[8-5.1A BA 60]
QUARTERMASTER FIELD SERVICE PLATOON IN ACTION

 

 

 

[Note: This manuscript was prepared during the Korean War by the deployed combat historians assigned to the Military History Section, United States Army Forces, Far East (USAFFE), and forwarded to the Office of the Chief of Military History (now US Army Center of Military History) for use in the writing of the official history of the Korean War. The executive summary of this manuscript was published in John G. Westover's Combat Support in Korea. The original is on file in the Historical Manuscripts Collection (HMC) under file number 8-5.1A BA 60, which should be cited in footnotes, along with the title. The author was 1st Lieutenant Bevin R. Alexander of the 5th Historical Detachment, and it was complied using oral interview techniques invented during World War II by S. L. A. Marshall. It is reproduced here with only those limited modifications required to adapt to the World Wide Web, and to eliminate information now protected under the Privacy Act; spelling, punctuation, and slang usage have not been altered from the original except to correct numerous obvious typographical errors. Where modern explanatory notes were required, they have been inserted as italicized text in square brackets. The document originally carried a SECRET classification, but is now unclassified.]

 
CONTENTS

 

I. NARRATIVE

II. INTERVIEWS

A. Field Service Platoon, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division

1. Lieutenant Duke, Platoon Leader

2. Sergeant Rawn, Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge

B. Field Service Platoon, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division

1. Lieutenant Wurz, Graves Registration Officer

2. Sergeant Deisenroth, Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of Graves Registration Collecting Point

3. Corporal Imwalle, Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of Graves Registration Personal Effects Section

III. GRAPHIC SUPPLEMENT

A. Shipment Route of Remains and Personal Effects of Soldiers

 
[1]
NARRATIVE
QUARTERMASTER FIELD SERVICE PLATOON IN ACTION

 

The Field Service Platoon of the 2d US Infantry Division, like that of other similar platoons in other American divisions in action in Korea, has the mission of providing several highly necessary services and aids for troops of the division, which, while requiring a relatively small number of men, nevertheless have effects on the division of inestimable value. The Field Service Platoon of the 2d US Infantry Division further has undertaken services over and above that required in the TO&E without adding any additional personnel to the unit.

According to the TO&E of the Field Service Platoon of an American infantry division, the unit is condoned of the following sections: laundry section consisting of 24 men with a sergeant in charge, a portable bath section consisting of 16 men with a sergeant in charge, and a graves registration section consisting of 10 men with a SFC in charge.

Actually the Field Service Platoon has a laundry section, a shower section, a graves registration section, a repair (or fix-it) shop, a tent repair section and a salvage point. The laundry section, instead of working with the authorized 24 men, performs its function fully with only 17 men. The shower section, instead of 16 men, operates four shower points in the division area with a mere nine men. According to Lieutenant Duke, the Grave a Registration Section "is supposed to have 10 men; it can operate with eight men; and we run it with six men." The fix-it shop, a non-TO&E section, has accumulated five men from within the platoon to perform its functions, while the salvage point provides a salvage center for the entire 2d US Infantry Division with only three men.

Each of the Field Service Platoon sections has separate and distinct functions, but each is included in the classification of field

2

service, stated Lieutenant Duke, because each is a specific service detachment for the division fulfilling a distinct service function. By organizing these small detachments into a separated platoon, better coordination and more effective use of the individual sections can be maintained. A more detailed explanation of the different duties of each section follows:

Possessing one of the soberest and yet one of the most imperative missions held by any unit in the 2d US Infantry Division is the Graves Registration Section of the 2d Quartermaster Company. The GRS is charged with commencing the somber journey of the remains of American soldiers killed or who died in Korea back to final repatriation in their homeland. Operating this adjunct of the 2d Quartermaster Company is a small body of men, whose responsibility accounts for no errors and whose work evidences a macabre similarity to normal quartermaster methods of supply—only the GRS supply system works in reverse, from the front to the rear.

The GRS at present (12 October 1951) is located at OEJOK-KOL Korea (DT1622), some six to eight miles behind the present battle line of the 2d US Infantry Division. Here the GRS operates its collecting point for remains of soldiers killed or who have died (Lieutenant Wurz stated that the vast majority of all bodies going through the 2d Quartermaster GRS are the result of combat deaths of men KIA) in the 2d US Infantry Division sector, and also operates a Personal Effects Section for the disposition of private possessions of men killed or evacuated.

The process for the journey of soldiers killed in the 2d US Infantry Division from point of death to final resting place in the United States is as follows: Responsibility of the Graves Registration Section for remains begins at the division collecting point, and no further forward. Division regiments and independent units having casualties and any hospitals that operate in the 2d US Infantry Division sector are responsible

3

for 1. collecting bodies from within their respective units, 2. properly tagging the bodies with requisite information and placing the bodies in Human Remains Pouches, and 3. transporting the remains to the division collecting point.

Responsible officer in the regiments and other independent units is the Graves Registration Officer of the unit. This officer is a member of the unit for which he is GRO and often has this responsibility in addition to other organizational duties.

When a man is killed, the remains are turned over to the closest collecting point to the place of death, according to Sergeant Deisenroth. With every remains it is required that an Emergency Medical Tag (EMT), officially signed by a medical personnel, accompany them. The remains are brought back to the initial collecting point and to the division collecting point in the precise condition in which they were picked up on the battlefield or place of death. "Nothing whatsoever is removed from the body," related Sergeant Deisenroth.

Upon arrival at the division collecting point the EMT is checked by GRS personnel (usually Sergeant Deisenroth) and data on the EMT recorded there. If any discrepancies between information on the EMT and other available information occur, such, related Lieutenant Wurz, the possibility of one name being given on the EMT and the dog tags on the deceased man giving another name, someone who is supposedly closely acquainted with the deceased (usually from the same organization) is sent for to personally examine the remains and sign a Certificate of Identity to establish the real name of the deceased. As a rule, stated Lieutenant Wurz, there are no discrepancies on the EMT, and, additionally, the remains generally have dog tags on them.

Following the checking and recording of data, remains are placed in the GRS morgue, which at present is simply a small plot of ground

4

adjacent to the 2d US Infantry Division MSR surrounded by a wall of canvas and posted as off limits to unauthorized personnel. Here the remains are laid in the Human Remains Pouches, which are rubber bags with a zipper that runs the entire length on one aide of the bag. The EMT for each body is placed in the bag alongside the remains in a small glass bottle. The reason for inserting the EMT in a bottle is this: Due to the frequent presents [i.e., presence] of blood, dirt, and other matter in the bag, the placing of the paper EMT in the bag without protection would likely cause the writing to quietly become illegible, and hence useless.

Remaining at the 2d US Infantry Division GRS morgue usually less than 24 hours, the bodies of soldiers killed begin thence their journey through various channels and collecting points until they finally arrive in the United States. When a sufficient number of bodies are received at the collecting point they are loaded on 21 ton trucks and sent to UMYANG-NI Korea, where one platoon of the 158th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company is located. This platoon operates a corps collecting point for the 2d US Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Division much in the manner of the 2d US Infantry Division collecting point.

Accompanying the bodies to UMYANG-NI is an Evacuation List, which lists by name, rank, organization and Army Serial Number the bodies carried. This letter, according to Lieutenant Wurz, acts as a letter of transmittal to the corps collecting point.

Not only do American soldiers' remains go through the 2d US Infantry Division collecting point, but also all attached troops and whatever Koreans, military or civilian, which are not taken care of by Korean Army graves registration personnel. The French and Netherlands Battalions, which are attached to the 2d US Infantry Division receive GRS service

5

the same as American troops.

When bodies arrive at the platoon of the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company at UMYANG-NI, they go out of the control of the 2d US Infantry Division GRS, and become the responsibility of the 8th US Army unit. At UMYANG-NI the corps collecting point employs, according to Sergeant Deisenroth and Lieutenant Wurz, approximately the same method in sending the bodies received in X Corps to HONGCHON, which is a collecting point for bodies from both X Corps and IX Corps. From HONGCHON, remains are further sent to WONJU, headquarters of the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, where the fingertips of the deceased men are embalmed and fingerprints taken for later positive identification. From WONJU the bodies are sent by rail to PUSAN, after having been packed in ice for preservation at the former named point. From PUSAN, bodies are sent to KOKURA, Kyushu Island, Japan, where at the American Graves Registration Group, 8204th Army Unit, the bodies are further identified by means of expert anthropology, chemistry, dental charts, records of broken bones, etc., and are then embalmed totally. From KOKURA, stated Sergeant Deisonroth and Lieutenant Wurz, the bodies are dispatched to the United States for burial, either in a United States military cemetery or at the soldiers' homes. No bodies are now being buried in either Korea or Japan, stated Lieutenant Wurz and Sergeant Deisenroth, and all are being repatriated to the United States.

The Personal Effects Section of the 2d US Infantry Division GRS operates a point parallel but not altogether analogous to the associated body collecting point. The Personal Effects Section is located with the Graves Registration Collecting Point at OEJOK-KOL (DT1622) and collects and sends through proper channels personal belongings of persons in the following four classifications: KIA, MIA, WIA, and evacuated through

6

medical channels. Goods belonging to personnel in the 2d US Infantry Division sector who which fit into the above classifications are sent from divisional units to the Personal Effects Section accompanied by an AR 600-550 form, made out in the unit from which the person killed or evacuated was assigned; and which lists all of the personal effects belonging to the man concerned.

These personal effects are divided on the AR 600-550 form into two categories: Class I, which includes items of trophy, keepsake, or sentimental value, such as sabers, insignia, decorations, medals, campaign citations, watches, etc., and Class II, which includes items of specific value, such as money, bank drafts, money orders, personal effects, billfolds, etc. These forms are usually made out either by the commanding officer of the man concerned or by the Personal Effects Officer of the unit concerned. It is, however, required that a commissioned officer sign the form, certifying to the totals of property possessed by the soldier killed or evacuated.

"Every specific thing belonging to men killed or evacuated is itemized," related Corporal Imwalle, "whether it be two pennies or fifteen pictures." If money received belonging to the individual concerned is $4.99 or less, it is sent through with other belongings exactly as found—American Military Script, won, or American currency. If the amount found is $5.00 or over, it is converted into a United States Treasury Check. There is one exception to this rule on the changing of money: If a man is evacuated through medical channels, money is not changed, no matter what its total value, related Lieutenant Wurz.

A maximum of eight days is allowed before personal effects of a person KIA or evacuated with wounds or sickness is sent through the Personal Effects Section. The maximum time lag in the case of men

7

MIA is from 20 to 30 days. At the Personal Effects Section, upon receipt of personal belongings and AR 600-550, all items are checked and verified, and then sent through the regular evacuation system to the rear.

Personal effects are received at the Personal Effects Section in a box or boxes, and this box or boxes must be banded and sealed after the contents have been officially ascertained at the section in order that their will be no opportunity for any of the articles belonging to the soldier concerned to be lost. Following a checking of the articles, personal effects are evacuated much the same as are remains, going through the same collecting points to WONJU, then being sent to the 55th Base Quartermaster Depot at PUSAN and sent from there to Japan, arriving ultimately at YOKOHAMA at the 8083d Quartermaster Effects Depot, where the articles are sent to Effects Officer in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Here goods are again checked and finally distributed to next of kin.

The laundry auction is composed of two shifts of seven laundrymen each, plus a laundry foreman and two assistant foremen, with one assistant foreman assigned to each of the two shifts. Each shift is equipped and expected to work on a 12-hour basis, stated Lieutenant Duke, but it has been found that an eight-hour work-day for each shift is sufficient to provide for the present needs of the division. Most of the men operating the laundry section, elaborated Lieutenant Duke, have been trained on the job by the laundry section noncommissioned officers. "Army school training for laundrymen is inadequate," said the lieutenant. "A man shouldn't get the MOS until he has done the job," he added, and few of the men in the laundry section

8

were capable of operating the laundry units when they arrived in the Quartermaster company.

Medical units in the 2d US Infantry Division sector receive first priority in the platoon's laundry section. Medical detachments served by the section include four MASH outfits and the 2d US Infantry Division medical detachments, said Lieutenant Duke. Reason for priority being given to the medical units is because the medical detachments in the sector of the 2d US Infantry Division have no other laundering facilities available, and it resolves upon the Quartermaster company laundry to provide this service.

What facilities then are available for ordinary clothing laundry for troops of the division? This, stated Lieutenant Duke, is provided by the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 (See: report entitled "Operation of 8th Army quartermaster Service Canter Number 3," submitted by 5th Historical Detachment, EUSAK, APO 301, and dated 21 September 1951) presently located in the vicinity of HONGCHON, Korea. Regiments of the 2d US Infantry Division collect dirty laundry and transport it to the X Corps area service center, where the soiled clothing is exchanged for clean issue. Therefore, the laundering of ordinary uniforms for troops in the 2d US Infantry Division bypasses the Quartermaster Company's Field Service Platoon.

The laundry section is equipped with two complete laundry units—washer and dryer—of the standard US Army model: Laundry, Mobile, Two Trailer Type (US Hoffman Machinery Corp), QM Stock Number 66-1-155. Presently, stated Lieutenant Duke, the section is also equipped with another laundry unit, a worn unit of the same model as shown above, which is still on hand after having been recently replaced with a new unit. "We will probably have to turn this in soon, though,'' said the

9

lieutenant.

Probably of most interest to the front-line troops in the 2d US Infantry Division is the tiny, but none the less omnipotent, shower section, boasting of only nine men. These nine men maintain four separate shower units: one in each of the three infantry regiments of the division and one located at the Field Service Platoon base of operations near OEJOK-KOL (DT1622). The shower units working with each of the division's regiments work often times directly behind the front lines, and are always available for use by combat troops when they are pulled momentarily off the line for rest. Under the operational direction of the regimental commanders, the shower units, stated Lieutenant Duke, have on occasion gone forward with the lead battalions of the regiments they serve in order to better provide showers and a clean clothing exchange for infantrymen.

A clean clothing exchange is operated in conjunction with the quartermaster shower points by members of the infantry regiments served. These clothing exchanges receive their clean clothing by the previously-discussed method of sending dirty clothing to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 near HONGCHON, and receiving a new issue of clean clothing. These exchanges are not a part of the Quartermaster Field Service Platoon of the division. Each Quartermaster shower point is manned by two Quartermaster Field Service Platoon men, and these men have no responsibilities for providing regimental troops with clean clothing issues.

The process in which front-line troops are provided with showers and clean clothing works out as follows, according to Lieutenant Duke: Troops are pulled off the front lines, or in the case of direct support units like artillery, engineers, etc., are allotted

10

by sections, and sent back for a short rest and the expected showers and clothing issue. When troops arrive at the shower points, regimental supply personnel receive the dirty clothing on the soldiers' backs and re-issue clean clothing from the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3. They then go through the quartermaster shower, don their new uniform issue, and either return to their rest area of back to their posts in the line. Dirty clothing received by the regimental supply personnel at the Quartermaster shower point then ship the soiled uniforms to the Service Center Number 3 where cleaned clothing is issued again. This is a continuing process.

The fourth shower, located at the Field Service Platoon's operational base, provides similar showers and clothing exchanges for troops located behind the regiments, but who are still a part of the 2d US Infantry Division. Of incidental interest, stated Lieutenant Duke, is the "rotation" policy he has instituted within the shower section: Men who spend a certain length of time in the shower points with the regiments in locations which usually are close enough to the front lines as to be within mortar and artillery range of the enemy are alternated with members of the shower point at the Field Service Platoon's relatively safe operations area. "This is their R&R," he joked.

Each of the four shower points of the platoon is equipped with one of the Quartermaster's large standard shower units: Bath Unit, Field, Mobile, 24 Shower Head (Cleaver-Brooks EC-8 & EC-8D), QM Stock Number 66-B-350.

The salvage section of the Field Service Platoon provides a ready collecting and dispensing agency for useless Quartermaster equipment which is of no more use to division troops. All units of the division

11

sent their salvageable Quartermaster equipment to the section. At the section the equipment is inspected by members of the section trained to determine the serviceability of items. If, in the case of clothing, some of the turned in material is still found to be serviceable, it is washed at the laundry and either put back in stock at the shower point at the platoon or is turned in to the Class II or Class IV Quartermaster warehouse at the Quartermaster Company, "A good portion of the salvage received is still good,'' related Sergeant Rawn, ''but that which isn't good is sent down to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 and exchanged for a turn-in slip." This turn-in slip is used in the re-drawing of equipment through regular Quartermaster supply channels. When salvage is brought to the salvage section, the unit which brings in the equipment is also given a turn-in slip, which, too, is used by the unit for re-drawing through the 2d Quartermaster Company (ODQM: Office of Division Quartermaster).

The fix-it shop, or repair shop, is one of the special sections of the Field Service Platoon and offers excellent facilities for repair of small items of Quartermaster equipment that otherwise would have had to be sent through for salvage. The fix-it shop repairs two main classifications of Quartermaster supply: stoves and typewriters. Personnel for both of these repair sections are largely trained on the spot by experience, and, said Lieutenant Duke, a running learn-by-doing school is operated continuously for replacements. Stoves, lanterns, immersion heaters, cook sets, mountain stoves, fire units, stove pipes, portable and standard typewriters, and similar equipment is repaired by this section.

"One of the main troubles with stoves,'' related Lieutenant Duke, "is that people in the field who use the M37 fire unit (which is the basic field range presently in use in the US Army in Korea), men who

12

are supposedly trained as cooks, do not know how to provide maintenance for the stoves in the field." As a Consequence, an extremely large amount of repair must constantly be done on cooking stoves. "They don't know how to clean the stoves, either," added the lieutenant, thus providing another reason for the early breakdown of many fire units in Korea.

Replacement stove parts are extremely critical in Korea, said the lieutenant, a factor which has hold up some repair. "The parts wouldn't be so critical if cooks knew how to take care of their stuff," Lieutenant Duke interposed. In come cases, when replacements parts are unobtainable, repair shop personnel are obliged to manufacture new parts. To perform this manufacturing process, the section is equipped with welding and hand tools.

When Personnel bring in damaged stoves, the repair section often gives them direct exchanges of already-repaired stoves from the backlog of stoves brought to the section which have not yet been picked up. This keeps a maximum number of stoves in operation a maximum amount of time, and does not require a great deal of waiting and return trips for personnel bringing in damaged stoves.

The typewriter clinic has become a going concern largely because of the handing down of typewriter repair know-how from one man to another within the unit. The first typewriter repairman in the section (SFC Ernest Thrope) had been trained in that line of work in civilian life; and prior to his leaving on rotation, he trained Cpl Thomas J. Dickenson and another man who has already been rotated in typewriter repair. Corporal Dickenson, in turn, is now in the process of training another man as his replacement.

There are at present two men operating the typewriter repair clinic, stated Lieutenant Duke. Both men, he said, came over with the MOS of

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typewriter repairmen and both have attended the Quartermaster Office Machine Repair School at Fort Lee, Va. ''But neither man had had any practical experience," he added. ''The first couple of typewriters they repaired, they had a time with, but they learned as they went along," he said.

According to the TO of the Field Service Platoon, only one typewriter repairmen is authorized. "But we have two and they are doing more work now than they can actually handle," said Lieutenant Duke. This clinic also does not repair all the machines it comes into contact with. If the men received a typewriter which they cannot fix, they send it to the Typewriter Clinic at the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 where trained repairmen with more adequate equipment are able to rehabilitate them.

A sideline to the typewriter repair clinic is the typewriter cover industry of the Field Service Platoon. Taking salvaged shelter halves which are brought to the platoon to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3, Field Service Platoon personnel give the salvaged canvas to the seeing section there, where typewriter covers are made. These covers are then returned to the Field Service Platoon and issued gratis with every typewriter repaired by the typewriter repair section. "The reasoning behind this,'' related Lieutenant Duke, "is that the cleaner the typewriters are kept, the less repair we will be called on to perform."

The final section of the Field Service Platoon is the Tent Repair Team. This small unit is charged with the maintenance of every tent used in the 2d US Infantry Division. And the team goes to the tents, rather than requiring that the tents come to the team. "Since the regiments cannot tear down their tents usually because men are living in them,'' stated Lieutenant Duke, "we have to send the team out to the tents in the field." The team is presently repairing tents according to demand, but, according to Lieutenant Duke, an anticipated plan calls for the team

14

to visit alternately every single unit of the division, remaining at this unit until all damaged or worn tents being used are repaired, then moving on to the next unit. After this circuit around the division has been completed, Lieutenant Duke Said that the team would remain at the Field Service Platoon and go out on specific missions when called upon to do so.

Prior to the institution of the Tent Repair Team, regular tent repair kits now being used by the team were being issued to the separate units of the division for personal repair. There was no control then over the disposition of these kits, and inasmuch as many men in the field did not know how to repair tents with the kit, quite poor results were obtained and many tents remained damaged, despite the wide usage of the kits. Now the repair kits are no longer being issued to the individual unit of the division, and all repair is the responsibility of the team.

When the team visits a unit needing tent repair, stated Lieutenant Duke, it is customary for personnel from the units to be employed to aid the team in the ordinary labor of tent repair, while the team members provide technical work, thus greatly increasing the effectiveness of the team.

Not only does the Tent Repair Team repaired frayed and damaged tents, it also, when necessary, sprays old tents with a compound which make them fire, water, and mildew resistant.

 

s/Bevin R. Alexander
BEVIN R. ALEXANDER
1st Lt, Arty
5th Historical Detachment

 
INTERVIEWS
[1]
AFTER-ACTION INTERVIEW
 
INTERVIEWEE: 1st Lt James R. Duke 0-******, Field Service Platoon Leader, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division, Home address: *****, Laredo, Texas 

SFC William L. Rawn, RA********, Field Service Platoon Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division, Home address: *****, Los Angeles, Calif.

ACTION: Quartermaster Field Service Platoon in Action
TIME OF ACTION: At present
TIME/PLACE OF INTERVIEW: 9 October 1951, vicinity of CHUKKONG-NI, Korea (DT1420)
MAPS: None
INTERVIEWER: 1st Lt Bevin R. Alexander
ASSISTANT: Cpl Eugene S. Smykowski
The Field Service Platoon of the 2d US Infantry Division, like that of other similar platoons in other American divisions in action in Korea, has the mission of providing several highly necessary services and aids for troops of the division, which, while requiring a relatively small number of men, nevertheless have effects on the division of inestimable value. The Field Service Platoon of the 2d US Infantry Division further has undertaken services over and above that required in the TO&E without adding any additional personnel to the unit.

According to the TO&E of the Field Service Platoon of an American infantry division, the unit is composed of the following sections: laundry section consisting of 24 men with a sergeant

2

in charge, a portable bath section consisting of 16 men with a sergeant in charge, and a graves registration section consisting of 10 men with a SFC in charge.

Actually the Field Service Platoon has a laundry section, a shower section, a graves registration section, a repair (or fix-it) shop, a tent repair section and a salvage point. The laundry section, instead of working with the authorized 24 men, performs its function fully with only 17 men. The shower section, instead of 16 men, operates four shower points in the division area with a mere nine men. According to Lieutenant Duke, the Graves Registration Section "is supposed to have 10 men; it can operate with eight men; and we run it with six men." The fix-it shop, a non-TO&E section, has accumulated five men from within the platoon to perform its functions, while the salvage point provides a salvage center for the entire 2d US Infantry Division with only three men.

Each of the Field Service Platoon sections has separate and distinct functions, but each is included in the classification of field service, stated Lieutenant Duke, because each is a specific service detachment for the division fulfilling a distinct service function. By organizing these small detachments into a separated platoon, better coordination and more effective use of the individual sections can be maintained. A more detailed explanation of the different duties of each section follows:

The laundry section is composed of two shifts of seven laundrymen each, plus a laundry foreman and two assistant foremen,

3

with one assistant foreman assigned to each of the two shifts. Each shift is equipped and expected to work on a 12-hour basis, stated Lieutenant Duke, but it has been found that an eight-hour work-day for each shift is sufficient to provide for the present needs of the division. Most of the men operating the laundry section, elaborated Lieutenant Duke, have been trained on the job by the laundry section non-commissioned officers. "Army school training for laundrymen is inadequate," said the lieutenant. "A man shouldn't get the MOS until he has done the job," he added, and few of the men in the laundry section were capable of operating the laundry units when they arrived in the Quartermaster company.

Medical units in the 2d US Infantry Division sector receive first priority in the platoon's laundry section. Medical detachments served by the section include four MASH outfits and the 2d US Infantry Division medical detachments, said Lieutenant Duke. Reason for priority being given to the medical units is because the medical detachments in the sector of the 2d US Infantry Division have no other laundering facilities available, and it resolves upon the Quartermaster company laundry to provide this service.

What facilities then are available for ordinary clothing laundry for troops of the division? This, stated Lieutenant Duke, is provided by the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 (See: report entitled "Operation of 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3," submitted by 5th Historical Detachment, EUSAK, APO 301, and dated 21 September 1951) presently located in the vicinity of HONGCHON, Korea. Regiments of the 2d US Infantry Division collect dirty laundry and transport it to the X Corps area service center, where the soiled clothing is exchanged for clean issue. Therefore, the laundering of ordinary uniforms for troops in the 2d US Infantry Division bypasses the Quartermaster Company's Field Service Platoon.

4

The laundry section is equipped with two complete laundry units—washer and dryer—of the standard US Army model: Laundry, Mobile, Two Trailer Type (US Hoffman Machinery Corp), QM Stock Number 66-1-155. Presently, stated Lieutenant Duke, the section is also equipped with another laundry unit, a worn unit of the same model as shown above, which is still on hand after having been recently replaced with a new unit. "We will probably have to turn this in soon, though," said the lieutenant.

Probably of most interest to the front-line troops in the 2d US Infantry Division is the tiny, but none the less omnipotent, shower section, boasting of only nine men. These nine men maintain four separate shower units: one in each of the three infantry regiments of the division and one located at the Field Service Platoon base of operations near OEJOK-KOL (DT1622). The shower units working with each of the division's regiments work often times directly behind the front lines, and are always available for use by combat troops when they are pulled momentarily off the line for rest. Under the operational direction of the regimental commanders, the shower units, stated Lieutenant Duke, have on occasion gone forward with the lead battalions of the regiments they serve in order to better provide showers and a clean clothing exchange for infantrymen.

A clean clothing exchange is operated in conjunction with the Quartermaster shower points by members of the infantry regiments served. These clothing exchanges receive their clean clothing by the previously-discussed method of sending dirty clothing to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 near HONGCHON and receiving a new issue of clean clothing. These exchanges are not a part of the Quartermaster Field Service Platoon of the division. Each Quartermaster shower point is manned by two Quartermaster Field Service Platoon men, and those men have no responsibilities for providing regimental troops

5

with clean clothing issues.

The process in which front-line troops are provided with shower and clean clothing works out as follows, according to Lieutenant Duke: Troops are pulled off the front lines, or in the case of direct support units like artillery, engineers, etc., are allotted by sections, and sent back for a short rest and the expected showers and clothing issue. When troops arrive at the shower points, regimental supply personnel receive the dirty clothing on the soldiers' backs and re-issue clean clothing from the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3. They then go through the Quartermaster shower, don their new uniform issue, and either return to their rest area or back to their posts in the line. Dirty clothing received by the regimental supply personnel at the Quartermaster shower point then ship the soiled uniforms to the Service Center Number 3 where cleaned clothing is issued again. This is a continuing process.

The fourth shower, located at the Field Service Platoon's operational base, provides similar showers and clothing exchanges for troops located behind the regiment, but who are still a part of the 2d US Infantry Division. Of incidental interest, stated Lieutenant Duke, is the "rotation" policy he has instituted within the shower section: Men who spend a certain length of time in the shower points with the regiments, in locations which usually are close enough to the front lines as to be within mortar and artillery range of the enemy, are alternated with members of the shower point at the Field Service Platoon's relatively safe operations area. "This is their R&R," he joked.

Each of the four shower points of the platoon is equipped with one of the Quartermaster's large standard shower units: Bath Unit, Field, Mobile, 24 Shower Head (Cleaver-Brooks EC-8 & EC-8D),

6

QM Stock Number 66-B-350.

The salvage section of the Field Service Platoon provides a ready collecting and dispensing agency for useless Quartermaster equipment which is of no more use to division troops. All units of the division sent their salvageable Quartermaster equipment to the section. At the section the equipment is inspected by members of the section trained to determine the serviceability of items. If, in the case of clothing, some of the turned in material is still found to be serviceable, it is washed at the laundry and either put back in stock at the shower point at the platoon or is turned in to the Class II or Class IV Quartermaster warehouse at the Quartermaster Company. "A good portion of the salvage received is still good," related Sergeant Rawn, "but that which isn't good is sent down to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 and exchanged for a turn-in slip." This turn-in slip is used in the re-drawing of equipment through regular Quartermaster supply channels. When salvage is brought to the salvage section, the unit which brings in the equipment is also given a turn-in slip, which, too, is used by the unit for re-drawing through the 2d Quartermaster Company (ODQM: Office of Division Quartermaster).

The fix-it shop, or repair shop, is one of the special sections of the Field Service Platoon and offers excellent facilities for repair of small items of Quartermaster equipment that otherwise would have had to be sent through for salvage. Tho fix-it shop repairs two main classifications of Quartermaster supply: stoves and typewriters. Personnel for both of those repair sections are largely trained on the spot by experience, and, said Lieutenant Duke, a running learn-by-doing school is operated continuously for replacements. Stoves, lanterns, immersion heaters, cook sets, mountain stoves, fire units, stove pipes, portable and standard

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typewriters, and similar equipment is repaired by this section.

"One of the main troubles with stoves," related Lieutenant Duke, "is that people in the field who use the M37 fire unit (which is the basic field range presently in use in the US army in Korea), men who are supposedly trained as cooks, do not know how to provide maintenance for the stoves in the field." As a consequence, an extremely large amount of repair must constantly be done on stoves. "They don't know how to clean the stoves, either," added the lieutenant, thus providing another reason for the early breakdown of many fire units in Korea.

Replacement stove parts are extremely critical in Korea, said the lieutenant, a factor which has held up some repair. "The parts wouldn't be so critical if cooks knew how to take care of their stuff," Lieutenant Duke interposed. In some cases, when replacement parts are unobtainable, repair shop personnel are obliged to manufacture now parts. To perform this manufacturing process, the section is equipped with welding and hand tools.

When personnel bring in damaged stoves, the repair section often gives them direct exchanges of already-repaired stoves from the backlog of stoves brought to the section which have not yet been picked up. This keeps a maximum number of stoves in operation a maximum amount of time, and does not require a great deal of waiting and return trips for personnel bringing in damaged stoves.

The typewriter clinic has become a going concern largely because of the handing down of typewriter repair know-how from one man to another within the unit. The first typewriter repairman in the section (SFC Ernest Thrope) had been trained in that line of work in civilian life; and prior to his leaving on rotation, he trained Cpl Thomas J. Dickenson and another man who has already

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been rotated in typewriter repair. Corporal Dickenson, in turn, is now in the process of training another man as his replacement.

There are at present two men operating the typewriter repair clinic, stated Lieutenant Duke. Both men, he said, came over with the MOS of typewriter repairmen and both have attended the Quartermaster Office Machine Repair School at Fort Lee, Va. "But neither man had had any practical experience," he added. "The first couple of typewriters they repaired, they had a time with, but they learned as they went along," he said.

According to the TO of the Field Service Platoon, only one typewriter repairman is authorized. "But we have two and they are doing more work now than they can actually handle," said Lieutenant Duke. This clinic also does not repair all the machines if comes into contact with. If the men received a typewriter which they cannot fix, they send it to the Typewriter Clinic at the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3 where trained repairmen with more adequate equipment are able to rehabilitate them.

A sideline to the typewriter repair clinic is the typewriter cover industry of the Field Service Platoon. Taking salvaged shelter halves which are brought to the platoon to the 8th Army Quartermaster Service Center Number 3, Field Service Platoon personnel give the salvaged canvas to the sewing section there, where typewriter covers are made. Those covers are then returned to the Field Service Platoon and issued gratis with every typewriter repaired by the typewriter repair section. "The reasoning behind this," related Lieutenant Duke, "is that the cleaner the typewriters are kept, the less repair we will be called on to perform."

The final section of the Field Service Platoon is the Tent Repair Team. This small unit is charged with the maintenance of

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every tent used in the 2d US Infantry Division. And the team goes to the tents, rather than requiring that the tents come to the team. Since the regiments cannot tear down their tents usually because men are living in themes stated Lieutenant Duke, "we have to send the team out to the tents in the field." The team is presently repairing tents according to demand, but, according to Lieutenant Duke, an anticipated plan calls for the team to visit alternately every single unit of the division, remaining at this unit until all damaged or worn tents being used are repaired, then moving on to the next unit. After this circuit around the division has been completed, Lieutenant Duke said that the team would remain at the Field Service Platoon and go out on specific missions when called upon to do so.

Prior to the institution of the Tent Repair Team, regular tent repair kits now being used by the team were being issued to the separate units of the division for personal repair. There was no control then over the disposition of those kits, and inasmuch as many men in the field did not know how to repair tents with the kit, quite poor results were obtained and many tents remained damaged, despite the wide usage of the kite. Now the repair kits are no longer being issued to the individual unit of the division, and all repair is the responsibility of the team.

When the team visits a unit needing tent repair, stated Lieutenant Duke, it is customary for personnel from the units to be employed to aid the team in the ordinary labor of tent repair, while the team members provide technical work, thus greatly increasing the effectiveness of the team.

Not only does the Tent Repair Team repaired frayed and damaged

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tents, it also, when necessary, sprays old tents with a compound which make them fire, water, and mildew resistant.

 

s/Bevin R. Alexander
BEVIN R. ALEXANDER
1st Lt, Arty
5th Historical Detachment

 

AFTER-ACTION INTERVIEW
 
INTERVIEWEE: 2d Lt William F. Wurz 0-*******, Graves Registration Officer, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division, Home address: *****, Jackson Heights, N.Y. 

Sgt James H. Deisenroth US********, Non-commissioned officer in charge of Graves Registration Collecting Point, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division, Home address: *****, Louisville, Ky. 

Cpl Paul R. Imwalle US********, Non-commissioned officer in charge of Graves Registration Personal Effects Section, 2d Quartermaster Company, 2d US Infantry Division

ACTION: Quartermaster Field Service Platoon in Action
TIME OF ACTION: At present
TIME/PLACE OF INTERVIEW: 9 October 1951, vicinity of CHUKKONG-NI, Korea (DT1420)
MAPS: None
INTERVIEWER: 1st Lt Bevin R. Alexander
ASSISTANT: Cpl Eugene S. Smykowski
Possessing one of the soberest and yet one of the most imperative missions held by any unit in the 2d US Infantry Division is the Graves Registration Section of the 2d Quartermaster Company. The GRS is charged with commencing the somber journey of the remains of American soldiers killed or who died in Korea back to final repatriation in their homeland. Operating this adjunct of the 2d Quartermaster Company is a small body of men, whose responsibility accounts for no errors and whose work evidences a macabre similarity to normal Quartermaster methods of supply—only the GRS supply system works in reverse, from the front to the rear.

The GRS at present (12 October 1951) is located at OEJOK-KOL Korea (DT1622), some six to eight miles behind the present battle line of the 2d US Infantry Division. Here the GRS operates its collecting point for remains of soldiers killed or who have died (Lieutenant Wurz stated that the vast majority of all bodies going through the 2d Quartermaster GRS are the result of combat deaths of men KIA) in the 2d US Infantry Division

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sector, and also operates a Personal Effects Section for the disposition of private possessions of men killed or evacuated.

The process for the journey of soldiers killed in the 2d US Infantry Division from point of death to final resting place in the United States is as follows: Responsibility of the Graves Registration Section for remains begins at the division collecting point, and no further forward. Division regiments and independent units having casualties and any hospitals that operate in the 2d US Infantry Division sector are responsible for 1. collecting bodies from within their respective units, 2. properly tagging the bodies with requisite information and placing the bodies in Human Remains Pouches, and 3. transporting the remains to the division collecting point.

Responsible officer in the regiments and other independent units is the Graves Registration Officer of the unit. This officer is a member of the unit for which he is GRO and often has this responsibility in addition to other organizational duties.

When a man is killed, the remains are turned over to the closest collecting point to the place of death, according to Sergeant Deisenroth. With every remains it is required that an Emergency Medical Tag (EMT), officially signed by a medical personnel, accompany them. The remains are brought back to the initial collecting point and to the division collecting point in the precise condition in which they were picked up on the battlefield or place of death. "Nothing whatsoever is removed from the body," related Sergeant Deisenroth.

Upon arrival at the division collecting point the EMT is checked by GRS personnel (usually Sergeant Deisenroth) and data on the EMT recorded there. If any discrepancies between information on the EMT and other available information occur, such, related Lieutenant Wurz, the possibility of one name being given on the EMT and the dog tags on the deceased man giving another name, someone who is supposedly closely acquainted with

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the deceased (usually from the same organization) is sent for to personally examine the remains and sign a Certificate of Identity to establish the real name of the deceased. As a rule, stated Lieutenant Wurz, there are no discrepancies on the EMT, and, additionally, the remains generally have dog tags on them.

Following the checking and recording of data, remains are placed in the GRS morgue, which at present is simply a small plot of ground adjacent to the 2d US Infantry Division MSR surrounded by a wall of canvas and posted as off limits to unauthorized personnel. Here the remains are laid in the Human Remains Pouches, which are rubber bags with a zipper that runs the entire length on one side of the bag. The EMT for each body is placed in the bag alongside the remains in a small glass bottle. The reason for inserting the EMT in a bottle is this: Due to the frequent presence of blood, dirt, and other matter in the bag, the placing of the paper EMT in the bag without protection would likely cause the writing to quickly become illegible, and hence useless.

Remaining at the 2d US Infantry Division GRS morgue usually less than 24 hours, the bodies of soldiers killed begin thence their journey through various channels and collecting points until they finally arrive in the United States. When a sufficient number of bodies are received at the collecting point they are loaded on 21 -ton trucks and sent to UMYANG-NI Korea, where one platoon of the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company is located. This platoon operates a corps collecting point for the 2d US Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Division much in the manner of the 2d US Infantry Division collecting point.

Accompanying the bodies to UMYANG-NI is an Evacuation List, which lists by name, rank, organization and Army Serial Number the bodies carried. This letter, according to Lieutenant Wurz, acts as a letter of transmittal to the corps collecting point.

Not only do American soldiery remains go through the 2d US Infantry

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Division collecting point, but also all attached troops and whatever Koreans, military or civilian, which are not taken care of by Korean Army graves registration personnel. The French and Netherlands Battalions, which are attached to the 2d US Infantry Division, receive GRS service the same as American troops.

When bodies arrive at the platoon of the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company at UMYANG-NI, they go out of the control of the 2d US Infantry Division GRO, and become the responsibility of the 8th US Army unit. At UMYANG-NI the corps collecting point employs, according to Sergeant Deisenroth and Lieutenant Wurz, approximately the same method in sending the bodies received in X Corps to HONGCHON, which is a collecting point for bodies from both X Corps and IX Corps. From HONGCHON, remains are further sent to WONJU, headquarters of the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, where the fingertips of the deceased men are embalmed and fingerprints taken for later positive identification. From WONJU the bodies are sent by rail to PUSAN, after having been packed in ice for preservation at the former named point. From PUSAN, bodies are aunt to KOKURA, Kyushu Island, Japan, where at the American Graves Registration Group, 8204th Army Unit, the bodies are further identified by means of expert anthropology, chemistry, dental charts, records of broken bones, etc., and are then embalmed totally. From KOKURA, stated Sergeant Deisenroth and Lieutenant Wurz, the bodies are dispatched to the United States for burial, either in a United States military cemetery or at the soldiers' homes. No bodies are now being buried in either Korea or Japan, stated Lieutenant Wurz and Sergeant Deisenroth, and all are being repatriated to the United States.

The Personal Effects Section of the 2d US Infantry Division GRS operates a point parallel but not altogether analogous to the associated body collecting point. The Personal Effects Section is located with the Graves Registration Collecting Point at OEJOK-KOL (DT1622) and collects

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and sends through proper channels personal belongings of persons in the following four classifications: KIA, MIA, WIA, and evacuated through medical channels. Goods belonging to personnel in the 2d US Infantry Division sector who which fit into the above classifications are sent from divisional units to the Personal Effects Section accompanied by an AR 600-550 form, made out in the unit from which the person killed or evacuated was assigned; and which lists all of the personal effects belonging to the man concerned.

These personal effects are divided on the AR 600-550 form into two categories: Class I, which includes items of trophy, keepsake, or sentimental value, such as sabers, insignia, decorations, medals, campaign citations, watches, etc., and Class II, which includes items of specific value, such as money, bank drafts, money orders, personal effects, billfolds, etc. Those forms are usually made out either by the commanding officer of the man concerned or by the Personal Effects Officer of the unit concerned. It is, however, required that a commissioned officer sign the form, certifying to the totals of property possessed by the soldier killed or evacuated.

"Every specific thing belonging to men killed or evacuated is itemized," related Corporal Imwalle, "whether it be two pennies or fifteen pictures." If money received belonging to the individual concerned is $4.99 or less, it is sent through with other belongings exactly as found—American Military Script, won, or American currency. If the amount found is $5.00 or over, it is converted into a United States Treasury Check. There is one exception to this rule on the changing of money: If a man is evacuated through medical channels, money in not changed, no matter what its total value, related Lieutenant Wurz.

A maximum of eight days is allowed before personal effects of a

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person KIA or evacuated with wounds or sickness is sent through the Personal Effects Section. The maximum time lag in the case of men MIA is from 20 to 30 days. At the Personal Effects Section, upon receipt of personal belongings and AR 600-550, all items are checked and verified, and then sent through the regular evacuation system to the rear.

Personal effects are received at the Personal Effects Section in a box or boxes, and this box or boxes must be banded and sealed after the contents have been officially ascertained at the section in order that their [sic] will be no opportunity for any of the articles belonging to the soldier concerned to be lost. Following a checking of the articles, personal effects are evacuated much the same as are remains, going through the same collecting points to WONJU, then being sent to the 55th Base Quartermaster Depot at PUSAN and sent from there to Japan, arriving ultimately at YOKOHAMA at the 8083d Quartermaster Effects Depot, where the articles are sent to Effects Officer in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Here goods are again checked and finally distributed to next of kin.

s/Bevin R. Alexander
BEVIN R. ALEXANDER
1st Lt. Arty
5th Historical Detachment


III. GRAPHIC SUPPLEMENT

Diagram, Shipment Route of Remains and Personal Effects of 2d Division
(Click on Diagram to view full scale)

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