Clarke County Veterans by Fern Underwood

MAX L. McCLEARY

I was inducted into the US Army, January 8, 1957, at Des Moines, Iowa. We were bussed from Des Moines to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for eight weeks of Basic Training, While I was there, I met Fred McCarley from Alabama, who became a life-long friend. Fred and I were in the same outfits for the duration of my Army career, and we've been in contact for most of the past 50+ years.

After Basic, I had a ten day leave in March of 1957. Between Basic Training and my next assignment, on the 21st of March, Tina and I were married in the Church of Christ at Murray, Iowa. At the end of my leave, Tina and I split our resources, $5.00 each. I boarded the Nebraska Zephyr in Creston and headed for he East coast.

My next assignment was the Signal School at Ft, Monmouth, New Jersey. The school was to be 20 weeks long, subject Field Radio Repair. Fred also showed up there taking the same course. We went to class five days a week. If our graded weren't kept up, there was also night school, with which I became familiar at least once. Weekends were reserved for Guard Duty and KP (Kitchen Police), but mostly we had the weekends off.

Ft. Monmouth was a small modern Post located in the resort area of New Jersey. The ocean and boardwalk were only minutes away and since I was there April through August, it was ideal. New York City was about fifty miles up the coast. Larry Selsor from Murray, husband of Carol Fleming Selsor, was also there going to a different school.

After completing school the Orders came down that Fred and I would be going to Korea. A few days later, Fred and I, (just the two of us) were taken to the train station in Newark, New Jersey for a trip across country to Oakland, California. I believe the trip took four days. In Chicago we changed to the California Zephyr. It was a "first class" train, the observation cars were nice with all the scenery out West. We just flew through Osceola and Murray about 9:30pm,

After a few days processing in Oakland, we were put on an Air Force plane for Hawaii. It took about ten hours for the plane to churn its way there. In Hawaii, Fred and I were switched to a MATS Super Constellation for the trip on to Japan, with a refueling stop on Wake Island.

After more processing in Japan, we were off to the VHF Radio Relay Section, #304th Signal Battalion, Seoul, Korea, At the time, VHF Radio was line of sight and carried about forty-five miles. The equipment was on a truck with me and a crew of four. Our job was to setup a Relay Station between terminals to boost the radio signal and send it on, Each radio could carry twenty-four telephone channels.

Later in the "tour." my crew and I were permanently attached to th 8th Army Long Lines on a mountain top called Beason Relay with ten other people. It was a permanent location that handled communications all over Korea. It was a very good duty compared to some other places.

Many mornings the cloud base would be below us and the air was real fresh. Once a week, the truck went down the mountain into Seoul for supplies and five movies.

Hallowe'en night, 1958, Fred and I were loaded onto the troop ship, USS General Mitchell, with a few thousand others, for our trip back to the United States. Fourteen days later, we arrived in Seattle, Washington. Fred and I went different ways. He had one more year to serve. I was done. I was separated from the Army at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri the last of November, 1958.