...from the Ogemaw County Herald..by
Elon Brissette/Staff Writer/reporter
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...Serving in the "Forgotten War" is something George Bray will never forget.
Photographs and mementos of his days spent on Old Baldy and Pork Chop Hill are
now adhered to scrapbook pages for Bray to share his stories with his grandchildren and others who may come along asking about
his Army days. And his memories of the time he spent in Korea are as vivid as the memory book displays.
After enlisting in the U.S. Army January 7, 1951, at 18 years old, Bray trained
at Camp Polk, La. HIs division then moved to Hokkaido, Japan, to help fill in until December for the National Guard, who were
short-handed. Then, Bray volunteered three times to go to Korea, being turned down each time.
"They took my friends, and I was left behind, and I thought I wasn't going," Bray
said. "Then, they took the whole division over."
Bray said the first time on the front line was uneventful, but he will never forget
the bitter temperatures. "It was so beastly cold," he said. "We didn't have any heat and about froze to death."
"We go to these (Army) reunions and all the men say the never want to be cold again,"
Bray's wife Ann said.
In February 1952, Bray was put on the front line again and encountered Chinese
soldiers for the first time as he was on an ambush patrol.
"That's a lot like deer hunting." He said. "Like you're waiting for deer, but you
wait for their patrols."
When I was sitting on the ground, I heard water like a little stream and heard
a sound. Later on, the moon came out and it got real bright. I was about half froze and looked to my left and noticed five
guys coming up the rice paddy, and we all fired at the same time. We all took off running because we weren't sure if we were
going to run into any more."
They also weren't sure if they would run into any more enemies when checking bunkers.
The U.S. Army used the same bunkers on Pork Chop Hill during the day that the Chinese Soldiers used at night. Every morning,
the Army would have to make sure nobody was in the bunkers they wanted to use.
"We didn't know if anyone would be waiting for us, but luckily there never were,"
Bray said. "You just had that feeling (when)you made a corner you would encounter one or one was waiting for you."
At the end of May, Bray and his division traveled to an area in front of a barren
hill, later to be known as Old Baldy. Around June 5, Mustang fighter planes began bombing the area.
"That afternoon we heard machine guns and saw people running over the hill," Bray
said. "We jumped up and started shooting. It ended up being the A Company. We were shooting at our own men."
Bray and his fellow troops were not informed their own soldiers were in that area
and began firing at the people running down the hill. Because the soldiers were roughly 800 yards away, nobody was hit.
A few days later, Bray saw a green flare light the sky, which was an announcement
from the Chinese that they were starting their artillery. They shelled Bray's division for about 20 minutes and then stopped.
The army finished digging foxholes before the firing began again at night. It lasted for about an hour and a half, then
stopped again. The lieutenant warned Bray and the other soldiers that it was not done and they should expet the Chinese
infantry the next time they hit.
When the infantry came that night, Bray described the experience as a scene out
of the movie "Saving Private Ryan."
"That's how it was, people running around screaming." he said, "You didn't know
who to shoot at, so we didn't shoot. Spent most of the time trying not to get hit."
"It was dark so all you could see were tracers. They were just flying all over
(every) which way. You'd look around periodically, but you didn't dare shoot at them becaue you didn't know if they were your
guys or theirs. That was probably the worst of the lot up there on that hill."
Shortly after, Bray and his fellow troops traveled up Old Baldy to "hold the hill
again" for the night. The Army ws instructed to go to the top of the hill to show themselves to the Chinese, baiting them
to come out. After they did that, they got back into their foxholes and heard a grenade explode.
"They were calling for our medics to get a medic to get up there." Bay said. "Of
course, we knew better than that. I heard a mortar round coming, and just as I reached up and pulled my helmet down, shrapnel
went flying and something hit me here (left shoulder)and I thougt it killed me."
"It was just a part of a pack board that just stung when it hit me."
While on reserve again in August, Bray noticed the names of the whole company he
trained with posted on the bulletin board for soldiers who were going home. But his name wasn't listed.
"I thought, 'Here we go again',"he said.
After fighting a downpour for 12 days and 12 nights, and helping haul Japanese
artillery pieces for the lieutenant who wanted them for decoration, Bray said it was his time to go home.
"Next thing I knew, my name came up on the list and I got out of there," he said.
"Hallelujah".
Besides the shooting, explosions and fighting, there were some entertaining things
that happened in Korea. Bray said it wasn't all gruesome, including time when Korean workers were bringing breakfast
for the U.S. soldiers and lost some of the food on the trip.
"One Korean kid slipped and fell and scrambled eggs were flying all over the place
as he slid down the hill," Bray said. "It's funny now. It wasn't then."
During his trip back home, Bray said he had his last $52.10 stolen on the ship,
had coffee spilled in his lap from a welcome home committee, got stuck in a snowstorm and had to sleep in his car, and then
was pulled over by the Michigan State Police for having out-of-state plates. But, he made it back home to West Branch after
being honorably discharged January 9, 1954.
While Bray was in Korea, he had exchanged letters with Ann(Hewson), a girl he went
to high school with.
"I was in college while he was gone, but we wrote the best we could," Ann said.
"His writing conditions weren't as good as mine. I had a desk and a lamp and he had a hole and a candle..."
"If you could find one," Bray added.
The couple married in May 1954.
The have a daughter, Jan Collins; a daughter-in-law, Sandy and grandchildren, Mallory
and Eden Collins, and Kimberly and Michael Bray. They lost their son, George "Bill"William, in 1997.
The Brays had the chance to take a two-week-long tour in Korea at the end of 2001,
which was a trip that George looked forward to.
"In South Korea, when you get up to the DMV (Demilitarized Zone), it looks like
it did when we were there," he said. "It was interesting to see how the country (in other areas)had been built up"
Currently, Bray works for the Ogemaw County Clergy Association Food Bank ordering
food to stock in the basement of the Trinity Church. He and Ann reside in West Branch.
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