Susan E. Greisen

This U.S. Memorial Day Holiday (a day we honor and remember all of our veterans), I want to include a story written in 2008 about my former husband’s 86-year-old uncle Truman.

Truman enjoyed reminiscing about the past. When he spoke of being in the war, I assumed he was speaking of World War II. (Truman was not far in age from my deceased father who had been a veteran of that war.) But as he elaborated about his story of training in Korea I began to listen with more discriminating ears.

“Why were you in Korea?” I naïvely asked.

Truman’s Story: He had been drafted to serve in the Korean War in 1950. My knowledge of that war was that my younger 19-year-old brother had served there to defend the DMZ in 1979. Truman did not seem surprised at my ignorance. He said, “It is often called the Forgotten War where 5,800 American soldiers lost their lives”.

Fortunately for Truman, he did not fight long on the frontlines as he was moved to the Intelligence Services. He described how they picked qualified candidates back then. Truman being a bright, untainted, inexperienced country farm boy was the military’s best chance of finding someone with a clean slate.

Others in regular combat were ill-prepared for what they had to encounter. One of his buddies from his hometown of Martin, Kentucky, John Wess Baldridge was one 19-year-old old, who by all rights, should not have lived. Truman expressed hope that he was still alive now being about age 83 with a 500% disability. 

With wide-eyed ignorance, I queried, “How does one get a 500% disability?”

Truman’s voice trembled, “100% for disability of the body and 100% for each limb lost. You see, John was a 4-limb amputee from frostbite.”

With his speech sometimes slurred and difficult to understand I listened with astute ears as he told me the rest of the story. “I had not seen John since the war, 65 years ago, but he visited my clothing store in Kentucky last year. Unfortunately, I was not present and John did not leave any contact information, only that he lived in Orlando.”

“Truman, would you like me to locate him since you are wintering only one hour from Orlando?” I asked.

Truman replied, “I’d like to talk to him but I’m not certain if I have the emotional strength to pay a visit.”

I eagerly responded, “I’m certain I could locate him via the Internet, particularly since John was a Purple Heart recipient.”

Truman consented.

The Search for John: I pulled my iPad from my luggage and began to Google some keywords starting with his name and Korean War + 4 amputee. Within about 20 minutes and a few hiccoughs of name misspellings, not only was his correct name located but an entire LIFE magazine article about his heroics and a photo of him at 19 years of age.

Here is a photo of John Wess Baldridge in the military hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Click here for an article and more photos in LIFE magazine from February 5, 1951, pages 82 to 84. Below is the excerpt from that article about John Wess Baldridge from page 84.

Frozen During Hungnam Retreat, a Young GI Recovers in the U.S.

Like most of the young patients slowly recovering under Percy Jones’ intensive treatment, 19-year old Pvt. John Baldridge came to the hospital with extreme injury to both hands and feet. Like most of them, he got his injury during the early part of the retreat in Korea. Baldridge was cut off with two battalions north of the Changjin reservoir. Supporting artillery had been annihilated, and the men fought for three days with small arms. On the fourth day, they began to fight their way south toward the Marines at Hungnam. “We were walking along, firing all the way,” Baldridge said. “You could see them on either side of the road and sometimes they’d be right next to you. About noon I got hit in the leg. It didn’t hurt so much but I got weak sometimes. Blood was squirting out of the top of my boot. It was about 25 degrees below zero.”

At 10 p.m. they hit a road block and the GI’s decided to try to ram through with their trucks. “I held onto the side of the first truck with one hand and held my gun in the other,” said Baldridge. As the trucks roared ahead into the darkness, he fired with his free hand. “Where my left hand was bent around the post I couldn’t open it. I knew it was freezing,” he said. A mortar exploded. Baldridge came to at 4 a.m. just as the Reds were starting their attack he managed to crawl away through heavy machine gun fire. Next day he draped himself in a Korean sheet and made his way through the enemy lines to the Marines. “It took them 30 minutes to get my boots off,” he said. “They were froze stuck to my feet.” Back in Japan they operated on his leg and told him that he would lose most of both feet. But lying in his bed at Percy Jones, holding up his black, shriveled fingers, Pvt. Baldridge was able to smile. “They’ll cut off my toes,” he said, “but they’ll save the balls of my feet. I’m glad of that.”

Like it was yesterday, Truman recognized his photo image and the article description was an exact match. He confirmed with 100% certainty, “Yes, that’s him.”

What the article did not say was that John had given up his gloves to a fellow comrade because he thought he was going to die from his gunshot wound to the leg. The story seemed too incredulous for me to even comprehend. This provided more determination for me to locate John. If John could survive those odds, we were sure to find him using the Internet.

John is Found: With a few more clicks Susan searched for a way to locate him in Orlando and within 10 more minutes an actual phone number and information that he was married with two sons were revealed. As Truman was told this news, relief came across his face to know that he had married and had a family despite his disability. Now 7:30 PM, Truman gave us permission to call him.

Within four rings, a feeble-sounding man’s voice echoed through the phone. Truman explained quickly who he was; his face became solemn, and sadness brushed over his eyes. John acknowledged that he remembered him and his voice but the two were having difficulty hearing each other. Within a short time, John’s son came to the phone and he and I spoke. We were saddened to learn that John was quite frail and living alone but had daily care from his two sons. John’s wife had passed away six years ago.

The son asked if we could schedule another time to talk the following day. Truman agreed. The next day Truman declined to contact John and I offered again in the three following days to assist him with the phone call and even to take him to visit John in Orlando.

Wounds Reopened: Truman’s mood seemed to shift physically and emotionally. It was as if the energetically told war stories were no longer just stories but the reopening of festering combat wounds in his soul. Hearing John’s voice also may have painted a new reality of a comrade nearing the end of his life. Truman not only nearing his end but he had also lost his spouse 16 years earlier.

The story seemed incomplete without the two veterans sharing their war memories and eventually meeting. However, this was neither my mission, nor my story to complete. This was Truman’s story. His goal may have been simpler than mine. He may have just wanted to find John and find him alive…which he did.

With the refreshed images and stories from the LIFE magazine article about the Korean War, Truman may need time to heal his newly opened wounds. We never spoke again of the war during my visit. I hoped he had some relief knowing that his comrade had lived a similar life…a full life with a spouse and family of his own.

For now, this chapter is closed.

 Postscript: Truman passed away three years after this story was written.