My buddy's uncle Korean air war story

[Pisis]

This story was told to me by my friend, Wallace 'Wudpecker' Wood, who lives in Cal, USA.

Here's a true Korean War story from my uncle Glenn Walker, a bombardier/navigator on B-29's (he served on B-17's in WWII, also). Glenn was tall--once hit his head on the door lintel of our house visiting us on leave in '44 or so.

"We were flying down MIG Alley--that's what they call a stretch of North Korea up near the Chinese border--to bomb bridges.
"Somebody yelled 'MIGS!' and we all started looking around.
They were coming down on our formation from above and behind. They hit one B-29 back of us and it started to smoke and flame.
"I looked back and this MIG was headed right at us. He seemed a lot bigger than he was, and I could see his guns firing. If just one of those cannons hit us, it would have torn us up.
"But he missed. Or so I thought. Then he went on by. The Sabres came after them, and the MIGs got out of there fast."
"We completed our mission and hit the bridges. When we landed and checked the plane, there were bullet holes, but his cannons hadn't hit. Too close for me!"

His story comes from a newspaper article (which I don't have any more and had to write this from memory).

Glenn made Lt. Col before retiring and I'm sure got some medals. He used to send me black and white pictures---including some P-51s from Korea.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I had an uncle who was a B-29 radio operator. His B-29 got shot up and they crashed landed in Japan. This happened in 1950.

 

[Pisis]

Were they wounded or something?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Were they wounded or something?

His face smashed against the radio and he cut his arm on a table corner. He didn't detail too much the incident but I did ask him if his plane was brough down with flak or migs and he said "both."

 

[Pisis]

OH, dear! He lost his arm? Whole arm?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Oh no, he didn't loos his arm, just cut it badly

 

[Pisis]

Oh, thanksgod!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

He was my fav. Uncle, passed away a few years ago, really inspired me to get into aviation.

 

[P38 Pilot]

I had a great-uncle who was in the Korean War. He was part of armored division. I never met him but my dad told me that some korean soldier tryed to steal a machine gun out of their tank one night. They slept in their tanks so when he saw him he cut the safety off and pulled the trigger. Other story was how the Koreans made this huge offensive charge and they just murdered them with their tanks and machine guns. He said hundreds of them were just lying out in the field, dead!

 

[plan_D]

"He said hundreds of them were just lying out in the field, dead!"

Well, they wouldn't be having a bloody picnic would they!?!

 

[P38 Pilot]

Very funny Plan_D! But im serious. My great uncle saw alot of combat in Korea. He also said that the smell of their dead bodies made them not want to sleep or eat for the rest of the day snd into the night.

 

[plan_D]

You left it open for a joke.

 

[P38 Pilot]

Now that i see it, whoops!

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

I suppose they didn't have to bury the dead bodies at least.

 

[syscom3]

I can imagine the stench was unforgetfull.

 

[Matt308]

A C130 driver in the office used to haul the KIAs out of Nam. He said it was the most God awful flights. Between the emotions and cargo, he said what sticks in his mind was the sickly sweet smell of dead bodies. He said it made him uncontrollably salivate. So much that he could not swallow and had to spit it out or he felt he would drown. He confided that he had no idea why he had such a reaction to the revolting smell. It was obviously very painful for him.

 

[Ramirezzz]

A C130 driver in the office used to haul the KIAs out of Nam. He said it was the most God awful flights. Between the emotions and cargo, he said what sticks in his mind was the sickly sweet smell of dead bodies. He said it made him uncontrollably salivate. So much that he could not swallow and had to spit it out or he felt he would drown. He confided that he had no idea why he had such a reaction to the revolting smell. It was obviously very painful for him.

That reminds me of stories which my friend's father, pilot of a "black tulip" ( nickname of the IL-76 cargo plane which had in Afganistan war the same sad role as the C130 KIA's transporter in Vietnam) often told us. For example , they used to climb wth a very high rate during every takeoff because of danger of being hit with "Stinger" missiles which were used by mojaheddin. Another one was about one young member of his crew , navigator, who saw the discharging of flares for the first time and thought that the aircraft's engine was hit by a missile.