{"id":1807,"date":"2020-03-31T00:27:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T00:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2024-02-01T02:15:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T02:15:16","slug":"johnny-green-war-on-ice-a-veterans-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/biography\/johnny-green-war-on-ice-a-veterans-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Green War on ice: a veteran\u2019s story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Courtesy photo Courtesy photo Johnny Green in Korea in early 1950s in early 1950s<\/strong><\/td>Johnny Green, longtime Granbury resident,reflects on Korean War<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

from The Hood County News, VETERANS DAY \u2022 SUNDAY, 11 NOV 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by PETE KENDALL<\/strong>
Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day is Veterans Day to Johnny Green. Every day the longtime Granbury resident takes a step, he\u2019s reminded of frostbite he suffered in the Korean War. Green was a member of the 52-man<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8221st Army Unit, whose duties included the topographic and meteorological survey of North Korean hills controlled by Red Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe surveyed everything in the world, where they wanted to put the guns, where the forward observer wanted to be. I was with the topographical survey.\u201d When Green arrived in North Korea in the   summer of 1951, the weather was hot and dusty. Not so by January of 1952, with the temperature minus-22 degrees. That was only part of a three-day nightmare.\u201d We got in the middle of the Chinese army, and we couldn\u2019t build fires in our helmets because that would give away our<\/p>\n\n\n\n

location,\u201d Green said.\u201d We stayed one night, all day one day, then the next day. Then the Marines broke through and got us out. I was glad to be out, but that was such an embarrassment to be rescued by the Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event is remembered by participants as The Battle of the Punchbowl.\u201c The punchbowl was a huge valley, and there were three or four hills inside the punchbowl. We surveyed those hills,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe tried to dig into the hill and keep warm, but that was hard to do in the ice and snow. We had on our long-johns and fatigues. I never did get warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reason I had so much trouble with my feet is that they sweat. As cold as it was,(the sweat) would deep-freeze my feet. I was taken to a M*A*S*H* hospital. As my feet thawed out, they started to bleed and some of the skin came off\u00a0\u00a0.\u201cFrostbite hurts when you\u2019re coming back (thawing). Toes will turn black. Some guys lost their toes, noses and ears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danger lurked behind every hill in North Korea, Green said. He was never directly hit. \u201cA mortar round landed on top of our bunker,\u201d he said. \u201cThree were three of us in there. The two others got concussions. That was the closest call I had. I didn\u2019t have to shoot my rifle at all.\u201d During the Battle of the Punchbowl, he was shot at frequently.\u201c The Chinese were all over. We had the radio, so we knew what was going on with them,\u201d Green said. \u201cThey got within half a mile of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur\u201c My duties were to go out with the survey crew,\u201d Green said. \u201cAll the information went back to the artillery and the Air Force so they could drop the napalm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso, I would lay out the parameters, so if infantry wanted to take a hill, they would tell us what they wanted and when they were going to do it. Then we\u2019d survey it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was back home in approximately nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was wanting out,\u201d Green said. \u201cMy feet had cleared up except for huge blisters on the bottoms. I got arthritis later.\u201c I would say the frostbite weakened the bone structure50 percent. I go to the Veterans Hospital in Dallas now. They check my feet for circulation.\u201c I get cold real easy now. Some people are wanting the air-conditioner when I\u2019m wanting the heater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about war in general, Green answers bluntly. \u201cI hate war, and I do not understand how one man I do not know can try to kill me while I\u2019m trying to kill him. I see no sense in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He witnessed death with enough frequency to know he\u2019s against it.\u201c They died because of somebody\u2019s foolishness.\u201d Green achieved the rank of corporal during the war. He could have made sergeant, he was told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was scheduled to put in for sergeant,\u201d he said, \u201cbut before it went through, the 45thNational Guard came over, and you could only have so many sergeants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy commanding officer said, \u2018Johnny, you\u2019re fixing to go home. I can\u2019t get that (sergeant) rating for you. But if you stay about 30 days, I will.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Sir, if you send me home today, I\u2019ll give you these two stripes right here.\u2019 He grinned and said okay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy photo Courtesy photo Johnny Green in Korea in early 1950s in early 1950s Johnny Green, longtime Granbury resident,reflects on Korean War from The Hood County News, VETERANS DAY \u2022 SUNDAY, 11 NOV 2007 by PETE KENDALLStaff Writer Every day … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5716,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions\/5716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}