Born 1/6/30 in Holdenville, Oklahoma, as Birchard Lee Dillinger.
My parents, teen-agers of a lost generation, began me when the world's economy was roaring and its dreams unbounded. Only I appeared at the start of the soul-crushing Great Depression. The sequence
destroyed my parents, and stamped my life and values forever, as with so many others. There is no "typical" background for Americans in the military at the start of the Korean War, but mine was not uncommon.
I moved to California at age 5 with my then-single-parent mother, just another couple of dirt-poor Okies blowing
out of the Dust Bowl. But my mother was a doll, and married five times. They were all sorry when she left, but the crippling uncertainties of the times marked her, too, and she always did leave. Until she met Harald Kortegaard, a Danish marine engineer, who adopted me. That intelligent, quiet, thoughtful man helped me change course from North Beach waterfront gangs to a road much less certain, a road with hope.
Went to grammar school in the San Francisco Bay Area. At nine or ten became a Salesboy for Liberty and Saturday Evening Post magazines, and later paperboy for L'Italia and the SF Chronicle, I always had some sort of job as a kid.
Joined the United States Merchant Marine (6/46) at age 16.
Somehow finished High School between cruises.
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Mess cook and Hospital Attendant. Had won a local Golden Gloves and hoped I was tough enough, suspected I wasn't, but did okay. Thought glasses made me look older, but couldn't hide the baby fat.
Sailed all over the Far East on the SS General W H Gordon, and for a long time a shuttle route between San Francisco, Honolulu, San Pedro, and back around the reverse way, on the SS Matsonia. These were large passenger liners, of about 18,000 tons.
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Joined the United States Navy 1/10/48 at age 18, with my buddy Ken Roach.
We intended to join the Marines, but the Navy recruiting office came earlier in
the hall, and we got seduced by an offer of 14 months Electronics school.
Two years later, when we embarked I/3/5 of the Brigade at Pusan, I wished more than
anything in life that I was one of them, that I had gone the rest of the way down
that hall. Not too smart, but that's how I felt.
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I went to Electronics Technician (ET) school where I spent most of my spare time at the gyrene armory qualifying on small arms, hoping to get into PHIBPAC (Amphibious Forces, Pacific). Graduated 5/49 in the top 10% of my class, which brought with it the rate of ET2.
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Served on DD858, finally got in PHIBPAC, aboard the USS Wantuck, APD125, about 12/49. I fixed our radar, sonar and radio gear, and manned the radios in our landing craft (LCVPs) whenever possible. As an ET, I was commonly known as a Twidget.
Did one Korean combat tour with the Wantuck, and another with the Union, AKA 106. Made ET1, but took a Discharge to join Philco as a Field Engineer (Tech Rep) 2/52, and go to Germany and meet the Fräuleins, and for the money (a Major's pay).
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After 6 weeks heavy-ground radar training at Warner Robbins, Philco sent me to Clark AFB, Philippines, not Germany. After a few months the radar C.O. gave me a commendation ... and Philco sent me to Korea again, not Germany. So, I did a six-month tour with 606th AC&W Squadron above Kimpo, with 1st Mar Div between us and the Chinese armies. With 606, I was radar tech rep for the installation primarily supporting Sabre interceptions of MiGs in MiG Alley, and helping all our aircraft in North Korea find their positions. After that tour, Philco sent me to Japan, absolutely not Germany.
Note: I was in our LCVPs at Inchon and Wonsan and two Commando raids, sweated mines and the MLR.
I was Regular Navy, volunteered for Korea, went where I was sent, kept our radar and radio gear working, and did my job as best I could.
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But I did nothing at all deserving special commendation during these three Korean War tours. Others did, though, and I've never forgotten them.
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That's why I've put my Korean War sites on the web, including the Aussie KW Photo Album, and also a couple of my short stories. The stories are pretty much fictionalized fact, attempts to make terror and tragedy entertaining. It is useful to understand these things, but not necessary to only learn them the hard way...
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During a year and a half of working in Japan my hatred for the Japanese, and the rest of Asia, and my passion to go chase German girls, all vanished. Eternal gratitude to a very special lady. With Viet Nam just perceptible next over my horizon, I changed course yet again. I quit Philco, and went back to San Francisco.
Looking back objectively, my personality and attitudes had been permanently
set by all that happened before and during the Korean War. I had knocked around
all over the Pacific even before the first of my combat tours, which mixed my
psychological concrete. Korea put in the re-bar and let it all harden. By the time I
joined Philco I had the personality and attitude of the average guy in the 5th Marines, which I probably wouldn't have if I had actually paid the price of the ticket.
The whole rest of my career I, and most of the people I worked around,
suffered from this in more ways than I can fully realize. This was particularly tough
since my professional career was as an engineer, among people who took cultured,
considerate, predictable behavior for granted. I never, ever, came close to being describable
by terms like those.
Started pre-engineering at San Francisco Junior College in 9/54, at age 24, on the GI Bill. No chance of ever getting straightened out after that.
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BSEE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1959
Engineer, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, 1959-1974
MSEE, University of California, Berkeley 1964 (did this part time)
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Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1975-1991. Was awarded a few patents, won a couple of international awards, never went into management but had a lot of fun and, like all things, it too came to an end.
Retired 1991, play at running a small consulting company, writing short stories about Korea, and putting them and other things that interest me on the net.
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Hope you're enjoying some of those sites.
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