Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
7:00 | The whole division was pulled off the line and in reserve when William Alli read a letter from a cousin in Turkey. Why don't you go visit the Turkish troops serving in Korea, tell them your father is from Turkey and you are all brothers fighting Communism together? Great idea, until he got there.
Keywords : William Alli Korea reserve Turkey Turkish communism communist pistol belt interpreter United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
William Alli joined the Marine Reserve while still in high school. By the time he was in boot camp, the training was geared toward a possible fight in Korea. As an ammo bearer, what he needed most was not the training.
He didn't get seasick crossing the Pacific, but William Alli disliked the sea, nonetheless. It's too big. He finally arrived in Korea and he wasn't too thrilled with that, either. What was that smell?
His first mission in Korea was nerve wracking. William Alli was put in a listening post all alone in front of the line. There wasn't much combat until the Chinese launched their spring offensive. Then it was time for advancing in a different direction, that is to say, a retreat.
The Marines reversed their retreat in the face of the Chinese spring offensive and began to advance to the north, once again. Ammo bearer William Alli had to hit the deck when the enemy fire started and his load scattered across a dry rice paddy. Leave it, came the shout. Later, very high up in the mountains near the coast, he was serving last watch when daylight revealed a surreal scene.
After describing the different enemy mines used in Korea, William Alli gives a spirited account of two battles in which he was involved. During the first, he heard the order fix bayonets and charge! It worked. At the Punch Bowl, it was four days of intense action.
Marines in Korea had a special relationship with Tootsie Rolls. William Alli missed out on that but he does have something to say about the chow when he was up on the line. When you were opening up the boxes and pulling out the cans, you had what you called The Deadly Three.
Seven months into his tour in Korea, William Alli was put in charge of the local unit of Korean laborers. The nineteen year old Marine was now an Asian despot, according to his friends. He didn't mind the ribbing. After all, he wasn't carrying that heavy machine gun ammo any more.
William Alli was long gone from Korea when the cease fire occurred. He was fine with forgetting about the war. He never spoke to his sons about the place or about being a Marine. So what did they both do?
William Alli had wanted to forget about the Korean War once he was out of it. Over time, however, he was called to write a book about it. Just one problem, how to pay tribute to the Marines in his division before him, the ones who went through Frozen Chosin.
