" From the Listening Post "


BOOKS, REUNIONS, COMMENTS.


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Attention National Guardsmen



A NEW book entitled " A Very Long Weekend" (The Army National Guard In Korea) by Bill Berebitsky is the story of the forty-three (43) Army Guard Units that served in Korea.

It contains the recollections of eighty-three guardsmen and nine men assigned to Guard units.

It also has unit command reports, news articles of the time period, 300 pages, 28 illustrations and 9 maps. Contact Bill for more information. His phone number is 1-775-849-0995 or by mail at 250 Mugo Pine Circle, Reno, Nevada 89511-8764.

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" Reminiscence of a Forgotten War "
The Memoirs of Frank O. Pruitt

Tank Company - 223rd Infantry Regiment

Text - 209 pages; Photos - 58 pages.

The following was submitted by the author.


The memoirs of Frank O. Pruitt and his Korean War service with the 40th Division in 1952 and 1953. It covers his service as a rifle platoon leader in " E " Company and Company Commander of Tank Company of the 223rd Infantry Regiment. The book is more of a study of the characters and personalities of the officers and men of the 223rd Regiment and 40th Division, than a combat narrative. The author develops the tension and interplay which occurred when the regular Army officers who had been assigned to the stateside airborne divisions were released from those assignments in 1952, and anxiously sought assignment in combat units before the war was concluded.

It is the story of life and combat on the Main Line of Resistance in the Kumwha Valley, Punch Bowl, and Heartbreak Ridge. The book deals with the retraining of the Division at Kapyong during the Summer of 1952, and the conversion of a National Guard Division into a combat-tested regular Army unit led by regular Army Airborne officers eager to join the fight.

The author, a post-World War II OCS graduate, was recalled to service as a reserve officer in June of 1951 and describes the stateside retraining, replacement pipeline, and Japanese R&R experience.

He returned to Korea in September of 1998 and, accompanied by a Korean guide, revisited sites where he served at Kumwha, Kapyong, and the Punch Bowl. His account is a blueprint for those interested in more than the quick in-and-out Korean Veterans package tour, or for those veterans or their families who want additional insight into the Korean War experience and what has occurred to this troubled land in the last 46 years.

Partial Contents

Chapter 1 - Growing Up in Wartime Miami, 1942-1945
Chapter 2 - Basic Training, OCS, Fort Meade, 1946 - 1947
Chapter 3 - The Korean War Starts, 1950
Chapter 4 - Recalled to War, Camp Polk, Louisiana, 1951
Chapter 5 - Pipeline to Korea, Ft. Lawton, Washington, January, 1952
Chapter 6 - CBR Training at Gifu, Japan, February, 1952
Chapter 7 - From Occupied Japan to War-Torn Korean Hills, February, 1952
Chapter 8 - Combat Infantry Duty with 40th Division, March, 1952
Chapter 9 - Relieved by a Korean Division, April, 1952
Chapter 10 - Transferred to Tank Company, May, 1952
Chapter 11 - 40th Division Reorganizes as Guard Departs, June, 1952
Chapter 12 - Training in Reserve, Supporting ROK's, July, 1952
Chapter 13 - Inspections by High Brass, New Tanks, August-September, 1952
Chapter 14 - Return to MLR and Punch Bowl, October-November, 1952
Chapter 15 - Winter at War, December, 1952 - January, 1953
Chapter 16 - Japan and Korea Revisited - 1998
Chapter 17 - Hiroaki Nabeoka, Hire, "Hero"
Chapter 18 - Masa Shimizu and Shigeaki Furukawa
Chapter 19 - Kunio and Tomoko Takafuji
Chapter 20 - Voyage by "Beetle" to Pusan
Chapter 21 - Professor Jung Hun Ahn - "Shorty"
Chapter 22 - Panmunjon
Chapter 23 - The Kaiser School
Chapter 24 - Chunchon Revisited
Chapter 25 - The Iron Triangle Revisited
Chapter 26 - The Great Leader
Chapter 27 - Rev. Bang Nam Hwang and the Paikwang Methodists
APPENDIX

About the Author


He was born in Miami, Florida and educated in Florida. He completed Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning in 1947 and left the service to complete his college education at the University of Florida in 1949. Upon graduation in 1951, he was recalled to service and joined the 40th Division shortly after they entered combat in Korea in January, 1952. He completed his service with the Division in 1953, returned to the United States and was separated from active military service. He have been engaged in the forestry and land management business for the past 30 years, and is currently President of PWK Timberland Corporation in Lake Charles, Louisiana.



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