Carl Hughes and the 581st Signal Radio Relay Company - Page 8
In North Korea The next stop was Hamhung. I don't remember how long we were there. I do remember each night we would go into the hills and look for I don't know what. We didn't have anyway of communicating with the rest of the company and we didn't know where they were nor did they know where we were! One night going up to the ridge where we would form this perimeter Andreas Meisels stepped into a slit trench that was filled to the top with what slit trenches are made to contain. He was outstanding in that no one wanted to be near him. He returned to the houses that we were staying in at the base of the hill, not to be seen or smelled for the rest of the night. Another night two men were on guard and one of the two decided to go down the ridge to a better vantage point. After a while the one who remained became worried and started to softly call out the other one's name to see if he was OK. He heard noises but no response to his calling out the other one's name. It became intense and he soon had a round in the chamber. After great concern he was able to finally identify his partner and that never happened again. We left there and went to Hungnam from where the rest of the company was evacuated to Pusan. Some of our teams made it to the Yalu river area before the Chinese entered into the conflict I think they were with the Seventh Infantry Division. Clarence {Clancy} Shroder or Shrader from Minnesota was on this team. I'm not sure of the names of the rest of the team. The team did make it back to Hungnam but had to abandon a truck that the Marines were able to retrieve and returned to the unit. |