The Korean War Soldier I Still Salute Every Morning

I got married in December 1950 and was drafted into the U.S. Army in February 1951. I had never heard of Korea. I did three months of basic training and was shipped over to Korea to join the 2nd Infantry Division. I was 20 years old.

My unit was started out at a place called the Punch Bowl [the Haean Basin in the Gangwon province of what was then North Korea], and that’s where I met J.C. He was from West Virginia, and he had lied about his age and joined the Army at 16. When I met him in 1951, he was 18. He was kind of short, with curly hair—a good-looking kid.

We shared a foxhole, and the temperature sometimes reached 25 degrees below zero. We couldn’t make any fires because that would give away our position. When you live in a foxhole, you get pretty close to the people around you. J.C. was tough as nails and afraid of nothing. We fought together in the Battle of Bloody Ridge, and from there, we moved to Heartbreak Ridge. In that battle, North Korea had the advantage. They were occupying the ridge, and we were trying to take it. At one point, a North Korean tank came around a corner and fired three rounds. These shots wiped out my squad, and I was the only survivor. J.C. got shrapnel in his face, and he died right there. I took shrapnel in my stomach and my foot, and I was sent to Japan to a hospital for a month. Then I was sent back to continue fighting.

UN Troops Secure" Bloody Ridge"

Bettmann/Getty Images

I got home in June of 1952. I felt it was my duty to call J.C.’s mother because I was the last one to see him alive. That was tougher than fighting in the war. J.C.’s mother had me crying on the phone. She said, “He was my only son. He was only 16 when he left. I begged him not to go!” I can still hear her voice, all these years later. That’s why I salute J.C.’s picture, which is on the wall of my office, every morning.

Corporal George Sousa, 95, served in the Korean War from April 1951 to March 1952. After his service, he spent his career as a tuna fisherman based in San Diego and became a captain on large tuna vessels. He recalled his foxhole buddy Private J.C. Coffey in this story.