The Forgotten War – a Barton Veteran Remembers the Korean War

By Scott Wheeler

When Adelord “Ad” Taylor of Barton was growing up during World War II it never crossed his mind that some day he’d find himself on a battlefield, but that’s what happened when North Korean troops launched an invasion on South Korea on June 25, 1950.

“It was just something we had to do,” Taylor said humbly about his tour of duty. “I think the Army was a good experience. Of course being in combat isn’t any fun.” The Barton man served with the Army’s First Cavalry Division in the Eighth Engineer Battalion as a combat engineer from 1948 to May 1952. The war raged on from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953.

Soldiers know that war is hell. Adelord “Ad” Taylor of Barton is no exception. His life was transformed by the horrors he saw in the Korean War more than 50 years ago. He served as a corporal with the Army’s First Cavalry Division in the Eighth Engineer battalion as a combat engineer.

The Korean War has all but been forgotten in America’s classrooms. Most Americans are at least vaguely knowledgeable about the Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but many people know little if anything about the three-year war in Korea that claimed at least 23,300 American lives. These numbers are in addition to other United Nations (UN) forces and enemy troops, including Korean and Chinese soldiers, as well as civilians, that were killed during the war. The total figure of war dead could top two million people.

Although the Korean War has been over for more than 50 years, the memories of the war are still fresh in the mind of Adelord Taylor.

The United States became involved in the war shortly after Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. North Korean forces, and later Chinese forces, swept across the thirty-eighth parallel that served as the border between the two countries, and began their march of death and destruction southward. President Harry S. Truman sent U.S. forces to South Korea’s aid. Other countries that also belonged to the UN also sent troops. Slowly the Communist forces were pushed back across the parallel. Since America never declared war on North Korea, technically the “war” wasn’t a war at all, but a police action to rid South Korea of an unwelcome intruder.

Three years following the North Korean invasion of the south, with both countries soaked in blood, the armistice was signed, ending the war. Following the signing, everything went back to about the same way it was before the war. The two Koreas were once again separated by the thirty-eighth parallel, each essentially agreeing not to intrude on one another’s country. Fifty years later, South Korea, with a continued American presence, has flourished, while North Korea, still under the control of a communist government, is in economic ruin. The relationship between the two Koreas today can best be described as extremely tense, with travel between the two countries severely restricted.

“We were one of the first divisions in,” Taylor said. The Twenty-fourth Division had already landed, and with the help of South Korean forces, was attempting to push North Korean forces northward.

“They had been terribly shot up, so they pulled back through our lines,” Taylor said. The fighting was so bad for the Twenty-fourth that the enemy forces were even shooting at Red Cross ambulances—something that is not typically done, even in war.

It wasn’t patriotism that brought Taylor to the shores of a foreign country, he said, it was the need for a job. After graduating from Barton Academy he went to Missouri with his brother to work at a temporary job. After that job was completed Taylor found himself, at 18 years old, with no good job prospects. He decided to join the Army.

Ad Taylor left the military in 1952 and married his wife, Lois the same year. He went on to retire from the U.S. Postal Service. In his retirement he helps out area towns using a skill he learned during his war years, grading roads.

Nobody knew the U.S. was on the verge of another war, Taylor said. He noted that World War II had only ended a few years before, in 1945. When North Korea invaded its neighbor to the south, Taylor was stationed at Fort McNair near Tokyo, Japan, as part of an occupation force that had been in that country since its surrender at the close of World War II. Taylor’s life, and the lives of the other veterans in his division, changed rapidly when North Korea invaded South Korea. On July 13, 1950, Taylor’s division shipped out of Japan aboard a Japanese operated landing craft. The journey took the men five days during which they waterproofed their equipment for the beach landing in Pohang Dong, located on the southernmost section of Korea.

Fortunately the troops weren’t greeted with a hail of gunfire, Taylor said. That was to come later as they pushed inland. Their first job was to hold the Taegu Perimeter and not let it fall into the hands of the communist north. “We were trying to hold it and not get pushed back into the sea.”

Taylor and the other men of his division then advanced up the west side of the country and worked their way inland to Seoul, South Korea, the capital. They were occasionally repelled by the North Korean forces. The division never retreated, Taylor said proudly. Instead, he said, the division did what he called “strategic withdrawals.” After withdrawing, the troops studied the situation then forged ahead and battled enemy troops along the way. His division eventually reached Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. They were the first American troops to reach that city, he said. The city fell on October 19, 1950. Meanwhile, the Marines, under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, landed on the beaches near the North Korean city of Inchon on September 15, 1950.They successfully cut the North Korean supply line south that was being used to feed and arm North Korean troops who were fighting South Korean and U.S. troops in South Korea. By October 1 of the same year, the North Koreans had been repulsed from South Korea.

Taylor said that dodging bullets was bad enough, but to complicate matters, it was difficult for U.S. troops to identify the enemy from the people they could trust. It was impossible to tell the difference between North and South Koreans. Taylor and the other troops eventually developed a deep distrust for anybody other than U.S. soldiers.

Some of the U.S. soldiers battling in Korea were battle-hardened World War II veterans. Some had battled the German forces in Europe while others had fought Japanese troops in the tropical jungles of the Pacific. These veterans had seen more than their share of blood and death. However, many of the first troops, and troops rotated into Korea, were “green,” having never seen battle, some right off the farm or the city street. Few of these young servicemen had any idea what they were getting themselves into; life for them would never be the same.

Taylor said when he and the other American soldiers were dispatched to Korea they were told that their stay would be brief. “When we went over we were told we’d be back in Japan by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving came, and they said we’d be back by Christmas.” Military strategists predicted American forces would quickly rout the North Koreans and send them scurrying back across the border.

“I guess they were a little overconfident,” Taylor said. The North Koreans didn’t run; they fought defiantly. The North Koreans were also supported by their neighbors to the north—China and its endless supply of soldiers. By the time Taylor rotated out of Korea, 11 months had passed, and the fighting was far from over. Some military historians suggest that the overconfidence was the result of America’s victories in World War II against the Germans and Japanese. It has also been suggested that the American military had grown complacent, not fearing that they could be outdone by any aggressor.

During the warm months, his main job was to run a grader to build roads and airstrips. During the bitter cold of winter it was too cold to grade so he strung barbed wire to slow sneak attacks by enemy soldiers. He also searched for land mines planted by the enemy.

Being a grader operator sounds like a fairly safe job, which it was most of the time, Taylor said. But when you’re in a war zone you’re never out of danger, even when you’re piloting a grader. He told about the time that one of his fellow grader operators drove onto a mine. The mine detonated and sent shrapnel into the operator’s brain. The operator later died.

Korea was far different than Vermont in many ways, Taylor said. Yet, the weather was quite similar to that of Orleans County. Temperatures during the summer months were mild, much like Vermont’s summers. Winter was notoriously cold: “It was bitter cold.”

To make matters worse, the U.S. government wasn’t providing the troops with enough warm clothing and boots, he recalled. Some of the boots the troops did receive had been in storage so long they had dry rot and cracked, letting in the cold and moisture the first time they were worn.

At least part of the problem was that it appeared that people commanding the U.S. forces really thought the American troops would quickly go into Korea, push back the North Koreans forces, and then go home, Taylor said. When that didn’t happen, the American government wasn’t prepared to send their forces the clothing needed to survive a bitterly cold Korean winter.

Staying warm during those months wasn’t an easy job, Taylor said. One thing American troops did to stay warm was to make bonfires using rice straw. They’d then gather around the inferno.

After leaving the military in May 1952, Taylor didn’t waste much time getting married. He and Lois were married in October of that year, a union that continues to this day. The couple had two sons and two daughters.

For 14 years he worked for the state highway department before becoming a mailman for the U.S. Postal Service, a position he retired from after 25 years. Now, in his retirement, he helps various towns’ road crews with grading roads—a task he learned thanks to the Korean War.

Looking back over the decades, Taylor said he still doesn’t know what to make of the war. “I don’t know whether it was really worth it,” he said. But he is still proud of serving his country when his country called 50 years ago.

Taylor said he hopes to attend the event in Derby on May 26.