Regimental Service Companies

Mark Felton did a video on my father's type of unit.

My father’s grave has a Korean War star, but he served in the occupation of Germany from 1948 to 1950. These things are based on what was happening during one’s service, not specific personal involvement. He wanted to reup but they told him he’d be sent to Korea, so he just came home.

He always described his duties as “a quartermaster”, but in watching this video I hear his words - he was in an ammunition section for an infantry regiment first, then later they felt it was best to put him somewhere with less access to explosives, so he was moved to “ration breakdown”. He spent two of his 104 weeks of service cutting grass with a bayonet, right after the incident that prompted his reassignment.

The thing he remembered most vividly was disposing of unused ammunition after exercises. Bulldozer dug pits, they’d pile every case that had been opened but not fully used, pour gasoline on it, and set it alight. German women and children would move in while things were still exploding to collect the hot brass, and sometimes they’d be injured. This was their only source of income in those years.

Now that I am much closer to the end of my life than the beginning, I wish I’d spent more time talking to my uncles about their experiences in WWII and Korea. They were just ordinary guys … who sometimes survived extraordinary events.