June 21, 2006

Stories of combat duty in South Korea was the order of the day as three combat fighting friends reunited to visit and talk about their horrible experiences they endured for nine months and 10 days.

Willie Davis, his wife Gloria, and Leonard Elliot and his wife Shirley, from South Texas near Pearland made an internet search and e-mail pay off as they searched and found their friend Glen Redfearn.

The combat veteran, Willey, said that it was nothing but a miracle from the God Almighty because he found so many Glen Redfearns in his search. He went through the search and narrowed it down to Glen Redfearn in Aubrey, Texas. The renewal of the fifty-year-old friendship occurred this past week in Aubrey.

M-1 rifles were the instruments that provided safety that allowed them to return back to the United States.

Glen remembered that everywhere they went, there was always a guitar around that he could borrow and provide entertainment while they were on front line duty. During the hours they weren’t on the front line of combat (and there were very few), the three men enjoyed the music from the guitar. They would sing songs and sounded like Hank Williams and Waylon Jennings. The music would attract the soldiers from all around. They would come around for a little bit of relaxation. Leonard remembered that they all called Glen, "Hank," because he sounded just like Hank Williams as he sang.

The three seventy-year-old friends renewed their singing and guitar playing during the recent visit.

Glen says he had no idea what his friends would look like after 50 years, but he says they had not changed at all.

All three of the men agreed that the suffering they endured during the nine months was a tremendous hardship, but the suffering created a very close friendship.

Veteran Willey, earned the rank of Sergeant, each stripe he carried on his arm was well earned.

Willey is currently the song leader in his church. All three veterans agreed that without the almighty creator, their mission would not have succeeded.

Willey said that he likes to shake hands with people, because that way he can determine the kind of person they are. He said it is very important to judge the character of a person by their handshake as well as their conversation. Willey gave a brief description of his handshake with me, but I am not going to waste the time and ink, but it wasn’t that bad – it was indeed a good compliment.

They told a story about being on the front line at the top of the mountains with the temperature of 20 degrees. There were 2,000 men in their company, and on this one particular assignment, they were reduced to only 40 men, in one battle alone. We readers need to think about that mission which destroyed many good men. The loss of lives in that battle was tremendous, only 20 percent of the men lived to tell the story.

The happy veterans told a story about standing in shallow water one night on a mission which involved a massive attack from the Chinese with 50 caliber guns. The bullets showered down on them and the bullets went really close and all around them. They were so amazed that all three of them survived the combat with just minor injuries.

They had so many different stores to tell. I had to leave for a few minutes and missed some of their stories, but one that I did hear is as follows: There was an old Chinese plane that rattled. It would swoop down over the mountain and release the ammunition. The pilot would look for light and swoop down and blow the area into millions of pieces. Glen said they were very careful not to smoke or light a cigarette ensuring the old rattled airplane would not have a successful mission.

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