Firing and Flying for the Field Artillery in Korea

firing on the MLR, our usual alert that an attack was imminent.

The NKs had thrown hand grenades into M/Sgt Hammer's gun emplacement, igniting unfired powder charges placed in the section's ammo pit and causing an eerie glow about the left flank of the gun area.  I could see enemy jumping about M/Sgt Hammer's pit as well as Cpl Arnold's, the left flank piece of the battery.  Because of all these hazards, no cannoneer wanted to reach for the telephone posted atop the parapet of each gun pit.  This explains why my FDC got no word of the situation developing so rapidly.  Action was building up fast.

I leaped into the gun pit of Section #3 and directed the C/S Cpl Cecil Meares of Richmond, Va, to have his crew fire at the enemy with their sidearms as I was doing with my rifle.  I helped the C/S and gunner load projos with Fuze Time M54 set at 2.0 seconds.  I dared not prepare the standard Fuze Quick.  If such projo skipped over the

front hill or missed it entirely, it could slam into our own doughs directly over the hill to our front, it would endanger the doughs ahead of us.  The Fz Time round exploded just beyond the NKs.  Feverishly, we cut fuzes to 1.0 and 0.5 seconds.  Still missing so we cut our fuze to 0.0 seconds!  In theory such time would cause the projo to explode in the tube.  However, I did remember, in the heat of the action, that an interrupter pin in fuze M54 prevents the fuze from arming until clearing the tube, when it then flies out.  The 0.0 second round exploded 50 feet from the gun tube, breaking up the attack on the howitzer sections.  C/FB Kotzur helped C/S's Cole and Cummings on either side of the RR tracks to maintain control of their crews.

About this time Sgt Francis at FDC shouted:  "Do you want some 155s dumped on the attackers?"  Our Bn CO, Col Arthur H Hogan, was at the 90th FA Bn FDC, our general support bn and he was helping prepare direct support for "A" Btry. I replied to Sgt Francis:  "Yes, put some rounds on the hill in front of the hows."  Few artillerymen have ever fired on any of their own occupied gun positions!  But Col Hogan, on I the road night and day it seemed to us, knew the precise location of each of his batteries; he was helping plot each battery.  This knowledge insured that exact coordinates were plotted for safe, accurate fire.  When Sgt Francis shouted out to me at the guns: "ON THE WAY!", those rounds came whistling in right on the hill plotted which was a little more than 50 yards from our howitzers.  I gave the command:

“RIGHT 50, DROP 50, FIRE FOR EFFECT!"  The 90th fired one volley and that's all the enemy needed to keep face and bug out.  The attack dwindled to a few feeble burp gun bursts and sayonara NKs.

During this ticklish fire mission, wounded soldiers were huddled in a depression next to the RR tracks running thru our btry position.  After having Cpl Meares' gun crew fire his rounds point blank at the NKs, I went to this group of wounded, being tended to by Father Schaag,