“The more I see of other veteran groups, the more I find that special bonds welded in extensive periods of hardship and in the life-threatening situations of combat in any form, create ties that last throughout life.”
—The Cold Steel Third: 3d Airborne Ranger Company, Korean War (1950–1951)42
The ferryboats docked at Sasebo, Japan, about 0700 hours on 2 August 1951. The Rangers boarded a train and reached Camp Chickamauga, Beppu, about 1200 hours, where everyone enjoyed a big meal. The next day, the men were assembled with their duffel bags on the north side of the post at the Race Track, which doubled as a light airstrip and a parade field. Slightly more than 700 Rangers were present.
The Rangers were treated as replacements because Eighth Army had moved up the rotation criteria. There were so many troopers in the 187th ARCT with six months of duty in Korea that the shipment of all of them would have so drastically lowered combat readiness status that the unit would have been ineffective. The new criteria gave each month of combat service in Korea an equivalent of four points. Therefore, the 1st Rangers would have about thirty-six points, but the 4th and 2d Rangers would have only twenty-eight points. There were no extra points for married men or those with dependent children, as had occurred at the end of WWII. The number of points required for immediate rotation in August was increased to about forty-eight points. The new points earned by the troopers assigned to the 187th ARCT, now in Eighth Army reserve, was one per month. In addition, Eighth Army froze the rotation of qualified airborne personnel.
At the same time, the Far East Command conducted a purge known as Operation Flush, in which all qualified airborne personnel in non-airborne assignments in Japan Logistic Command and the Far East Command were involuntarily transferred to the 187th ARCT. There were a lot of disgruntled troopers, including some who had made both combat jumps at Sukch’on and Sunch’on on 20 October 1950 and Munsan-ni on 23 March 1951. Some of the older troopers from WWII thought they had performed their last airborne assignment before retirement.
Camp Chickamauga was named after a creek in northwest Georgia, the scene of a Confederate victory in 1863 during the Civil War, and had been a Japanese Army garrison prior to World War II. It was not large enough to house the entire ARCT, so the Pathfinders and Parachute Maintenance were moved to Camp Kashi, outside Fukuoka. The 674th Field Artillery Battalion, 4.2-inch Mortar Company, and Anti-Aircraft Battery were housed at Camp Woods, near Fukuoka. Housed at Chickamauga were Regimental Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Service Company, Medical Company, Military Police Detachment, and the 1st, 2d and 3d Battalions. To many troopers it was like old home week, because they had served with each other in the 11th A/B and 82d A/B Divisions in post-WWII assignments. Brigadier General Thomas T. J. H. Trapnell was now the CO, and his deputy commander, Lieutenant Clayman, was his former XO from the 505th AIR in the 82d A/B.
There were some disappointments among the troopers in the 187th who had longer service because the Rangers came in with a lot of rank. Many of these NCOs had been in TO&E slots and had looked forward to a combat-type promotion. Combat-type promotions were made on a temporary basis in Korea after thirty to sixty days of satisfactory service in a position. It was not too difficult to place the Ranger Lieutenants, but the Captains had to be squeezed in as assistant staff officers for a while.
According to Mighty Mouth Alston, Commo Chief, some of the Rangers assigned to 1st Battalion were assigned as follows:
The Battalion CO was Major Mike Holland, who was very popular with the troops because of his free-will attitude. I was in Company D, 81mm Mortar Platoon, led by Lieutenant James E. Freeman (2d Ranger Company). Our Platoon Sergeant was Wendell Russell (187th from Fort Campbell). I was a Section Leader, and other 2d Ranger Company Rangers included Squad Leaders (Staff Sergeants Adell Allen and Kenneth Moore). The other Section Leader was Sergeant First Class Mansfield Brown (Company M, 3d Battalion). Over in the Machine Gun Platoon were Platoon Sergeant Earl Higgins (4th Company) and Sergeant Howard Squires, Section Leader (2d Ranger Company). Colonel T.J. “Eagle Eye” Trapnell was promoted to Brigadier General while CO.
“I have been postponing this letter until I could give you a date to expect me,” Captain Allen began a letter to Mary on 10 August. “We are now assigned to the 187th ARCT, in Japan. I am pretty high on the rotation list here; however, I don’t know when I will actually get home. Colonel Trapnell, who was the commander of the 505th Regiment, now has this unit,” continued Allen. “He said that he was glad to see the men and me from the 3d Battalion. I am assigned as one of the Regimental Assistant S-2s.” Allen concluded his letter: “There are so many people here from the 82d A/B; it looks like old home week. Would you like to come to Japan? Colonel Trapnell asked if I wanted to stay.”
All of the 2d Ranger Company officers except “Big Jim” Queen were assigned to Camp Chickamauga. “Big Jim” was assigned as Reconnaissance Officer (XO), Company H. Lieutenant Rich MacAfee, Ranger, battlefield commissioned with the 5th Rangers, was the 81mm Mortar Platoon leader under Captain James “Hog” McPherson. Captain Mac was an old 504th Weapons Company CO from the 82d during WWII. Lieutenant MacAfee had been a Mortar Platoon Sergeant in Company H, 505th, at Bragg. Sergeant Gus Georgiou from 3d Rangers was the Reconnaissance Sergeant. The 2d Battalion CO was Lieutenant Colonel Christenson, with Major Musick as the Battalion XO. First Sergeant West took over Company B with a Hispanic commander. Captain Allen was later sent down to take over Company L. Ranger Winston Jackson, 2d Ranger Company, finally got his light duty assignment as a clerk under Captain “Moon” Mullins, in Regimental S-4.
The regiment began a heavy and steady training cycle, starting on the platoon level. The local training area was Mount Mori, located in the hills northeast of Chickamauga about seven miles distant. Blank ammunition could be fired there and there was no need to police the brass shell casings because the local Japanese scroungers were there to collect them almost as fast as they were fired. The Japanese melted the brass shells down and made items to sell, such as ash trays, belt buckles, and lamps.
Some of the men who joined the units at Camp Woods reported that they received a less-than-cordial welcome. William “The Ghost” Washington was assigned to the Regimental Counterfire Platoon. Queen, who had been awarded the Senior Parachute Badge in the 82d, saw a chance to build up his jumps for the Master Parachute Badge by volunteering to be a Rifle Platoon Umpire during the Army Training Test at Mori. The heavy weapons platoons were undergoing platoon training, so Captain Mac released him for this special duty. The exercise was about thirty-six hours long. It started at camp and involved taking a train ride up to Ashiya Air Base, jumping north of Mori, and making a cross-country march of about ten miles to arrive for a dawn attack in Mori. There were twenty-seven rifle platoons in the regiment, and “Big Jim” jumped with about half of them. He was awarded his Master Wings in the 187th ARCT. Later, the regiment had a regimental-size exercise in Mori, and Queen was captured along with the mortar platoon.
Queen and Captain Mac were roommates in a small BOQ. “Big Jim,” “Willie” (Vince Wilburn), and “Lieutenant Rich” hung out together. On Fridays from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. the Officers’ Club had Happy Hour, a military custom during which all drinks were half-priced. This trio could usually be found at the end of the bar, trying to see who could drink the most vodka in that hour before going to supper. They drank vodka because it didn’t leave a headache or trigger a hangover the next morning. Like Trapnell, Rich had also been a Japanese POW at the end of WWII and spoke the language very well. The Officers’ Club bartender was a young Japanese named Tiny. He knew how to keep the trio supplied and when to skip payment. Rich liked to sing a Japanese folk song when he got drunk. No Japanese girlfriends were allowed in the club, but could be met at the bar that Lieutenant Colonel Christenson had selected.
There were a couple of hotels up in the hills about two to three miles from town by bus. Willie and Jim went up there on a weekend for a good meal and some rest, away from the very small town with its one main street leading down to the wharf. According to Japanese custom, guests at the hotels were to leave their shoes at the door; but once a soldier had his boots stolen he soon learned to take them into the room and sleep with them nearby, or he would have to walk back to camp in stocking feet. Sergeant Barbee had the medic jeep drop them off at the hotel. Somehow they lost all of their money and almost had to walk back to town. Luckily, they had stashed some money in “Big Jim’s” boots for just such an emergency, and were able to ride the bus back to town.
On 19 August, Captain Allen broke the news to Mary about the new and “unfavorable” rotation policy:
I have unfavorable news. The new rotation policy: as of 1 September, you need 36 points to be eligible. The travel of dependents to the Far East is being resumed. Would you still like to come? I have 31 points and I can’t get on the list until December. It will be the end of December or early January before I can expect to be home. I am very disappointed. But we’ll need more money because of expenses (khakis and winter clothes). I went over to Korea as a courier and I saw Major (William) Gott. I will be out in the woods for a week on an umpire detail.
During the last two weeks of August, Allen picked up in his writing to Mary. In sharp contrast to Queen, who enjoyed the umpire detail because it kept a soldier out of trouble and passed the time, Allen complained that it was the most worthless time that he had spent in the Army, that there was nothing new happening in the unit, that his morale was rock bottom, and that the peace talks were going much too…slowly.