As Relevant As Today: The Past Connects with the Present
Veteran's Day 2012- Korean Veteran Doyle Smith Added to War Memorial in White County, Illinois
By Kathy Warnes
War in Korea was a grueling, back breaking, feet tiring deadly business. Survival was measured in seconds and by chance instead of days and design.
Jerry Emer Fights with the 5th Cavalry on Hill 174
In a series of letters Jerry Emer wrote to author Don Knox, who used them in his oral history of the Korean War, he details the actions of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Cavalry on Hill 174. The time span is from September 10 to 20, 1950. Rumor had it that the 3rd Battalion was going to move to a pretty hot spot and they climbed aboard trucks to move to the Hill 174 area. The convoy skirted part of Taegue and headed north a few miles. The men were got off the trucks. They headed up the hill in a long column, listening to the ka-rumph of artillery fire and the occasional rattle of small arms from the North Korean held hill.
The next day the company sent out some re-con patrols and the following day the company went into a typical Korean farm village close to the front lines. Jerry and the other men filled their canteens at a well and some of the male Korean villagers talked with the company’s Katusas, which is what the South Koreans integrated into American units were called. They seemed to greatly fear and detest the In-Min-gun, or Communist Army of North Korea.
After some skirmishing with the enemy and I Company’s withdrawal from Hill 174, the orders came through for I Company to attack and re occupy it. On September 15, 1950, everyone in Jerry’s company was supplied with extra bandoliers and grenades. Company I was supposed to assemble for the attack at the foot of Hill 203. At the base of this hill was a small grove of trees and some weapon carriers, jeeps, and heavy mortars.
Jerry Emer Helps a Wounded Katusa
The platoons had to move along certain paths to get to this assembly area from Hill 232, Jerry was sent with Lt. Toomey and his runner to a long ditch running parallel to a small apple orchard. Lt. Toomey instructed Jerry to watch for his platoon and point out what path it was to follow. He had just finished speaking when a loud whoosh made everyone flatten out on the ground. A 120 mm shell exploded about five yards from the ditch. Pieces of trees, dirt and chunks of sod rained down on the backs of the soldiers. Within a few seconds, two more shells exploded.
A Katusa came running by and Jerry shouted and pointed. Then with a whoosh, bam, another shell exploded. The Katusa was thrown into the ditch a few yards from Jerry, terribly hurt. He whimpered and as Jerry crawled over to him, he saw that the Katusa had a large ugly tear near the elbow on his right arm.
The shrapnel had set off several clips in his cartridge belt. This had torn away much of his fatigue shirt and there was an irregular gaping red maw of a wound from the bottom of the rib cage diagonally down to his hip. The web cartridge belt was smoking and the ragged torn fatigue shirt also. Jerry tore off the smoldering belt and threw it away. The Katusa’s first aid pouch had been destroyed by shrapnel, so Jerry took his bandages out and tried to bandage the Katusa’s profusely bleeding arm wound. The Katusa tried to tell him something, but Jerry couldn’t understand him.
Medic Doyle Smith Comes to Help the Wounded Katusa
“Where’s the medic, where’s Smitty?” Jerry shouted to a Sergeant Woods.
“He’s not far behind me, just a couple of guys behind me!” Woods shouted back.
Finally, with immense relief, Jerry saw the skinny figure of Medic Doyle Smith running down the slope. In just the few weeks they had known each other, Jerry and Doyle Smith had become close buddies. He thought that Smitty was as American as apple pie, own to his name – Smith. Smitty was from a typically American small town, Grayville, Illinois, in the Midwestern cornbelt. He even looked American. He was a wiry, 140 pound, 5’10″, sandy haired 19 year old. He had told Jerry about his Japanese girl friend and her family and showed him photographs of her.
“Over here! Over here, Smitty!” Jerry yelled.
Smitty reached Jerry and took over. The Korean was still mumbling and whimpering.
“No use wasting a bandage on that side wound. He’s dying,” Smitty said. “I’ll give him a shot of morphine.”
In a few seconds the Kutusa stopped whimpering. He mumbled a few more words and then his eyes became glassy.
Medic Doyle Smith is Killed
Smitty said, “Okay, let’s go. I’m the last of the 2nd platoon.”
They climbed out of the ditch and started moving. After an air strike on the hill and a short artillery preparation, the order came to move out. As they entered the rice paddies, the men were urged to keep in a skirmish line. The paddies were very soft because of the heavy rains that had fallen earlier in the month. The soldiers were loaded down with extra ammunition and grenades and they sank into the stinking mud with every step. By this time of the day the sun shone brightly and the temperature had climbed to 90 degrees with humidity. The men were all panting and gasping for air and drenched with sweat. Then they started getting hit with a barrage of 120 mm mortar fire. Soon cries of “I’m hit,” and “medic, medic,” came from every point of the compass.
After he had helped so many other men, medic Doyle Smith got hit. Lt. Brian acted as Smitty’s medic, but Smitty died of his wounds.
After 60 years, and through the efforts of many people, Medic Doyle Smith’s name finally appears on the Korean War Memorial in White County, Illinois.
March 19, 2011 would have been Pvt. Doyle Edward Smith’s 79th birthday. Part of his story is told in Soldier’s Story: Jerry Emer Remembers Smitty’s Last Day in Korea. An equally important part of his story unfolded in September, 2010 when his name was finally added to the Korean War Veterans Monument in White County, Illinois.
On September 22, 2010, Pvt. Doyle E. Smith’s name was inscribed on the monument at Veterans Memorial Park in Carmi, Illinois, that lists the White County War dead for the past one hundred years.
Doyle Smith and His Friend Charlie Linder Join The Army from Grayville, Illinois
Doyle Smith was born in the small town of Grayville, located in southern Illinois on the Wabash River. At least one other soldier, James Meredith Helm who was an admiral in the Spanish American War, was born in Grayville and joined the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, just as Doyle Smith and his best friend Charlie Linder joined the Army together from Grayville.
In a September 2010 story from the Carmi Times, Charlie Linder told reporter Braden Willis that he left first and he never saw his friend Doyle again. “He wasn’t even 18 years old,” Charlie said. Doyle lied about his age to enlist so the service records say that he was born in 1931, although he really was born in 1932. Charlie enlisted in the Army for three years and was sent to Korea at the same time as Doyle, but he said, “I didn’t find out he’d been killed until I got home.”
Aaron D. Smith of rural Grayville was Doyle Smith’s grandfather. Nedra Wolf, Doyle’s cousin, also born and raised in Grayville, was just 9 years old when Doyle died in Korea. She has clear and fond memories of Doyle Smith. She said that his mother moved to Seattle, but Doyle stayed in Grayville with her father and she and Doyle managed to get into quite a bit of mischief. “I loved every minute of it,” she said.
Doyle Smith is Killed In Action In Korea
The official Army account of Doyle Edward Smith’s death states that he was a member of the Sixty-First Field Artillery Battalion, First Cavalry Division, and that he was killed in action in South Korea on September 22, 1950. Doyle Smith -the men called him Smitty-was a medic and the story has it that he was treating a wounded soldier when he was fatally wounded.
Jerry Emer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of Smitty’s close friends, belonged to I Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Cavalry which was involved in fighting on Hill 174. In a series of letters Jerry wrote to author Don Knox, he tells the story of his encounters with Smitty. Jerry and a South Korean soldier had been wounded and lay bleeding in a ditch. Jerry watched several soldiers run by and then he shouted to a Sgt. Woods that he knew. “Where’s the medic? Where’s Smitty?”
Sgt. Woods assured Jerry that Smitty was just a few soldiers behind him and finally to his immense relief, Jerry spotted the skinny figure of Medic Doyle Smith running down the slope. According to Jerry, in the few short weeks they had known each other, he and Doyle Smith had become close friends. Jerry thought Smitty was one hundred percent American down to his last name – Smith.
To Jerry’s way of thinking, Smitty even looked American. Jerry remembered him as a wiry, 140 pound, 5 foot 10 inch, sandy haired, 19 year old Midwesterner. Smitty told Jerry about his Japanese girlfriend and showed him pictures of the girl and her family.
Now Smitty reached Jerry and the wounded South Korean. He gave the South Korean a shot of morphine and in a few seconds the Korean’s eyes became glassy and he died.
Smitty and Jerry both climbed out of the ditch and started moving. About 100 yards ahead, they reached a group of other soldiers. After an air strike on Hill 174, and a short artillery barrage, the order came to move out. The officers urged the soldiers to keep in a skirmish line. Loaded down with extra ammunition and grenades and their heavy packs, the soldiers sank into the soft, stinking mud of the rice paddies. The temperature climbed to 90 degrees and the humidity climbed as well. Soon the soldiers panted and gasped for air.
Then the North Koreans hit them with a barrage of 120 mm mortar fire. Smitty answered endless cries of “Medic! “Medic!”
After he had treated so many soldiers, Smitty himself got hit. Lt. Brian acted as his medic, but Smitty died of his wounds.
The Army posthumously awarded Doyle Edward Smith the Purple Heart. He also was awarded the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
After 60 Years, Doyle Smith’s Name is Added to Korean War Memorial
Doyle Smith was buried in Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Seattle, Washington, near his mother, Mrs. W.E. Baun. For nearly sixty years his name wasn’t on the Korean Veteran’s Memorial in White County, Illinois, but then his sister Ruthie Sexton of Phoenix, Arizona researched Doyle’s history. She contacted Sue Cullison of Albion, Illinois, who is a family tree researcher. Sue documented that Doyle Smith was a native of White County, killed in action in Korea on September 22, 1950, but his name had been left off the monument at Veterans Park. Sue contacted White County VFW Post 3851 officials and they met with Carmi Mayor David Port about adding Doyle’s name to the monument.
In September 2010, Doyle Smith’s best friend Charlie Linder, and a group of his relatives and friends congregated at the Korean War Veterans Monument in Carmi along with Carmi American Legion members from American Legion Post 224 and Sue Cullison. They all honored Doyle Smith’s name on the Korean War Memorial just as Doyle Smith had honored his county with his life.
References
Cummings, Bruce: The Korean War: A History. Modern Library, 2010
Fehrenbach, T.R. This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, Potomac Books, Inc., 2000
Halberstam, David. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. Hyperion, 1st Edition, 2007
Knox, Donald. The Korean War- An Oral History: Pusan to Chosin. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985
Interview: Korean War Veteran Jerry Emer. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
War in Korea was a grueling, back breaking, feet tiring deadly business. Survival was measured in seconds and by chance instead of days and design.
Jerry Emer Fights with the 5th Cavalry on Hill 174
In a series of letters Jerry Emer wrote to author Don Knox, who used them in his oral history of the Korean War, he details the actions of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Cavalry on Hill 174. The time span is from September 10 to 20, 1950. Rumor had it that the 3rd Battalion was going to move to a pretty hot spot and they climbed aboard trucks to move to the Hill 174 area. The convoy skirted part of Taegue and headed north a few miles. The men were got off the trucks. They headed up the hill in a long column, listening to the ka-rumph of artillery fire and the occasional rattle of small arms from the North Korean held hill.
The next day the company sent out some re-con patrols and the following day the company went into a typical Korean farm village close to the front lines. Jerry and the other men filled their canteens at a well and some of the male Korean villagers talked with the company’s Katusas, which is what the South Koreans integrated into American units were called. They seemed to greatly fear and detest the In-Min-gun, or Communist Army of North Korea.
After some skirmishing with the enemy and I Company’s withdrawal from Hill 174, the orders came through for I Company to attack and re occupy it. On September 15, 1950, everyone in Jerry’s company was supplied with extra bandoliers and grenades. Company I was supposed to assemble for the attack at the foot of Hill 203. At the base of this hill was a small grove of trees and some weapon carriers, jeeps, and heavy mortars.
Jerry Emer Helps a Wounded Katusa
The platoons had to move along certain paths to get to this assembly area from Hill 232, Jerry was sent with Lt. Toomey and his runner to a long ditch running parallel to a small apple orchard. Lt. Toomey instructed Jerry to watch for his platoon and point out what path it was to follow. He had just finished speaking when a loud whoosh made everyone flatten out on the ground. A 120 mm shell exploded about five yards from the ditch. Pieces of trees, dirt and chunks of sod rained down on the backs of the soldiers. Within a few seconds, two more shells exploded.
A Katusa came running by and Jerry shouted and pointed. Then with a whoosh, bam, another shell exploded. The Katusa was thrown into the ditch a few yards from Jerry, terribly hurt. He whimpered and as Jerry crawled over to him, he saw that the Katusa had a large ugly tear near the elbow on his right arm.
The shrapnel had set off several clips in his cartridge belt. This had torn away much of his fatigue shirt and there was an irregular gaping red maw of a wound from the bottom of the rib cage diagonally down to his hip. The web cartridge belt was smoking and the ragged torn fatigue shirt also. Jerry tore off the smoldering belt and threw it away. The Katusa’s first aid pouch had been destroyed by shrapnel, so Jerry took his bandages out and tried to bandage the Katusa’s profusely bleeding arm wound. The Katusa tried to tell him something, but Jerry couldn’t understand him.
Medic Doyle Smith Comes to Help the Wounded Katusa
“Where’s the medic, where’s Smitty?” Jerry shouted to a Sergeant Woods.
“He’s not far behind me, just a couple of guys behind me!” Woods shouted back.
Finally, with immense relief, Jerry saw the skinny figure of Medic Doyle Smith running down the slope. In just the few weeks they had known each other, Jerry and Doyle Smith had become close buddies. He thought that Smitty was as American as apple pie, own to his name – Smith. Smitty was from a typically American small town, Grayville, Illinois, in the Midwestern cornbelt. He even looked American. He was a wiry, 140 pound, 5’10″, sandy haired 19 year old. He had told Jerry about his Japanese girl friend and her family and showed him photographs of her.
“Over here! Over here, Smitty!” Jerry yelled.
Smitty reached Jerry and took over. The Korean was still mumbling and whimpering.
“No use wasting a bandage on that side wound. He’s dying,” Smitty said. “I’ll give him a shot of morphine.”
In a few seconds the Kutusa stopped whimpering. He mumbled a few more words and then his eyes became glassy.
Medic Doyle Smith is Killed
Smitty said, “Okay, let’s go. I’m the last of the 2nd platoon.”
They climbed out of the ditch and started moving. After an air strike on the hill and a short artillery preparation, the order came to move out. As they entered the rice paddies, the men were urged to keep in a skirmish line. The paddies were very soft because of the heavy rains that had fallen earlier in the month. The soldiers were loaded down with extra ammunition and grenades and they sank into the stinking mud with every step. By this time of the day the sun shone brightly and the temperature had climbed to 90 degrees with humidity. The men were all panting and gasping for air and drenched with sweat. Then they started getting hit with a barrage of 120 mm mortar fire. Soon cries of “I’m hit,” and “medic, medic,” came from every point of the compass.
After he had helped so many other men, medic Doyle Smith got hit. Lt. Brian acted as Smitty’s medic, but Smitty died of his wounds.
After 60 years, and through the efforts of many people, Medic Doyle Smith’s name finally appears on the Korean War Memorial in White County, Illinois.
March 19, 2011 would have been Pvt. Doyle Edward Smith’s 79th birthday. Part of his story is told in Soldier’s Story: Jerry Emer Remembers Smitty’s Last Day in Korea. An equally important part of his story unfolded in September, 2010 when his name was finally added to the Korean War Veterans Monument in White County, Illinois.
On September 22, 2010, Pvt. Doyle E. Smith’s name was inscribed on the monument at Veterans Memorial Park in Carmi, Illinois, that lists the White County War dead for the past one hundred years.
Doyle Smith and His Friend Charlie Linder Join The Army from Grayville, Illinois
Doyle Smith was born in the small town of Grayville, located in southern Illinois on the Wabash River. At least one other soldier, James Meredith Helm who was an admiral in the Spanish American War, was born in Grayville and joined the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, just as Doyle Smith and his best friend Charlie Linder joined the Army together from Grayville.
In a September 2010 story from the Carmi Times, Charlie Linder told reporter Braden Willis that he left first and he never saw his friend Doyle again. “He wasn’t even 18 years old,” Charlie said. Doyle lied about his age to enlist so the service records say that he was born in 1931, although he really was born in 1932. Charlie enlisted in the Army for three years and was sent to Korea at the same time as Doyle, but he said, “I didn’t find out he’d been killed until I got home.”
Aaron D. Smith of rural Grayville was Doyle Smith’s grandfather. Nedra Wolf, Doyle’s cousin, also born and raised in Grayville, was just 9 years old when Doyle died in Korea. She has clear and fond memories of Doyle Smith. She said that his mother moved to Seattle, but Doyle stayed in Grayville with her father and she and Doyle managed to get into quite a bit of mischief. “I loved every minute of it,” she said.
Doyle Smith is Killed In Action In Korea
The official Army account of Doyle Edward Smith’s death states that he was a member of the Sixty-First Field Artillery Battalion, First Cavalry Division, and that he was killed in action in South Korea on September 22, 1950. Doyle Smith -the men called him Smitty-was a medic and the story has it that he was treating a wounded soldier when he was fatally wounded.
Jerry Emer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of Smitty’s close friends, belonged to I Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Cavalry which was involved in fighting on Hill 174. In a series of letters Jerry wrote to author Don Knox, he tells the story of his encounters with Smitty. Jerry and a South Korean soldier had been wounded and lay bleeding in a ditch. Jerry watched several soldiers run by and then he shouted to a Sgt. Woods that he knew. “Where’s the medic? Where’s Smitty?”
Sgt. Woods assured Jerry that Smitty was just a few soldiers behind him and finally to his immense relief, Jerry spotted the skinny figure of Medic Doyle Smith running down the slope. According to Jerry, in the few short weeks they had known each other, he and Doyle Smith had become close friends. Jerry thought Smitty was one hundred percent American down to his last name – Smith.
To Jerry’s way of thinking, Smitty even looked American. Jerry remembered him as a wiry, 140 pound, 5 foot 10 inch, sandy haired, 19 year old Midwesterner. Smitty told Jerry about his Japanese girlfriend and showed him pictures of the girl and her family.
Now Smitty reached Jerry and the wounded South Korean. He gave the South Korean a shot of morphine and in a few seconds the Korean’s eyes became glassy and he died.
Smitty and Jerry both climbed out of the ditch and started moving. About 100 yards ahead, they reached a group of other soldiers. After an air strike on Hill 174, and a short artillery barrage, the order came to move out. The officers urged the soldiers to keep in a skirmish line. Loaded down with extra ammunition and grenades and their heavy packs, the soldiers sank into the soft, stinking mud of the rice paddies. The temperature climbed to 90 degrees and the humidity climbed as well. Soon the soldiers panted and gasped for air.
Then the North Koreans hit them with a barrage of 120 mm mortar fire. Smitty answered endless cries of “Medic! “Medic!”
After he had treated so many soldiers, Smitty himself got hit. Lt. Brian acted as his medic, but Smitty died of his wounds.
The Army posthumously awarded Doyle Edward Smith the Purple Heart. He also was awarded the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
After 60 Years, Doyle Smith’s Name is Added to Korean War Memorial
Doyle Smith was buried in Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Seattle, Washington, near his mother, Mrs. W.E. Baun. For nearly sixty years his name wasn’t on the Korean Veteran’s Memorial in White County, Illinois, but then his sister Ruthie Sexton of Phoenix, Arizona researched Doyle’s history. She contacted Sue Cullison of Albion, Illinois, who is a family tree researcher. Sue documented that Doyle Smith was a native of White County, killed in action in Korea on September 22, 1950, but his name had been left off the monument at Veterans Park. Sue contacted White County VFW Post 3851 officials and they met with Carmi Mayor David Port about adding Doyle’s name to the monument.
In September 2010, Doyle Smith’s best friend Charlie Linder, and a group of his relatives and friends congregated at the Korean War Veterans Monument in Carmi along with Carmi American Legion members from American Legion Post 224 and Sue Cullison. They all honored Doyle Smith’s name on the Korean War Memorial just as Doyle Smith had honored his county with his life.
References
Cummings, Bruce: The Korean War: A History. Modern Library, 2010
Fehrenbach, T.R. This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, Potomac Books, Inc., 2000
Halberstam, David. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. Hyperion, 1st Edition, 2007
Knox, Donald. The Korean War- An Oral History: Pusan to Chosin. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985
Interview: Korean War Veteran Jerry Emer. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
