How C hristianity W orks
TerrRose I looked. And I realized I was a twig on a raging ocean.
Korea seems a long ways off now. But things hap pened there that changed my life. I found that when the knocks fell— rather hard ones— that God took them and softened them. And that’s about all a fellow can ask for. I was born on a ranch near Healdsburg, Calif, on January 14, 1932. I have four brothers and six sisters and each Sunday, as regular as milking time, Mom packed us up in the old family car and drove us 12 miles to the First Baptist Church of Healds burg. The road was sort of twisty and each Sunday I’d get car sickness. During the same trip on a Satur day I’d feel wonderful. It was during a special series of messages by our pastor when I was a high school sophomore that I accepted Jesus Christ as my own personal Saviour. After high school I went to San Francisco and got a job as a file clerk with Southern Pacific. I was saving my money so I could go on to college and in the summer of 1952 I attended San Francisco Baptist College. Then I was drafted. I took infantry training at Fort Ord and on March 30 sailed for Korea on the USS Mitchell. I was assigned to the 7th Division and I moved up with a machine gun squad near the MLR (main line of resistance). There had just been a big attack and that’s all the old outfit talked about. It was enough to scare us new guys to death. I was given a flame-thrower and put in an outpost bunker called Snooks. Around each outpost we had L.P.’s (lookout posts) with telephone and radios to warn us of a sneak night attack by the Chinese. That night the attack came and three of the L.P.’s were killed.
They always got it bad. About 100 Chinese swarmed right into our trenches and bunkers. There were only six of us left and our weapons were all knocked out. But we had grenades and all that night we held them off. For this action we all got bronze stars. After a short period of leadership training behind the lines I was again sent to the front. This time to Pork Chop Hill. It was the first of July and raining hard and everybody was on edge. We knew the Chinese liked to attack in the rain. On the night of July 6 I pulled L.P. duty. It was raining and by 10 P.M. I was soaked to the skin. The blackness was empty and heavy with the rain. At 10:20 artillery and mortar fire began exploding at the base of our hill. The Chinese were methodically "walking” their fire up the hill toward us. I watched the explosions steadily drawing in on us. And I realized I was a twig on a raging ocean. We L.P.’s were ordered in and we ran for it. I got a hold of a kid’s hand from Tennessee and a Korean got a hold of my other hand. W e’d ran until we’d fall in the cold mud and each time we’d fall I’d pray out loud for all three of us. The Korean was killed by fire from our own bunker and for a while I became tangled in barbed wire. I finally made it to our trenches unharmed. By now the Chinese foot soldiers were streaming up the hill using flame throwers. We were overrun. A Chinese grenade hit a lieutenant standing beside me and blew his head off. I only lost my little finger and my helmet. By morning I was so cold and wet and tired I wanted to die. I had no weapon and most of our men were dead around me. Everything was quiet.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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