stern. We passed through the diners, the sleepers and coaches. Stretching one's legs beat sitting in one spot looking out the same dirty window hour after hour. It was a military troop train with no one but soldiers aboard. As I entered a car far up the line from my own there in the near corner by the entrance, jawing with other soldiers was my boxing friend from Ogden. In total disbelief I called his name. 'Sned! Is that you?' I shouted. He looked up in total amazement and darted over three sets of legs and stumbled into me in the aisle. No more astounding, incredible, unbelievable and unexpected event could have ever occurred. Its probability of happening must have been zilch or less. On a troop train in New Orleans, two separated friends from Ogden, bumped into one another. As it turned out we were both headed to the same destination, the same unit, at the same identical time and place on the same train. Our cars had been switched into the same train in faraway New Orleans, Louisiana. My pal had ended fighting early in California, signed up in the Army, taken basic training at Ft. Lewis, Washington, opted for the airborne as we had done, and the rest is history. 'Fickle Fate' could not have engineered more accurately, more timely, more unexpectedly an event more unlikely than this against-all-odds chance meeting of two friends from Ogden, Utah, on a troop train in New Orleans, Louisiana. At Ft. Bragg, my friend continued his boxing career. He was division champ, battled in Madison Square Garden (a boxer's dream) twice, and beat the best of them. He returned to Ogden following honorable military service. There, tragically, he lost a fight with a heavy piece of equipment at work and was suddenly decked for good. He left a beautiful wife and five lovely children. Never, while in civies or military garb, did he ever desert his fearlessness and respect for life. Before dying, he uttered to his wife, 'I took a bad hit out there tonight.' I shall never forget that special day when I unexpectedly bumped into my long time friend on a military troop train in distant New Orleans, Louisiana. A historian said 'One friend in life is much, two are many and three are nearly impossible.' Konrad E. Smurthwaite Konrad E. Smurthwaite, more commonly called 'Kon' served in the Army in Europe as a tank commander in the 17th Tank Battalion, 7th Armored Division during WWII. He received the Bronze Star Medal. William LaMar Soelberg I joined the Army on August 12, 1944, voluntarily to be with my brother Verl (who was being drafted). We both reported for duty at Fort Douglas, Utah, and took the normal academic and physical examinations. With other inductees, I received the regular immunizations and clothing and spent three days on a troop train to Camp Wolters, near Mineral Springs, Texas, 50 miles west of Fort Worth. Camp Wolters was an IRTC (Infantry Replacement Training Center) for basic training. Verl and I both earned 'expert' in marksmanship with the M-1 rifle. In December our training was cut short due to the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. Most of the trainees in our company were sent immediately overseas to that battle. Verl and I and four others in our company had qualified for OCS (Officer Candidates School). Our next duty assignment was OCS at Fort Benning, Georgia. OCS was a very intensive course in leadership, tactics, military subjects and physical training. We had a great deal of field training and maneuvers taking various command roles of platoon, company, battalion, and regiment (including staff, etc.) My most memorable event during OCS was a three-day field exercise near the end of our training. I was given the responsibility as regimental commander, a tough assignment for a 19 year old. I had to keep in mind the military objective, assignments to battalions for their specific objective, coordination with other regiments on our left and right, intelligence reports, plans and operations, and supply (with food, water, ammunition, etc.). It was a tremendous responsibility. 120 Both Verl and I graduated from OCS and were commissioned second lieutenant on 2 June 1944. The war in Europe had ended in May 1945, so the emphasis was to win the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. Our first duty station was Camp Roberts, California, near Paso Robles. We were platoon leaders for basic trainees for only two months. We received orders to ship out to the Far East and while en route, the atomic bomb ended the war with Japan. Verl and I were assigned to occupational units in Korea. Because of Verl's college training in chemistry, he was assigned to a chemical base depot and I, because of my college training in math and science was assigned to the 115th Engineer Combat Battalion, part of the 40th Infantry Division. The Japanese had occupied Korea for 40 years following the China-Japan War in 1905. During that time Japan had complete charge of Korean affairs, such as, business, utilities, railroad, mining, agriculture, etc. At the end of World War II, the Japanese executives and workers were sent back to Japan. The Koreans didn't know how to operate the utilities, power, light, telephone, water systems, highways, and railroads. They were a country fifty to one-hundred years behind the rest of the world, or so it seemed. Our job as an engineer battalion was to locate ammunition and weapon storage sites, remove explosives and weapons by sending them to Pusan by truck or rail and destroy the caves housing these materials. I was designated the ammunition disposal officer for the Port of Pusan on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. We had a pier with a railroad siding, two barges, and a tug boat. As laborers, we had a reduced size Japanese Army battalion (about 200) with interpreters. One day a load of anti-personnel bombs arrived by rail. These bombs were the size of a large grenade and had fins like a regular bomb. A canister containing 20 bombs were dropped from an airplane; and as the canister fell, the bombs were released and landed in an area the size of a large house. The bomb did not explode on impact, but became armed so that when the bomb was picked up it would explode and drive lots of shrapnel to cause the loss of hands, feet, eyes, and even death to that person and those around him. An accident occurred when one of the canisters was dropped from a railroad flat car as it was being unloaded on the pier. A Japanese soldier-laborer picked up one of the A-P bombs, and it exploded. The soldier was quickly loaded into a jeep. The Japanese interpreter, the jeep driver and I sped to town to a hospital with the injured soldier. The civilian hospital refused to treat the injured soldier. We Went to the U.S. Army infirmary where he was given first aid treatment. We had to drive another ten miles or so to another hospital, a Japanese medical infirmary where at last he was treated. He had lost three fingers, and his chest and face had lots of imbedded shrapnel. I checked on him three days later. He had been evacuated to Japan for hospitalization. The 40th Infantry Division was deactivated and returned to the states. Not having sufficient 'points' to leave the Far East Command, I was assigned to the 1408th Engineer based depot as 'utilities officer'. The depot supplied engineer materials and supplies, as well as top maintenance of equipment for all engineer units in occupied Korea. In July of 1946, I was sent to Pusan on business. Verl, receiving permission, went with me. We traveled by jeep the 400 miles from Seoul to Pusan over the most horrible roads on earth. We drove through and around huge mud holes, gum-boils, and trails across rice paddies, etc. There were no paved roads except in a few cities. We bummed gas and oil, a couple of tires, as well as food and water. Very few people have had that experience prior to Korea's modernization. In late August 1946, I went to Shanghai, China, on R & R (rest and relaxation). I stayed at the Y.M.C.A. for ten days in that bustling metropolitan city on the Chinese coast. I was like a tourist, rubbernecking, taking pictures, and strolling the streets with retail stores full of silks and brocades, silver, gold, and gems. I had my uniform cleaned and pressed and was surprised to see the coolie fill his mouth with water, then spewing the water over the clothes as he pressed them. I saw some of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. They were white girls (a mix of Chinese and Russian), but perhaps I had been away from home too long. I returned to Korea by way of a submarine. I worked with many Korean contractors and subcontractors to erect buildings needed at the depot, thus learning more of the culture and work ethics of the Korean people. Verl and I earned enough 'points' to return to the states. We sailed to Seattle, Washington, and were mustered out of the Army in Oct. 1946. Verl and I stayed together throughout the war at every camp and station. We sailed to the Pacific Theater, served our tour of duty together and sailed home together, an unusual occurrence. 121