Hitchins, Bernard - U.S. Air Force

After graduating from New Albin High School, Bernard Hitchins joined the United States Air Force on January 4, 1951. Upon completion of Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, he sailed on the USS Patrick from San Francisco, California, to Tokyo, Japan. Bernard served as a cook during his tour of duty. On January 5, 1955, after four years of service, he was honorably discharged as an airman, first class. Bernard's wife Jean (Neitling), a Eugene, Oregon native, passed away in May of this year (2001). Bernard lives in Carmichael, California.

~Allamakee Journal, 2001; contributed by Errin Wilker for Allamakee co. IAGenWeb

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Hitchins, Donald J. 'Don' - U.S. Army

Donald J. Hitchins was born in New Albin, Iowa, on January 15, 1935. After graduation from New Albin High School in May of 1953, he worked with bis parents on the family farm on Iowa River Drive southwest of New Albin. In January of 1955 he entered the United States Army with five other Allamakee County men. After Basic Training at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was assigned to the 86th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Infantry Division. In July of 1955, the entire division sailed from New York to Germany on the USS General George M. Randall. Upon arrival in Germany, Donald's regiment was stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany, replacing units of the 1st Infantry Division. Donald was a construction equipment operator, but for most of his tour of duty in Germany he served as a jeep driver for a lieutenant.

In December 1956 Donald returned to the United States and was honorably discharged from active duty as a private, first class at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was discharged from the Army Reserve on December 31, 1962.

Don and his wife Dorothy (Moody), a native of Harpers Ferry, Iowa, were married on June 18, 1955. They have seven children, Kathy, Jim, Linda, Joyce, Joanne, Kevin and Jody, and thirteen grandchildren. Don and Dorothy, and their son Jim continue to operate the family farm. Donald's two brothers, Bernard and Thomas, are also military veterans.

~Allamakee Journal, 2001; contributed by Errin Wilker for Allamakee co. IAGenWeb

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Hitchins, Thomas - U.S. Army

Thomas Hitchins joined the United States Army in April of 1954. After Basic Training at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, he completed medical training for the Quartermaster Corps at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Tom was then assigned to Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, California, where he worked in the medical supply unit of the hospital. In April of 1956, he was honorably discharged from the Army as a private, first class. Now retired, he lives in San Jose, California.

~Allamakee Journal, 2001; contributed by Errin Wilker for Allamakee co. IAGenWeb

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Ryan, John Emmet, U.S. Army

John E. Ryan grew up on the family farm near New Albin in northern Allamakee County. He graduated from St. Patrick High School in Waukon. October 13, 1948 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After Basic Training he was transferred to Transportation School in Fort Eustis, VA. Trained as an automotive mechanic, he was subsequently assigned to an engineering unit in Alaska, where he served until he was separated from active duty January 10, 1950.

September 17, 1950, less than three months after North Korea invaded South Korea, John again found himself on active duty. He was recalled in response to that conflict, and within sixty days he would find himself, as an infantryman, on the perimeter of one of the famous battles of that war, the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

Upon activation, John was assigned to Company F of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment. After training in Fort Devens, MA, the Regiment moved to Japan, where the soldiers underwent a couple more weeks of training. November 17, 1950, the Regiment landed at Wonson, North Korea to join up with other units of the 3rd Infantry Division.

November 25, the communist Chinese entered the war in Korea. Thousands of Chinese soldiers poured across the border into North Korea, and quickly surrounded the United Nations Forces at the Chosin Reservoir. The 1st Marine Division was a specific target of the Chinese leadership, and their objective was to totally destroy that very effective fighting force. Badly outnumbered, the Marines began to fight their way out of the trap, and the 7th Infantry Regiment fought to maintain its escape route to the sea.

Having moved in land from Wonson, John's Company F and Company G of the second Battalion of the regiment found themselves at Huksu-ri on the second of December. "We were sitting ducks," John said. "We were all spread out across the area and my company was right out in the open on asmall mountain. We knew they were coming. We saw them coming. Their numbers were overwhelming compared to ours. They were attacking most of the night, and in the morning they came in force. We were overrun."

This was the first serious combat action the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment experienced in the Korean War. They were in very mountainous terrain, with temperatures around 35 degrees below zero. Most of G Company was lost, as were most of the troops from F Company. Most of those who survived suffered from frostbite. John was wounded in the battle of Huksu-ri, and was later awarded the Order of the Purple Heart.

"They rounded up those of us who were still alive," John said. The North Koreans were infamous for their brutal treatment of prisoners, and conducted frequent, large-scale executions of those they had captured. John's captors were primarily Chinese. "They wore distinctive uniforms, with their wool hats with the red star on the front. We spent that first night in a field, and in the morning we started walking north. There were only about fifteen or twenty of us. On the way north we slept outin the open. (Korean winters are brutal, with temperatures often dipping to over forty degrees below zero). It seemed like we walked to the north for several weeks, until we came to the first POW camp by a large river.We were told that right across the river was China. We were the first ones to show up there, although there may have been other camps in the area that we didn't know about. We got no medical treatment on the way north. We were concerned about getting diarrhea, and most of us did. The food and living conditions made it common. Some of us got over it, but it was deadly for those who didn't. (Dysentery, untreated by their captors, took the lives of hundreds of American POWs in Chinese and North Korean prison camps during the Korean War.)

"When we got to the first camp we slept out in the open. We later got into buildings. My building had no heat, but some of them did. We sharedblankets. They gave us one blanket for two people. A few years ago I found a guy in Minnesota that I had shared a blanket with one winter.

"After the first winter, we were moved around to other buildings and camps. It got pretty crowded at times and it felt like you were sleeping on top of each other. You had to find ways to occupy yourself. We got a hold of a violin and swapped it back and forth every week between two groups. My group had a guy from western Iowa called Slim who was really good with the violin. He had played the violin and sang on the radio before he went to Korea. We could go for walks. Most of the camps had no fences. Some tried to escape, but there was no place to go. They always got recaptured. We could write letters, and some of them made it home.

"We generally got two meals a day, sometimes one, but never three. The staple meals were rice and fish head soup. Once in a while we got some kind of barley bread. It wasn't cooked or anything, I don't think, and it got pretty old too. Sometimes we got a 'special' meal. I don't know what it was, but it was better than what we normally got.

"Things got a little better when they started the peace talks. I was in the same place the last six or eight months. When it came time for our release, we went most of the way south by truck. We took a train for parts of the trip. That was a little scary at times. All the railroad bridges had been bombed out and they replaced them with wooden bridges that were a little shaky."

August 25, 1953, after nearly thirty three months as a Prisoner of War, John crossed the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) into South Korea and was once again a free man.

"We went through some processing after we got to South Korea," hecontinued. "Then we sailed back to the States on a ship that had been ahospital during WWII. In San Francisco we had physicals. I had diarrhea for a while, and my eyes were bad due to malnutrition, but they eventually got better."

John was discharged as a Corporal November 26, 1953. He farmed with his father for a few years after he returned from Korea. In 1961, he went to work as a lock and dam operator in Guttenberg and retired after 25 yearsthere. John and his wife Carol (Meyer), a native of Melrose, WI, met at the Avalon Ballroom in LaCrosse, WI. They were married July 3, 1956, and had their wedding Dance at the Avalon. Last year they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The Ryans have eight children, eight grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren, with one on the way Carol said.

~published 2007; contributed by Dan Zoll, Nov. 2022 for Allamakee co. IAGenWeb

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Wuennecke, Edgar - U.S. Army

Edgar Wuennecke was born in New Albin, Iowa, on the 14th of October 1928. He grew up and worked on the farm of his parents, John and Ella Wuennecke. The farm was located 1 mile east of the Wheatland Church. Edgar and his brother, Armin, now of Waukon, both went to the Wheatland school. Edgar continued to work on his parents and neighbor's farms until he was drafted into the Army on June 1, 1953. On that day, eight Allamakee County residents left Waukon for Camp Crowder, Missouri, where they were officially inducted into the Army. On June 10, the inductees were conveyed to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri, for six weeks of basic training, and six weeks of engineer training.

On October 26, 1953, Edgar and the others were flown to Stoneman, California, where they prepared to embark for overseas duty. A large contingent of Army personnel loaded onto the transport ship, USNS General John Pope. The ride over was uneventful except for the death of an Iowa soldier who died of spinal meningitis. Edgar noted that this event caused a great deal of consternation to all concerned because this disease can be highly contagious, and in those times was often fatal. In a ship packed with soldiers and crew confined in relatively small compartments, Edgar and the others felt that the potential for disaster was clearly present. Fortunately, no other cases were reported.

The troop ship landed in Sasebo, Japan. From Sasebo, the engineers were taken to the Japanese island of Ita Jima for six more weeks of engineer training. Edgar said he really enjoyed his stay there because the barracks and eating facilities were first rate. They used the same facilities the Japanese military had used before and during WWII.

On February 9, 1954, his engineer class was ordered to Inchon, Korea, and assigned to the 1343rd Engineer Battalion. A short time later he was transferred to the 633rd Light Equipment Engineer Company where he was a quarry man for his entire Korean tour.

When asked what he remembers most about Korea in that post-war time frame, Edgar say, "It reeked. The small towns had no sanitary facilities, so human waste and garbage ran down open gutters in the streets. Human waste was also used on crops for fertilizer." He said he never did see Seoul or any other larger towns, just the small towns and countryside near the quarry site.

Edgar spent his entire Korean tour living in tents. He said there were about eight men to a tent, and they were very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

Of his work on the crushers, Edgar said it wasn't such a bad job because they had a lot of help from the Koreans. "One of the Koreans could speak passable English," he said, "so he was made the boss and he told the other workers what to do."

Edgar feels good about his service in Korea. "Although some GI's showed a bad side to Koreans, most treated them well and tried to help them. They hired young boys to keep the tent areas clean and to shine their boots. "Our purpose for being there was to repair roads damaged during the war," Edgar said, "and the rock we crushed contributed greatly toward to mission. Our engineer company also built an elementary school next to our camp. Built of stone and mortar, it was called 'The Friendship School.' On special days such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, our company would put on a big feed for the local children."

Although the war in Korea had recently ended, things were not yet back to normal. Edgar remembers the nighttime trips to the quarry site alone in the back of a 2-1/2 ton cargo truck which was driving in blackout conditions. Other uncomfortable time were when he was assigned to stand guard duty on the gravel crushers alone at night. "This was not long after the last cease fire," he said, "and you couldn't tell a South Korean from a North Korean by looking or talking to them."

In March of 1955, Edgar returned to Inchon, where he boarded the troopship USNS Marine Phoenix for the trip home. On the return trip the seas were rough and many were seasick. He said the chaplain had a very difficult time serving communion on Good Friday.

The troopship landed in Seattle, Washington. From there Edgar went to Fort Carson, Colorado, where he received his discharge with the rank of sergeant on April 20, 1955. Edgar spent 1 year, 5 months and 14 days at sea or overseas. Over a yer of that time was spent in Korea. For his service, Edgar was awarded the National Defense Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.

Edgar returned to Allamakee County where he married Shirley Meyer. They purchased the City Meat Market in New Albin in February of 1958, and have worked there ever since. They have two children, a daughter Angela Strong, and a son, Alan, both of whom reside in New Albin.

~Allamakee Journal, 2001; contributed by Errin Wilker for Allamakee co. IAGenWeb

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