In the television series
“M.A.S.H.,” troops used humor to keep their sanity amidst the
horrors of war. A local Morgan Hill Korean War Marine veteran and
author weaves his battle-tested wisdom with true to life stories of
his combat experiences in a war that most have forgotten.
In the television series “M.A.S.H.,” troops used humor to keep their sanity amidst the horrors of war. A local Morgan Hill Korean War Marine veteran and author weaves his battle-tested wisdom with true to life stories of his combat experiences in a war that most have forgotten.
“We Claim the Title: Korean War Marines,” is Burton F. Anderson’s memoir of his war experiences in Korea. He recounts stories told to him from comrades, along with treasures of letters he sent home from the war over 50 years ago and uses dialogue that draws readers inside of a war and the minds and emotions of characters who are real.
“I’m a storyteller, I tell pretty good stories,” said 73-year-old Anderson, who really doesn’t consider himself a writer.
Anderson described how he dragged a buddy, who had been shot in the “butt cheeks” over his shoulder and how he stepped single file across the mountains of South Korea over what could have been a land mine to eternity.
Anderson said that carrying a 100-pound pack up, including his sleeping bag, rifle and two twenty-pound metal cans of machine-gun ammunition which took 250 rounds, he was ready to become a gunner.
“Time for my time on the gun,” Anderson said.
Anderson remained a Private First Class until one day a platoon leader asked him to become his runner. He said that runners ran for anything the platoon leaders asked for, even coffee.
He no longer had to be out in the front, but could be back at headquarters. Instead of carrying ammunition, now he carried a 10-pound walkie-talkie.
Anderson was walking single file over a mountain with his walkie-talkie when his leader sent him back to look for troops that were suppose to be following them. A vivid account of how Anderson escapes a blinding explosion is described in the book.
As a writer, Anderson said that he likes to write obtusely and reuses sentences to grab reader’s attention so they will not want to stop reading, instead want to see what’s going to happen next.
It took Anderson eight months to write the book and almost three years to research. The book gives you 5,000 years of history in a little over 400 pages including, maps, copies of letters he sent home during the war that were kept by his mother, poems written to him along with pictures of him and comrades on the battlefield.
Anderson said that almost half of the U.S. troops were killed in action during the Korean War; far more than how many have been killed in action thus far in the current (Iraq) war.
Anderson said that for every 100 U.S. troops, 50 were killed in action compared to the Iraq War which has a ratio of one U.S. troop killed in action to every 200 Iraqis.
He also said that the immediacy of the Iraq War is different from the Korean War because most people did not have televisions during the early 1950s. They went to the theater to get war updates.
By the time film from the Korean War arrived its immediacy was much diminished; often, therefore, newspapers and radio remained the media of choice.
Back then, television film was processed and produced in Japan and had to be transported by air to broadcasters. Anderson saw his first television set when he returned from the war in 1951.
He said that the Korean War had many firsts. It was the first integrated war. It was the first war that used Marine helicopters to bring in supplies and carry out the wounded. Two days before Anderson’s 21st birthday, he was wounded with shrapnel in his shoulder.
“I was on that first helicopter,” Anderson said.
Anderson believes that troops of the Korean War and Iraq War experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He said that after talking to his buddies from the war, things each thought were unique to them; he learned they too were suffering from some of the same emotional rollercoaster feelings.
Forever changed by the experiences of war, writing this book not only added to Anderson’s career resume, he said that writing was cathartic and helped him shed some of the emotions, loss and war experiences etched in his memory.
“The challenges and experiences of the military are things most people will never understand,” Anderson said.
Earning both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English and Education, he began his career as a teacher before his thirty-year career in the aerospace industry.
His writing career began after he attended his 50th high school class reunion in 1997 when a reporter from the local Enid, Okla. newspaper asked him if he wanted to write about some of the pictures they were looking at in his high school yearbook.
As a freelance writer, Anderson continues to write for his hometown newspaper. He has written more than 80 articles including stories for the San Jose Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Desert Trail newspapers and magazines.
“We Claim the Title: Korean War Marines,” was first published in November 1994. The newest edition, published in February 2000, has been edited to include twenty-six new pictures as well as significant updates of information on some of Anderson’s boot camp buddies.
When Anderson is not signing books at the Marine Corps base MCAGC or sharing stories about Korea, he and his wife, Joanne of 50 years spend time relaxing in their desert cabin which sits on five acres in Twentynine Palms, California.
Anderson said he likes watching the sun come up and the moon go down.
Smiling, Anderson said, “And, decide whether I am going to rake sand or water rocks.”
“We Claim the Title: Korean War Marines” by Burton Anderson is available for $24.95 at BookSmart, 17415 Monterey Road. Details: 778-6467.
