Service in Korea and Vietnam

Harvey Soules, better known as “Vern,” is the man with the guitar shop on Main St. in Prairie Home. He entertains with music as well as stories about both of his tours of duty in the Army branch of the armed services.

Though Vern does not give a time line of his tour, he randomly tells of his accounts in no particular order whether they occurred in Korea, Vietnam, Japan or Germany. He was shot in both legs, once in Korea and once in Vietnam; but its unclear which leg got shot in which location. He was also bayonetted in the stomach in Vietnam and hit in the arm with shrapnel, none of which did he receive a purple heart for.

Vern traveled to Korea aboard the USS Buckner in 1952, a trip which was mostly uneventful. On his trip over to Vietnam, again aboard the USS Buckner in 1965, the ship was so crowed that his unit quartered in the brig, located in the bowels of the ship. As a result, he and the others in his unit were eyed with suspicion and felt isolated from the rest of those on board. He was just 18 years old and said he was scared to death when he went to korea and spent his first night feeding ammo to a 50 caliber weapon run by his buddy in the unit.

As a motor sergeant, he remembers that he  went back to camp to pickup personnel to carry back to the line. On the way back, “it was dark as pitch and we stopped at a big rock and the fire from camp could be seen just beyond it.” So Vern got out of the truck and went to check it out and realized that it was not an American camp. He scrambled back to the truck telling the others, “we gotta get outta here.” That was when he realized they were lost and somewhere behind enemy lines. In trying to get back to their side they were apprehended by american troops. Their captors didn’t know whether to believe them or not so they kept them on their knees with their hands wired behind their backs until their lieutenant got there to identify them. For this, Vern said he received two silver and one bronze star for getting lost.

Vern doesn’t like to talk about some things but said the bayonetted incident happened when his unit was in a trench and they were over run. As a “kong” came over the bank and fell in, landing on another bayonette as his stuck Vern in the stomach. He said the worst part of the war was the children. That part he doesn’t want to talk about.

Once during the Korea tour, he recalls a captain who came and got him and others from his unit. He wasn’t suppose to but still for what ever reason – maybe to fill the captains company – the men were unofficially reassigned. Now, Vern said he always followed orders from who ever had the highest rank and the captain definitely had rank over a lieutinent. But when Vern’s Lt. Boar, who he remembers not so fondly, came to get him and the others back, the captain wouldn’t let them go and Lt. Boar pulled out his 45 cal. service pistol, pointed it in the captains face and told his men to “load up.” Now Vern follows orders of who ever has the biggest gun.

While there he was sent to Japan for a two week rest and recuperation, or R&R. The arrangements to be sent to a hotel there went awry and they were sent to another hotel by the manager that was in a restricted zone, a place where the soldiers were not suppose to be. Vern said things got out of hand and they chased each other around the top floor of the hotel with samurai swords and reduced most of the walls to rubble as they were made of some kind of rice paper. The manager never turned them in because he didn’t want the Army to know he’d sent them into the restricted zone.

Vern came back from Korea and was discharged in 1955 as a Second Lt. and met his wife, Wilda, and was married. For financial reasons he re-enlisted in the army in 1957 but had waited too long and had to go back in as a private. After re-enlisting, he went to Fort Campbell, Ky. for a couple of months before going on to Vietnam.   

He also remembers going to the theater in Japan and watching a John Wayne movie that was spoken in Japanese. He said there were vending machines, but instead of candy bars they had raw fish. Vern said he won a raffle for another two week R&R, right after getting back from the Japan trip and sold it because he didn’t think he could stand another two weeks of what he’d just done.

To contact Karla Terry, email karla@boonvilledailynews.com