When we got to Korea, we were replacements in the Seventh Infantry Division, 32d Regiment. It was 1952, and we were in a stalemate at that point, so our duties mostly consisted of patrols. Sometimes you’d draw fire, and sometimes you’d provide covering fire for other companies. I became a squad leader in pretty short order, had maybe 10 or 12 guys in my squad–a mixed squad, more white soldiers than black ones. I was only challenged once that I remember, by a guy from Far Rockaway, N.Y. I gave the men an order to carry 30- or 40-pound boxes of ammunition, and this guy said he wasn’t going to. I told him I expected him to do what everybody else was doing, and he backed down. The white soldiers didn’t challenge me, because they knew better than to alienate anybody. You never knew who would be saving you next.
