A Man Called Jarhead
Continued, from last week.
Ned Harrison, and old Oroville Dam Worker and Retired Laborer, and
mostly a hard rock Miner gave this story to me. It is a long story
so it will take a few weeks to tell it all. “He spent 17 days on
a troop ship sailing to Korea and landed at Inchon Harbor. From
there, he was sent with other fresh troops to a staging area. The
next stop was the front lines. It was then the idea of being in
combat had began to lose its appeal, Steege said. Steege recalled
that moment when he and another Marine came under fire for the first
time. “They were sending mortars in on us. They couldn’t’ see us,
they were just lobbing them in over the hill,” he said. Steege looked
back at his friend “and he would look at me, and I said, ’This isn’t
right. I’m already beginning to not like this stuff.’” It was not
long afterward, during a night fight in July, 1953, that Steege
was wounded and captured. That night Steege was sent to a listening
post in front of the lines. At about 1 a.m., “We started getting
a bunch of incoming. And usually when they did that, you knew they
were going to come in, because they would come in under their own
fire. “And Sure as heck, they did, “ Steege said.
Steege was crouched in a rude dugout that had a flimsy wooden door
closing it off from a trench leading to other positions. Suddenly,
the door was kicked in and “there was a flashlight taped on to the
barrel of a burp gun.” The soldier holding up the gun sprayed fire
into the dugout, hitting Steege in the arms and legs. “I didn’t
feel it when I was hit in the legs or in the arms,” he said, pointing
to left arm. After shooting him, the Chinese troops grabbed Steege
and began forcing him back to their lines. “They just got a hold
of me and started jerking me,” Steege said. “They couldn’t speak
English and I didn’t know what they wanted.” When he tripped over
a roll of barbed wire, the soldiers decided to speed things up by
grabbing his wrists and dragging him, “and that hurt. That hurt
real bad.” To be continued…
Oroville Mercury-Register
October 9, 1945
Service Corner
T/SGT. ROY HERBERT WINS CITATION
With the 96th division in the Philippines – T./Sgt. Roy
Herbert of Oroville is now entitled to wear on his right sleeve
the gold and yellow wreath denoting membership in a unit which was
been cited by the Army for outstanding meritorious performance of
duty. His organization, the 96th Division Band, has been
so cited for its fine work on Leyte and Okinawa, where, in addition
to handling their musical duties, the bandsmen served as military
police and command post guards. Technical Sergeant Herbert, a cornetist,
lives on Madrone Avenue, Oroville.
Army Nurse Among The First Ashore On Japan
An army nurse, who plans to make her future home in Oroville when
she becomes the bride of William Stephens now Cook 3/c in the U.
S. Navy, is 2nd Lt. Mary Flores of Denver, Colo. Lt.
Flores was among the nurses in the first hospital unit ashore on
Dai Nippon after VJ day. The wedding will take place after Lt. Flores
is released from the service. The hospital ship, the Marigold was
the first American ship to tie up at the dock in the deserted Tokyo
harbor since Pearl Harbor.
George Hurlburt Is On Duty At Guam
Guam- George Ellsworth Hurlburt, pharmacist’s mate, third class,
USN, Oroville, Calif., is serving here with U. S. Fleet Hospital
No. 103. The hospital, after moving from Samoa when its usefulness
there was over, cared for causalities from Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Stu’s Notes: I hope everyone is making plans to come and honor
those who served our country through the years. at the Memorial
Day events. Monday, May 26, 2008 we will have services at the Memorial
Park Cemetery on Lincoln Street beginning at 11:00 AM. Following
the ceremonies at the cemetery we will then gather on the Old Green
Bridge. At 1PM we will revive an old tradition which includes a
little parade across the bridge with, the Thermalito Nelson Avenue
School Band, We will begin at the Feather River Fish Hatchery Parking
lot, just north of the Bridge. Following the short ceremony on the
bridge we will then go past the site of the future Oroville Veterans
Memorial Park for all of Butte County to the Veterans Memorial Hall
on Montgomery Street for a BBQ lunch, provided by the American Legion
Post 95. Donation is $6. for adults, $2 for children under 12. Vene
Thompson is Chairman of this event for more information you may
call Joan Lee at 589-1058.