My mother dated a Retired Lt. Col. William McReynolds, who was a member of the
class of 1941 US Naval Academy. They married in 1988 so she could be buried
at the Naval Academy as this was in May and she passed away in June of 1988.
Long story here, as she got cancer during their relationship, and he took great
care of her till the very end. But there is train material here.
Bill died in 2008 at the age of 89, as I kept in touch with him.
On Memorial Day I googled his name, as I knew he played a important part at the
Battle of the Chosen Reservoir in Korean.
I found a link to his name at East Carolina University, as someone did 4
interviews with Bill on his life from 1919 to about 1952. I did not know about
these interviews.
I got CDs made by the school from the cassette tapes they have of the
interviews. Plus a written transcript of the first interview. I was able to
track down some people from his class that he mentions, as one was a Captain
Victor Delano, who was on the US VW at Pearl Harbor. He is a far distant
cousin to FDR. Another one I got ahold of was a Earl Luehman, as he is not
doing well, as I spoke to his wife. I am making copies of the CDs for them.
They where members of Bills class. Earl and Bill got in trouble for playing
hockey on the deck of a ship while in school.
Trains are mention many times, as when he graduated from the Academy, he went
straight into battle due to WW2. He was a executive officer at the battle of
Saipan. The stories told are something here during all the interviews. I
could go on and on, but it is not train related.
He mentions how the troops moved about on trains in the US.
But one story is related to the Korean War.
Bill was on the East Coast, as he was a Major at the time. He was ordered out
to the west coast, as they where going to be shipped out to Korea.
He mentions that the train was a steam engine, as the interview is in the late
90s and steam engines have been long gone by then.
They arrived a day late due to the engine breaking down. He was sort of taken
to task for being a day late, as his response was “I was not driving the damn
engine”. They let him off due to this.
He then was in Seoul, Korean and the US trucks and other moving vehicles had
troubles on the streets as Seoul had a lot of overhead wires for trolleys.
The vehicles got caught in the wires.
I would assume in time, the cable lines where taken down either by trucks or by
hand.
There are a ton of interesting stories here, but they are not train related.
I am not sure how these interviews where made and why, but too many stories
pass on without having these stories of life saved, military or not. Many
family stories are lost I am sure over time that should be passed on to the
next generations of family.
Mike Marmer
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