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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
My grandfather's remarkable ear - in Korea
My grandfather's remarkable ear - in Korea
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1409 posts
Nov 14, 2012
8:18 PM
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I have spoken often about my grandfather's remarkable ear. I have heard some say I have a good ear and I think I do. That ear was from the genes of my grandfather, Herby Cecil Payne.
Imagine how I was floored today when I read a mention of it
in a book.
I now have a copy of "A Morning In June: Defending Outpost Harry, "a book by James Evans about the 1953 battle where a couple hundred Americans - and later Greeks - beat off attacks by 15,000 chinese. James Evans was my grandfather's commanding officer (Able Company, 5th Regimental Combat Team). I've read 1 1/3 chapters of this book and my grandfather, Able Company's radio operator has been SPECIFICALLY mentioned at least six times. It's "Our radio operator this" and "Our radio operator that..."
One of my favorite stories from my grandfather is in there, of the night they drove through darkness and shellfire to get to Outpost Harry. In the jeep was Evans, a driver and my grandfather.
Here's a quote from the book" While going slowly back up the road, looking for our road guide, I discussed the situation with my radio operator..."
My grandfather recalled this discussion thusly:
"He (Evans) said 'Cpl. Payne, which way should we go?' There was a hill and they (Chinese) were just shelling the hell out of it. I pointed to it and said, 'Well, sir, we sure as hell don't want to go that way!"
But that's exactly where they wound up.
My grandfather had exceptional hearing and it helped him with his musical prowess. There is an interesting excerpt from James Evan's book about the trip Evans took - with my grandfather in the jeep - the first night of the battle of Outpost Harry to reinforce it. Evans recalls my grandfather plus a driver, but my grandpa, as I remember it, said he was driving and that it was just he and Evans in the jeep. It was dark, they were driving along and suddenly they were getting shelled, they stopped the jeep and jumped in a ditch. Evans' doesn't specify who the soldier by position, I assume in the confusion, he can't remember which of the two it was - although there weren't two in that jeep, it was just my grandfather.
Regardless I know good and damn well who these remarkable ears belonged to.
"One soldier in our group had remarkably good ears. Even kneeling in the ditch, he could hear the incoming. Before I could hear anything, he would cry out "Here comes another one!" About a second later, my own ears could pick up the roar. Then, we were shaking and ducking again."
Imagine my pride.
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
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At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Nov 14, 2012 8:21 PM
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nacoran
6199 posts
Nov 14, 2012
11:36 PM
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Cool. I haven't had a chance to really look through them, but my uncle has typed in a the text from a bunch of my great grandfather's letters. What I have heard is pretty interesting stuff.
On the other side of the family my great uncle was in the Navy. We had some old empty shells lying around. We sold some at a garage sale. The guy who bought them came back later asking us if we had anything else. He'd taken them home and set them over his fireplace. He'd noticed they had the same symbol on them as his replica model of the U.S.S. Constitution! It turns out my uncle had overseen it's restoration.
Family history is a lot of fun. I really haven't known too many of my relatives. We are all spread out across the country and don't see each other very often. It's really cool you came across this.
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1410 posts
Nov 15, 2012
2:27 PM
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When I first heard of it, I thought it was, you know, a self-published thing or something, but it's actually a real book printed by the University of Alabama press. It is extremely well written and Evans spares none of the gory details, nor what was going through his mind at the time, or what he saw.
I'm not saying these things to be gory or anything, but 60 years worth of mysteries in my family are unraveling very, very quickly. It was the great family secret - what happened at Outpost Harry.
During that battle, the Chinese fired more shells at that place than the Germans did during the entire battle of the Bulge - and the position was only 100 yards wide. Imagine how churned up that was. (if you are squeamish, read no further) Evans talks about how when they first got there, there was a river of water flowing down the trench off the hill. He couldn't remember it raining, then he realized, that it was a river of blood. He says when the men got up there, almost all of them vomited. There had been so much artillery on that little place, the ground was covered with tiny chunks of flesh and they'd stick all over your clothes.
My grandpa never gave those details. The worst I remember him saying was that when you're fighting hand to hand, your best friend is a (miltary folding) shovel, swung like an ax. "You can about take a head clean off with a shovel," he said.
After all these years of gleaming bits of info here and there, I now see what he was doing all through that battle - and others as well. this is very exciting for me.
http://www.amazon.com/Morning-June-Defending-Outpost-Harry/dp/0817316698
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Nov 15, 2012 2:28 PM
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1411 posts
Nov 15, 2012
8:36 PM
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Still reading the book. My grandpa (the unnamed company radio operator) keeps popping up in the book, so I know where he is as the battle unfolds and that's incredible. On the battle so far, they've been fighting since since 9:30 p.m. All of this is taking place in 100 yards of a trench loop on a hilltop. It's now 2 a.m., grandpa has been in and around the command post so far. Chinese have so far been in the trench three times and the Americans have called artillery fire in on themselves twice. Chinese in the trench, they're fighting them and grandpa is relaying requests to the rear to please fire artillery on us. Situation is very desperate.
Will read more tomorrow.
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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Steamrollin Stan
615 posts
Nov 16, 2012
1:34 AM
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Gee, this is an interesting blog, my grandaddy killed 45 men in WW1, (he was the cook.)
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1412 posts
Nov 16, 2012
7:00 PM
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Still reading. I lost track of how many times the Americans called artillery fire in on themselves. At daybreak, the Chinese break off the last attack. The Americans think they're going to be immediately overrun, because there is nobody left to fight the next attack, but apparently the CHinese didn't know there wasn't anybody left, because thank God, that attack never came, or I literally wouldn't be here. Of the 190 Americans on the hill that night, there were 185 casualties. Of the 15,000 Chinese who attacked, there were 1,500 casualties.
I learned a very interesting fact. My grandfather, Cpl. Payne and Evans were the last of the defenders to walk off that hill when they were relieved the next morning. Knowing my late grandfather, that is very fitting.
Here is how Evans describes the scene:
"I saluted the captain, gathered up my carbine and helmet and looked around to see if there was anything I wanted to take with me, but there was nothing I wanted to take except my radio operator (grandpa) and myself... I was extremely tired, but myt exahustion didn't prevent me from leaving the command post, finding my way to the top of the trench. For the last time, my radio operator and I went slipping and sliding over the human body parts, stepping into or around the pools of blood, smelling the stench of burned flesh from red-hot artillery shrapnel and seeing bodies already swelling. Once we made our way to the ammo bunker at the top of the communication trench and started down the hill, we began moving faster and faster. Finally, we broke into a full run and got off that hill as fast as we could. I don't even remember my knee hurting as we ran off the "Home of Death."
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2012 7:03 PM
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Sarge
271 posts
Nov 17, 2012
8:45 PM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uasYyUwtOY Here's a trailer to a documentary film about Outpost Harry
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Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
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