thedrifter
07-14-08, 07:07 AM
MILLSTADT: Peter's tale of adventures
By Lauren Bridgewater
Millstadt's Chris Peter, 70, smiled and chuckled amid his memorabilia as he recalled his experiences in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
"If I thought the military was a good and safe place to raise a family, I really would have made it my career," Peter said.
Peter, a past commander of the Millstadt Veterans of Foreign War Post, enlisted in the Navy in 1952 at age 19. He spent the next three years, 3 months and 26 days at sea on an attack cargo ship and submarine traveling around the globe. He described Korea as mountainous with some valleys sparse with vegetation at the time due to combat, but fertile land nonetheless.
"I only saw it really from the shoreline," Peter said. "I was the captain's driver so I had the special privilege of going onto the land a few times. I was basically the captain's chauffeur."
The attack cargo ship-Merrick A.K. 97-he was stationed on was usually used to carrying troops, but once it took the place of an ammunition ship.
"We got as far as Pearl Harbor and they decided there were not enough ammunition ships," Peter said. "Those ships are specially equipped with sprinklers and sensors in case of a fire. Our ship did not have that."
As an ammunition ship, the men were transferring 18-20 inch, 80-pound projectiles, 5-inch shells and foot long powder cases to destroyers, which fired the projectiles based on a spotter's coordinates.
"Spotters were usually in the Marines or Army and they looked for machine gun nests, tanks, trains that were far away," Peter said. "Transferring those projectiles was interesting because the landing craft would sway back and forth and the stern of the destroyer would be going up and down."
Once the armistice was signed in 1953, Peter's cargo ship was assigned to transport prisoners of war to prison. They transported the POW's to Pan Mun Jon, Korea, where they would let them off in exchange for U.S. POW's. In all, Peter's ship made five trips hauling approximately 700 POW's at a time.
"All cameras were confiscated because they thought they would make the prisoners act up, but since I was the captain's driver, I was able to keep mine," Peter said.
Peter has more than 800 35mm slides he is working on putting onto a DVD.
In 1954, Peter received his Dolphins when he became part of a submarine crew. His assigned submarine-Clamagore SS 343-was built in 1946 and is now on display at the Patriot's Point naval museum in Charleston, S.C.
"I go down every two years and give guided tours to visitors," Peter said.
Peter mostly participated in war patrol practice where the submarine would descend 600 feet underwater during the day ascending when night fell to 26 feet to run a tube up one and a half or three feet above the water to get fresh air. As soon as there was a hint of daylight, the submarine would return to its position 600 feet underwater.
"One time we did not go to the surface for 33 days," Peter said. "We ended up in Iceland."
Peter said they mostly patrolled and kept track of Russian submarines.
He left the Navy in 1956, returned to the Millstadt area and married his wife Carolyn, 70. They now have a daughter Christi, 48, who is a medical technologist at a research hospital in Lee Summit, Mo., and a son, Curt, 48, a school teacher in Odessa, Mo. He also has four grandchildren. Peter worked for Southwestern Bell for 34 years, but is currently in his 18th year of retirement.
"I live a block and a half from the VFW now, so I just walk over pretty much every day," Peter said.
Ellie
By Lauren Bridgewater
Millstadt's Chris Peter, 70, smiled and chuckled amid his memorabilia as he recalled his experiences in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
"If I thought the military was a good and safe place to raise a family, I really would have made it my career," Peter said.
Peter, a past commander of the Millstadt Veterans of Foreign War Post, enlisted in the Navy in 1952 at age 19. He spent the next three years, 3 months and 26 days at sea on an attack cargo ship and submarine traveling around the globe. He described Korea as mountainous with some valleys sparse with vegetation at the time due to combat, but fertile land nonetheless.
"I only saw it really from the shoreline," Peter said. "I was the captain's driver so I had the special privilege of going onto the land a few times. I was basically the captain's chauffeur."
The attack cargo ship-Merrick A.K. 97-he was stationed on was usually used to carrying troops, but once it took the place of an ammunition ship.
"We got as far as Pearl Harbor and they decided there were not enough ammunition ships," Peter said. "Those ships are specially equipped with sprinklers and sensors in case of a fire. Our ship did not have that."
As an ammunition ship, the men were transferring 18-20 inch, 80-pound projectiles, 5-inch shells and foot long powder cases to destroyers, which fired the projectiles based on a spotter's coordinates.
"Spotters were usually in the Marines or Army and they looked for machine gun nests, tanks, trains that were far away," Peter said. "Transferring those projectiles was interesting because the landing craft would sway back and forth and the stern of the destroyer would be going up and down."
Once the armistice was signed in 1953, Peter's cargo ship was assigned to transport prisoners of war to prison. They transported the POW's to Pan Mun Jon, Korea, where they would let them off in exchange for U.S. POW's. In all, Peter's ship made five trips hauling approximately 700 POW's at a time.
"All cameras were confiscated because they thought they would make the prisoners act up, but since I was the captain's driver, I was able to keep mine," Peter said.
Peter has more than 800 35mm slides he is working on putting onto a DVD.
In 1954, Peter received his Dolphins when he became part of a submarine crew. His assigned submarine-Clamagore SS 343-was built in 1946 and is now on display at the Patriot's Point naval museum in Charleston, S.C.
"I go down every two years and give guided tours to visitors," Peter said.
Peter mostly participated in war patrol practice where the submarine would descend 600 feet underwater during the day ascending when night fell to 26 feet to run a tube up one and a half or three feet above the water to get fresh air. As soon as there was a hint of daylight, the submarine would return to its position 600 feet underwater.
"One time we did not go to the surface for 33 days," Peter said. "We ended up in Iceland."
Peter said they mostly patrolled and kept track of Russian submarines.
He left the Navy in 1956, returned to the Millstadt area and married his wife Carolyn, 70. They now have a daughter Christi, 48, who is a medical technologist at a research hospital in Lee Summit, Mo., and a son, Curt, 48, a school teacher in Odessa, Mo. He also has four grandchildren. Peter worked for Southwestern Bell for 34 years, but is currently in his 18th year of retirement.
"I live a block and a half from the VFW now, so I just walk over pretty much every day," Peter said.
Ellie