Rifleman Hurt Twice in 7 Months
August 31, 2016 at 9:21 p.m.
By David [email protected]
For his courage, Schilling, now 85, was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with Valor.
Korean War veterans like Schilling will be honored at 6:30 p.m. Friday during First Friday in downtown Warsaw. The ceremony will take place at the war memorial on the southwest corner of the county courthouse lawn.
Originally from North Manchester, Schilling was drafted in October of 1951. He received his basic training at Indian Town Gap, Pa.
“I waited until I was drafted. I wanted to get in airborne, but they had a lottery on airborne. Too many of them wanted to get into airborne because it kept them in the States another eight weeks. I had the wrong numbers , I guess, or something,” he said at his Claypool home Tuesday morning.
He finished his 16 weeks of basic training on Feb. 28, 1952. His troop took the train to Seattle, Wash., and then they had a 15-day boat ride to Yokohama, Japan. Schilling said they were in Japan for about two weeks before landing in Korea about the first week of May 1952.
“The company I was with was on the front lines at that time, and I got into combat almost immediately,” he recalled.
On June 15 or 16, 1952, Schilling was wounded by shrapnel on Eerie Outpost 191, earning him his first Purple Heart. “It was out in no man’s land,” he said. He sustained shrapnel to his face and legs.
He said he also got the Bronze Star with Valor after his first injury. “Our company about got wiped out that night on the 16th of June. When I went back over there, we had a lot of new replacements,” he said.
Schilling was taken to a Japanese hospital for about a month, returning to Korea by sometime in August.
He earned his second Purple Heart while on patrol.
“We were on patrol and got ambushed. That was over on Heartbreak Ridge,” he said.
Schilling took a slug to the arm, hand and chest. His injuries were worse than the first time he was injured, he was taken back to Japan and then to the States.
“I spent the next 11 months of my life in Percy Jones Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan,” he said.
The Korean War is often called the forgotten war, but not for men like Schilling.
“You never forget it. The mountains weren’t all that big, tall, but they were so darn steep, you couldn’t hardly climb. They were hard to climb. And if you had casualties on top of one of them, it took about four men and two boys to carry a stretcher down with somebody on it. You could hardly carry them down. But that’s mainly what it was – mountains and rice paddies,” he said.
Every place that Schilling and his company served while in Korea at that time is now North Korea today. “We were above the 38th Parallel,” he said.
According to www.britannica.com, “38th parallel is the popular name given to latitude 38° N that in East Asia roughly demarcates North Korea and South Korea. The line was chosen by U.S. military planners at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 near the end of World War II as an army boundary, north of which the U.S.S.R. was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea and south of which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender. The line was intended as a temporary division of the country, but the onset of the Cold War led to the establishment of a separate U.S.-oriented regime in South Korea under Syngman Rhee and a communist regime in North Korea under Kim Il-sung.”
Schilling was discharged from the Army as a corporal Oct. 29, 1953.
After the war, he farmed for about 23 years and ended up being a livestock equipment salesman. He was married in 1955, and has lived in Claypool since 1959. He and his wife are the parents of three children.
A year ago, he took an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to see the Korean War memorial.
“It’s a nice memorial,”? he stated.
For his courage, Schilling, now 85, was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with Valor.
Korean War veterans like Schilling will be honored at 6:30 p.m. Friday during First Friday in downtown Warsaw. The ceremony will take place at the war memorial on the southwest corner of the county courthouse lawn.
Originally from North Manchester, Schilling was drafted in October of 1951. He received his basic training at Indian Town Gap, Pa.
“I waited until I was drafted. I wanted to get in airborne, but they had a lottery on airborne. Too many of them wanted to get into airborne because it kept them in the States another eight weeks. I had the wrong numbers , I guess, or something,” he said at his Claypool home Tuesday morning.
He finished his 16 weeks of basic training on Feb. 28, 1952. His troop took the train to Seattle, Wash., and then they had a 15-day boat ride to Yokohama, Japan. Schilling said they were in Japan for about two weeks before landing in Korea about the first week of May 1952.
“The company I was with was on the front lines at that time, and I got into combat almost immediately,” he recalled.
On June 15 or 16, 1952, Schilling was wounded by shrapnel on Eerie Outpost 191, earning him his first Purple Heart. “It was out in no man’s land,” he said. He sustained shrapnel to his face and legs.
He said he also got the Bronze Star with Valor after his first injury. “Our company about got wiped out that night on the 16th of June. When I went back over there, we had a lot of new replacements,” he said.
Schilling was taken to a Japanese hospital for about a month, returning to Korea by sometime in August.
He earned his second Purple Heart while on patrol.
“We were on patrol and got ambushed. That was over on Heartbreak Ridge,” he said.
Schilling took a slug to the arm, hand and chest. His injuries were worse than the first time he was injured, he was taken back to Japan and then to the States.
“I spent the next 11 months of my life in Percy Jones Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan,” he said.
The Korean War is often called the forgotten war, but not for men like Schilling.
“You never forget it. The mountains weren’t all that big, tall, but they were so darn steep, you couldn’t hardly climb. They were hard to climb. And if you had casualties on top of one of them, it took about four men and two boys to carry a stretcher down with somebody on it. You could hardly carry them down. But that’s mainly what it was – mountains and rice paddies,” he said.
Every place that Schilling and his company served while in Korea at that time is now North Korea today. “We were above the 38th Parallel,” he said.
According to www.britannica.com, “38th parallel is the popular name given to latitude 38° N that in East Asia roughly demarcates North Korea and South Korea. The line was chosen by U.S. military planners at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 near the end of World War II as an army boundary, north of which the U.S.S.R. was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea and south of which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender. The line was intended as a temporary division of the country, but the onset of the Cold War led to the establishment of a separate U.S.-oriented regime in South Korea under Syngman Rhee and a communist regime in North Korea under Kim Il-sung.”
Schilling was discharged from the Army as a corporal Oct. 29, 1953.
After the war, he farmed for about 23 years and ended up being a livestock equipment salesman. He was married in 1955, and has lived in Claypool since 1959. He and his wife are the parents of three children.
A year ago, he took an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to see the Korean War memorial.
“It’s a nice memorial,”? he stated.
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