Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

SEARCH RESULTS

my selections

10,668
Videos
49
Photos
148
Docs

Search Again

advanced search

Bob Brockish

Korea | C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

His memories of the Battle of Horseshoe Ridge are noise, light and smell. There was so much ordnance and so many flares that you didn't need lights. Bob Brockish relates these impressions and remembers the men lost. Decades later, there are still expeditions to locate the remains of the missing. Part 3 of 3. (6:15)
After the Battle of Horseshoe Ridge, Bob Brockish stayed on the move, taking and retaking hills as both sides jockeyed for position. He lived in foxholes, where the sleeping arrangements could be described as tense. (5:08)
After the push to get to the Punch Bowl area, Bob Brockish went into reserve with his battalion and it was around this time that he became squad leader. The Marine was nineteen years old and suddenly he was responsible for twelve men. (6:02)
It was a historic day for the Marines, the first air assault with Marines placed at the front with helicopters. Bob Brockish didn't make that ride but his unit relieved those troops and he couldn't believe what they were complaining about. As he looked around the terrain, he wondered why there was apparent road construction on the top of a ridge. (4:02)
The Corps put out a call to NCO's in Korea asking for applicants to become commissioned officers. Bob Brockish applied and was interviewed and then heard nothing about it. So it was back to moving hill to hill, dodging enemy mortar fire. (5:11)
He was pulled from the line and sent to division for Sergeant's School. That was big living after a long line of foxholes. When he finished that and got his stripes, Marine Bob Brockish got even better news. He was going to Quantico as an officer candidate. (5:49)
His flight home had to circle around after an aborted landing and Bob Brockish thought for a moment, am I going to survive Korea and then die here? He was on his way home for Christmas and then on to Quantico, where hoped to become a commissioned Marine officer. (5:13)
Even without any college, Bob Brockish passed all the tests at Officer Basic School, where even college graduates were taking remedial courses. He wanted to go to artillery or armor school, but the captain had other ideas, so he decided to go inactive and entered the Marine Reserves. (6:13)
Bob Bruffey

Korea | Multiple Units

He thought he had a promise to go to technical school, but Bob Bruffey was frustrated for his first two years in the Air Force. Finally he got his wish and, after working on F-51's for a while, shipped out to Korea where he retrieved downed planes for repair. (4:36)
Bob Bruffey could only shake his head and wonder how he got assigned to a unit full of misfits. Surrounded by their drunken antics at his Korean air base, he escaped on the weekends to take food and clothing to orphans living in caves. (4:45)