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Korean War veteran shares battlefield stories

Harry November 10, 2024

The sniper’s bullet hit the US Navy Commander. Ray Burkard’s right leg as he retreated with his exhausted fellow soldiers during the Winter Battle of Chosin Reservoir, one of America’s bloodiest campaigns, in December 1950. of the Korean War.

“I got hit. And it was a shock, but it never knocked me down. You know, it felt like you’d been hit with a baseball bat,” Burkard recalled nearly 74 years later, as Viera sat at the kitchen table.

“This hurts, but you’re still alive. It didn’t kill you. It didn’t knock you out. And I hobbled around for the rest of that day, until maybe the afternoon,” he said.

Burkard, 21, was then evacuated to a white hospital ship in Hŭngnam Harbor, North Korea, and transferred to a U.S. Navy hospital in Yokosuka, Japan. He spent 48 days there recovering from his gunshot wound. He asked the doctor for the bullet he kept as a souvenir.

Burkard, who celebrated his 96th birthday last month, later moved from Michigan to Cocoa and embarked on a 33-year career working in the space program at Cape Canaveral. And the Battle of Chosin Reservoir became infamous in Marine Corps lore; Here, outnumbered US troops bravely fended off Chinese attacks in bitterly cold weather.

Like many people of his time, Burkard repressed his traumatic Korean War memories and did not discuss his experiences with relatives or friends for decades. He has six children and nine grandchildren.

“Back then, these soldiers came back; they just weren’t talking about certain things. Maybe in the last 10 years, I had to ask my father, ‘Do you want to share any information about the things you experienced in Korea?’ And he just kept quiet, didn’t really say anything,” said his son, David Burkard, of Scottsville, New York.

But about five years ago, David bought his father a tape recorder and told him to start reading memories of his past whenever he was upset. Ray recorded some wartime details. Later, Ray became friends with Tom Fitzgerald in October 2021. Space Coast Honor FlightOne-day military monument tour in Washington DC

Fitzgerald, who manned a mule-drawn caisson at Cape Canaveral National Cemetery, worked with Burkard and compiled a detailed 20-page memoir of his battlefield perspective on the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. The two later discussed the historic conflict on their “Voice of Our Veterans Radio Show” iHeartRadio podcast.

Moreover, Burkard’s memoir was featured as the cover story of the 2024 summer issue of “Semper Fi: The Magazine of the Marine Corps League”. Title: “Sailors! You Will Die Tonight!”

In his memoirs, Burkard described how he had just taken off his snow boots in an abandoned hut near midnight when Chinese troops launched their surprise attack.

“Bullets passed through mud walls like paper, and one Marine was hit. We took cover on the side of the mountain that provided visibility to the area. Flares lit up the sky and Marine machine gun tracer rounds added light every fifth round. (Fox) Company) completely occupied the nascent command.” “Our place was surrounded by the Chinese. We fought in every direction all night in the freezing cold.”

Battle of the Cold Chosin Reservoir

The Chosin Minority: Narrating the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

Generals Raymond G. Davis and Billy Gene Devasher describe the Battle of Chosin Reservoir from November 26 to December 13, 1950, during the Korean War.

Defense Health Agency

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Burkard enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves after graduating from high school in 1948. The infantry battalion was activated in the late summer of 1950 – “I didn’t have much of an idea where Korea was.” He was assigned to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, as a rifleman and landed in Inchon, South Korea, in September 1950.

The day after Thanksgiving, Burkard bundled up in warm clothing in the freezing North Korean weather amid mountainous, steep terrain near the man-made Chosin Reservoir along the Toktong Pass, a narrow road. He was stationed near the base of what is now Fox Hill. Approximately 30,000 United Nations troops occupied the winter-ridden Chosin Reservoir area, the Marine Corps press release said.

However, on November 27, a much larger force of approximately 120,000 Chinese soldiers surrounded and attacked the UN force, later known as the Chosin Minority. Officials estimate Marines are outnumbered as much as 8 to 1 in some areas.

On the cold second night of this surprise attack, Burkard recalls how a Chinese officer stood at the foot of the hill and shouted in broken English, “Marines! You die tonight!”

“When you hear something like that, you wonder, ‘How many people are against us?’ “We are one company and we have no one to help us,” Burkard said.

“Well, I might die here. But you know what? If I’m going to die, I want to die here, with my men. I’m going to die here, on this hill. And if I survive, then we’ll go on from there,” he said.

Burkard survived that unforgettable night of battle. But after fending off repeated enemy attacks for five days and six nights and defending a three-mile mountain pass during an “epic stand in bitter sub-zero weather conditions,” only 82 of Fox Company’s 220 original men were able to walk away, according to the National Medal. Honor Museum.

Days later, on December 6, 1950, as Fox Company advanced toward the village of Kot’o-ri, he was shot just above his right ankle.

All told, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir “lasted 17 brutal days, taking place in some of the harshest weather conditions and harshest terrain of the war. The extreme weather caused the weapons oil to freeze, rendering the troops’ weapons unusable, and by the end of the conflict it had come down to hand-to-hand combat; this was the beginning of the Korean War “It would be known as one of the most terrible battles of the 1960s.”

Burkard is now among the 239 Marines and U.S. Navy corpsmen who fought at Fox Hill in the book “Fox Company’s Last Stand” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

Korea: ‘Most of their stories have never been told’

Burkard was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1952 as a sergeant and senior drill instructor. He and his late wife, Shirley, moved to the Space Coast from Detroit in January 1961 and bought a home in Cocoa. They raised six children.

Ultimately, Burkard enjoyed a 33-year career at the Cape. Chrysler Corp. until the end of NASA’s Apollo program. After working in the Missile Division, he worked for Lockheed Martin in Trident missile research and development. He later became a Rockwell International electronics technician during the space shuttle program and retired in 1994.

“I was very happy to go to the school that opened doors for me. He brought me here. “And I’m so thankful for all of it,” he said.

The Korean War, also known as the “Forgotten War,” cost the lives of approximately 37,000 Americans. The Department of Defense reported that more than 92,000 U.S. troops were injured and 8,000 were missing.

Donn Weaver, vice president of the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center, is a retired U.S. Army captain and a 2023 Florida Veterans Hall of Fame inductee. He is a past president of Space Coast Chapter 210 of the Korean War Veterans Association.

“I had the responsibility of serving in the DMZ in Korea for 13 months. So from 1969 to ’70, I was in Korea as a platoon leader, acting company commander, and I was looking after the North Koreans at the DMZ every day,” Weaver said. .

“We owe it to these veterans who are still with us to honor them and tell their stories. We understand very well that there are very few Korean War veterans left – but many of their stories have never been told.” in question.

Asked about Veterans Day, Burkard said that war is terrible and that “there is nothing worse in this world than war.” He said he was proud to live in the USA.

“I am very honored to be an American, to be an American citizen. Because I have seen other countries and other people. And there is no other place in this world that is like the United States of America.”

Rick Neale He is a Space Reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at: [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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