thedrifter
05-21-07, 07:45 AM
Survival was the goal in Korea for local Marine
Loudonville graduate returned home with ribbons, some medals and plenty of memories
By RON SIMON
News Journal correspondent
PALMYRA -- When Roger Pugh shows up for Korean War veteran functions, his formal white shirt glitters with the color of 21 ribbons and a few medals.
Those, and a few scars, are what Pugh earned as a Marine staff sergeant in a combat line company at bloody Bunker Hill during the Korean War.
"Bunker Hill was a sector and a real hill full of bunkers. We held it once, lost it and then got it back. And lost a lot of men doing it," Pugh said.
A machine gunner with Dog Company, 2nd Battalion of the First Marines, Pugh was in the thick of that fight for 11 months and eight days, mostly in 1952.
"I kept my head down. I didn't plan to be a dead hero," he said.
He remembers carrying a dead medic on his back down the hillside under fire and feeling bullets hitting that dead man on his back as he scrambled for safety.
"That guy had gotten all through World War II alive only to get killed in Korea," he said.
Pugh said his company commander put him up for a Silver Star for that act, but that commander was killed while flying in a spotter aircraft. So no Silver Star.
Nor any Purple Heart for the shrapnel that left a scar on one leg.
But Pugh survived.
He never experienced personal combat with the enemy but fired hundreds of machine gun rounds during night attacks.
"In the morning we'd see (them) hanging dead on the concertina wire. I might have been the one that killed them," he said.
By the time Pugh arrived in Korea the fighting was mostly over hills and positions.
He remembers American fighter planes were called in to support attacks and how Bunker Hill would be "lit up like a Christmas tree" from their fire.
He hated night patrols and recalls a few harrowing moments in the darkness when it seemed like he was all alone and sure to die if he couldn't find his buddies.
He remembers seeing a friend named Boyle as he went up the hill one night.
"He flew into Korea with me and there he was, dead, with his body all torn up," Pugh said.
Once, during a firefight. Pugh jumped into a rice paddy for shelter, finding out that it was fertilized with human waste.
He remembers the ugly stutter of enemy burp guns during attacks.
And he survived.
A native of Loudonville, Pugh graduated from Loudonville High School, earning 10 varsity letters in sports during his time there.
He and some buddies signed up for service in late 1951 and many of them were instantly taken into the Marine Corps.
He trained at Parris Island, S.C., and was at El Toro, a Marine air base in California, when the word came that replacements were needed in Korea.
During the flight to Korea, the transport plane Pugh was in lost an engine and made an emergency landing at Guam.
"They thought we might have to ditch in the ocean and a couple of Navy PBYs followed us into Guam just in case," he said.
The PBYs could land in water and pick up survivors if needed.
Once in Korea, Pugh and the other new men were rushed to the Bunker Hill sector to fill the ranks depleted by recent fighting.
His other memory of Korea was helping to provide security for one of the first prisoner of war exchanges at Panmunjon, where truce talks were held for months.
When his tour ended, Pugh was stationed at Quantico, Va., as a drill instructor. After his release from the corps, he was a member of the reserves for many years.
Once home, he quickly found work as a crane operator at the Flxible Company in Loudonville.
After two years there, he moved to a crane operator's job with General Motors and stayed there for 33 years until retirement.
He and his wife of 40 years, Theresa, live in a hilltop home on the Knox County side of Leedy Road, which runs between Richland and Knox counties.
The view is lovely and Pugh said on a clear summer night he can see the lights of the Knox County fairgrounds many miles to the south. He has a panoramic view of the nearby village of Palmyra.
The Pughs had three daughters, Jacqueline Baum, Lisa Awwiller and Karen Southerland. There are 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Pugh is a member of the Korean War Veterans Association, Richland County Chapter 51.
ronsimon@neo.rr.com 419-756-7269
Ellie
Loudonville graduate returned home with ribbons, some medals and plenty of memories
By RON SIMON
News Journal correspondent
PALMYRA -- When Roger Pugh shows up for Korean War veteran functions, his formal white shirt glitters with the color of 21 ribbons and a few medals.
Those, and a few scars, are what Pugh earned as a Marine staff sergeant in a combat line company at bloody Bunker Hill during the Korean War.
"Bunker Hill was a sector and a real hill full of bunkers. We held it once, lost it and then got it back. And lost a lot of men doing it," Pugh said.
A machine gunner with Dog Company, 2nd Battalion of the First Marines, Pugh was in the thick of that fight for 11 months and eight days, mostly in 1952.
"I kept my head down. I didn't plan to be a dead hero," he said.
He remembers carrying a dead medic on his back down the hillside under fire and feeling bullets hitting that dead man on his back as he scrambled for safety.
"That guy had gotten all through World War II alive only to get killed in Korea," he said.
Pugh said his company commander put him up for a Silver Star for that act, but that commander was killed while flying in a spotter aircraft. So no Silver Star.
Nor any Purple Heart for the shrapnel that left a scar on one leg.
But Pugh survived.
He never experienced personal combat with the enemy but fired hundreds of machine gun rounds during night attacks.
"In the morning we'd see (them) hanging dead on the concertina wire. I might have been the one that killed them," he said.
By the time Pugh arrived in Korea the fighting was mostly over hills and positions.
He remembers American fighter planes were called in to support attacks and how Bunker Hill would be "lit up like a Christmas tree" from their fire.
He hated night patrols and recalls a few harrowing moments in the darkness when it seemed like he was all alone and sure to die if he couldn't find his buddies.
He remembers seeing a friend named Boyle as he went up the hill one night.
"He flew into Korea with me and there he was, dead, with his body all torn up," Pugh said.
Once, during a firefight. Pugh jumped into a rice paddy for shelter, finding out that it was fertilized with human waste.
He remembers the ugly stutter of enemy burp guns during attacks.
And he survived.
A native of Loudonville, Pugh graduated from Loudonville High School, earning 10 varsity letters in sports during his time there.
He and some buddies signed up for service in late 1951 and many of them were instantly taken into the Marine Corps.
He trained at Parris Island, S.C., and was at El Toro, a Marine air base in California, when the word came that replacements were needed in Korea.
During the flight to Korea, the transport plane Pugh was in lost an engine and made an emergency landing at Guam.
"They thought we might have to ditch in the ocean and a couple of Navy PBYs followed us into Guam just in case," he said.
The PBYs could land in water and pick up survivors if needed.
Once in Korea, Pugh and the other new men were rushed to the Bunker Hill sector to fill the ranks depleted by recent fighting.
His other memory of Korea was helping to provide security for one of the first prisoner of war exchanges at Panmunjon, where truce talks were held for months.
When his tour ended, Pugh was stationed at Quantico, Va., as a drill instructor. After his release from the corps, he was a member of the reserves for many years.
Once home, he quickly found work as a crane operator at the Flxible Company in Loudonville.
After two years there, he moved to a crane operator's job with General Motors and stayed there for 33 years until retirement.
He and his wife of 40 years, Theresa, live in a hilltop home on the Knox County side of Leedy Road, which runs between Richland and Knox counties.
The view is lovely and Pugh said on a clear summer night he can see the lights of the Knox County fairgrounds many miles to the south. He has a panoramic view of the nearby village of Palmyra.
The Pughs had three daughters, Jacqueline Baum, Lisa Awwiller and Karen Southerland. There are 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Pugh is a member of the Korean War Veterans Association, Richland County Chapter 51.
ronsimon@neo.rr.com 419-756-7269
Ellie