles. On the weekends of basic training, Mr. Fleagle and his friends would get together and exercise, even though they did not need to do so (pictures). He first decided upon being a machine gunner, which would have to carry a heavy gun through the twenty-five miles. Also the machine gunner would have a team of two other men to carry all of the ammunition cans. After hearing of these requirements Mr. Fleagle decided against his earlier decision. Nevertheless, Mr. Fleagle says that occasionally their whole camp would have to march. This would occur mainly on Saturdays and it included the whole camp (picture). After this, they were given the rest of the day off. After the basic training step, he received specialized training, cable splicing school. Mr. Fleagle felt happy to receive the extra training so when he came back home after the war, he could have a cable splicing job in the AT&T company. This specialized training was 13 weeks long and there was a test at the end that had to be passed. Mr. Fleagle passed the test of wiping lead onto a broomstick with the lead holding on. He explains that some people would flunk the program if they could not complete this task. Although he was part of the Air Force, he never had to learn how to fly a plane. Thereupon Mr. Fleagle had no difficulty adapting to the ways of military life style once in Korea. His food in the camps consisted of canned foods that was “all you could eat” style. Overseas he would receive K rations and when he would work on the Korean mountains he would also get C rations (picture). For special holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, they were given special foods, like turkey (picture of menu). In the camps, Mr. Fleagle made many friends that were interested in the same things and ideas. He is not currently in contact with any of these friends because they live so far away from his Pennsylvania home. Mr. Fleagle learned the value and enjoyment of friendship from his experiences in the Korean War, but he says that he is no longer in contact with any of his friends from his wartime service. They scattered and lost contact soon after the end of their service. In order to get to Korea, Mr. Fleagle traveled by ship first. The trip was fourteen days to get to Honolulu, Hawaii and from there they went to Japan. Finally a plane brought Mr. Fleagle to Korea. He was drafted in 1951 and served until February of 1953. Therefore the Signal Corps uniform, which he was part of, was given to Mr. Fleagle. He had been given clothing and shoes. The pants eventually wore out (picture). As another part of the uniform, those in the Air Force would wear the 101 Crest Airborne, which goes around your neck. On this would go a special Signal Corps Emblem (picture).When dressed in full uniform, Mr. Fleagle was saluted by all the new GI’s because they thought he was an officer. He found this humorous, but would salute them back. One interesting story about our veteran and his duffle bag occurred soon after he got to Korea. Someone actually stole Mr. Fleagle’s duffle bag, which was full of his specially-made uniform, camera, pictures, and his other important items. The man took Mr. Fleagle’s duffle bag and sold all of it at the Black Market in Daegu. Fortunately, the man was caught and was given a six month extended service in Korea. Also, a supply sergeant that was friends with him gave him some clothes and other supplies. Though Mr. Fleagle never witnessed a casualty or any combat, the first night in Korea was very frightful as he explains. When he flew in the night was very dark and the airport was being shelled with rockets dropping from the sky. Mr. Fleagle was pulled under a flap as soon as he got off of the airplane and then led to a building. The Soviets were bombing holes in the dark because they were trained to drive in dark conditions. Mr. Fleagle thought he would be killed that very first night, though he just had to sleep in the freezing cold building. That night he and the other men slept with their duffle bags covering themselves. The next day they were given blankets. Furthermore, Mr. Fleagle’s job included the command over 17 other men while living in a tent. While in the tent, the men would set up cables and then Mr. Fleagle would have to splice them together. Once he recalls having to splice on a runway and then the planes had to take off a few minutes later. Temporarily his main city of cable splicing was in Seoul, Korea though he would also travel to Busan occasionally to work on microwave towers. With the microwave towers, Mr. Fleagle would have to set up new lines due to no communications. Also he traveled back and forth from eight air bases to figure out the type of communication needed at that location. Once he went to eight landings in one day which he describes as having a good time. To get to these air bases, Mr. Fleagle would travel by airplane (picture of plane flying). During one of those, he was actually on a mountain. He says there were certain safety rules of the mountain (picture of person sitting in front of mountain sign). Next, on the normal job day Mr. Fleagle traveled by truck which was his own personal. This truck was called a weapons carrier and made sure that Mr. Fleagle was never late to when he was needed. He was allowed to go anywhere with his truck whenever he wanted to (picture). He once saw an old, bombed-out building in Seoul (picture). Also when not having any cables to splice or fix, he and his seventeen men would put up large cables. The cables were about three and a half inches and put across runways. With this type of job, Mr. Fleagle and his men worked right next to the jets that took off. He remembers covering his eyes so the pebbles would not hit him in the face (picture of plane on the runway). Once the cables were up Mr. Fleagle would splice them together and had two Koreans that would help him. The Koreans pushed down on the lead joints for him and they worked together as a team very well. Mr. Fleagle could not communicate well with the Koreans, but they would always understand what had to be done. Afterward Mr. Fleagle describes Korea as very different than American life. Korean mountains were much larger and the people lived differently. The people’s houses were huts with tar roofs or whatever could be built. Clothes were washed by the women in the and then beat on rocks (picture of women walking) He says that the children of Korea would often ask him for candy (picture of girls). Sometimes the children could be seen playing on the streets (picture). Mr. Fleagle eventually found it normal to seeing the new lifestyle, but recalled it as strange in the beginning. There were 30 men in the 440th battalion along with Mr. Fleagle, though he was in a compound with 17 other men away from the main group. In their separated group they lived in a tent. Mr. Fleagle’s group did not have a lieutenant because he had gotten called back to America due to the death of his father. Mr. Fleagle knew what to do in the situation and took care of about 1,000 private telephones as part of his job when living in the tent. As a result, he lived in a tent for three months during the winter time. In the night he had to lift up fifty gallon drums so they would not freeze up and the fire would go out. If the fire did go out, Mr. Fleagle would kick the drums and then attempt to light the fire again. As being of a young age, Mr. Fleagle did not mind the difficulties of tent life. When the three months were over, he came back into a building for the first time. Mr. Fleagle could barely breathe because he was so used to the good air from the Korean mountains that he had enjoyed. However, Mr. Fleagle had a pet, although it was soon eaten and killed by the Koreans. Many other soldiers had pets, and it was common for them to disappear into the hands of Koreans. Meanwhile, when working on the cables he had to be careful of enemy snipers. Mr. Fleagle had to work on the ground and bring the telephone poles to ground level due to this. He would have gotten shot if he went up on a pole. At all times he carried a gun and there was always a soldier on lookout for enemies. Getting up the mountains to these telephone poles were also difficult due to the steepness of the mountains and how high they were. In addition, Mr. Fleagle would fix cables at airports most of the time. Once he recalls fixing one under the main control office where a leak had been. Also once a man had hit and knocked a cable out by accident. This broken cable was located in the black room where orders are made to fly and take off for the planes. Mr. Fleagle went up to the cable and spliced the wires a few at a time. After all the wires were put together, the planes took off two at a time. The planes were depending on Mr. Fleagle to be able to leave the base that day. However, Mr. Fleagle was able to fix the radar towers by using a pair of snips to skin the wires. Next he would wrap them together. Once this was completed, his part of the tower was finished and the towers were now operational, and were used by the Air Force for communicating (pictures of people on the cable lines). Next, Mr. Fleagle personally kept in touch with his family and friends by writing letters. He was also sent packages, mainly consisting of food. The troops, including Mr, Fleagle, often shared their food packages with their friends. He would receive letters and packages from home about twice a month. Also when he wasn’t splicing cables, he would use his free time wisely. If he was given a couple of hours off, he and his friends would go swimming. At other times, he would go hunting. Once, he shot a buck, got it cleaned by those in charge of food, and was able to give it to the entire outfit of GI’s to eat. When they wanted to get off duty for a couple of hours and leave the campus, those in the 440th Signal Battalion had to have a Liberty pass (picture). Then for rest and relaxation, called R and R by those in the Armed Forces, they were sent to the mountains in Japan to learn how to ski. Mr. Fleagle says that, one time on the mountain, when he was up there with one of his friends, he did not want to go over a fourteen-foot jump and instead took a detour down the mountain. This would have been okay, except poor Mr. Fleagle kept falling and sliding on the ice. However, he says that his experiences in Japan were “a lot of fun.” He actually still has some Japanese money that he kept after his stay in Japan (picture). They were able to stay in Japan for five days and he went over there at least three times during his time in the service. Mr. Fleagle says that the Army did not pay to their R and R expenses, but that the troops had to pay for their R and R expenses themselves. By the end of his services in the Korean War, Mr. Fleagle had received three medals: the Bronze Campaign Star, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal. Although Mr. Fleagle was “not anxious” to receive his medals, he deserved them for his great help in the Korean War. Finally, Mr. Fleagle was returned to the United States by airplane. Mr. Fleagle says that his family celebrated his coming home with a party. He says that although the work was often hard, it was a lot of fun. After that, he was able to return to his normal life and job. Our veteran was able to go back to AT&T as a cable splicer helper. He moved up in his job, working in Scranton, Harrisburg, York, and finally to Lancaster, where he retired after spending thirty-seven years with that company. In conclusion, Mr. Fleagle served America, our country, as a member of the 440th Signal Battalion. His job in his battalion helped America and her allies to communicate over long distances, for those on the ground and also those in the air. This amazing act shows that he respects not only America, but also those who we were allied with during the Korean War. For this, we thank our veteran for his services in the Korean War. Thank you Mr. Fleagle!