Scars and Stars

by Dustin Stevens

  “We burst through the south gate to find our crew of South Koreans poised to join us. They had shed the North Korean uniforms they were wearing when they left and piled them atop the stack of North Korean guards amassed outside the camp gates.

  “Together Alpha and Bravo covered the route Jack and I had laid out for them towards the barracks, the sounds of planes and machine gun fire heavy over head.

  “Fan out!” Hix called as we drew close and almost fifty men thinned to a single file line and closed in on our target. Some of the prisoners stripped weapons from the fallen North Korean guards and together we made a large wave moving forward.

  “As we drew close we could see smoke rising from some of the buildings and Koreans lying on the ground around them. A few had weapons out and were trying to fire at the passing planes, but they were rewarded for their efforts by line after line of machine gun fire.

  “By the time we arrived, much of the action had already taken place. Hix broke us into three groups and sent each of us into a building. There were no more than fifty men in the camp and most of those had been dispatched by air support.

  “When each of the buildings was clear we reconvened and returned to camp. The sense of urgency was gone from the air and we used a light jog in returning.

  “We arrived to find a small handful of helicopters on the ground, rows of weak prisoners being given food and helped aboard. Jack and I went straight for the medical tent to find Quincel and Rothchild, but were intercepted before we got there.

  “They saw us before we saw them, Phelps calling out, “So I take it you boys made it back alright?”

  “Jack and I each stopped and walked towards the three of them. It was the first time we had seen them up and about and to be honest, I was a bit surprised at how well they all seemed to move.

  “I don’t know about alright,” I said, “but we made it. As promised.”

  “Took your sweet time getting back here too, didn’t you?” Atwood sneered.

  “In one of the few times I’ve ever seen Jack crack, he turned and snapped.

  “We covered over a hundred miles without any real food or weapons,” Jack said. “We slept a total of six hours in four days, killed Koreans with a homemade spear and Army crawled over five miles in the dark to get back here.”

  “Not mention got shot for our efforts,” I added.

  “Jack took a step closer to Atwood and said, “All to get back here and save your sorry ass.”

  “Atwood’s face grew red and he said, “You forget yourself. I am a superior officer—“

  “No,” Jack said, “you’re a higher ranking officer. There’s nothing superior about you.”

  “Atwood face swelled with anger but Spires stepped between us and extended his hand. “You risked your lives to save ours and you managed to pull it off in less than a week. Thank you.”

  “Spires shook each of our hands in turn. “And Atwood? Stop acting like such a prick, either one of these two could kick your ass.”

  “Phelps yelped a laugh and shook our hands as the four of us moved towards the helicopters. Atwood’s face grew an even deeper shade of crimson, but he said nothing as he followed behind.

  “We got to the helicopters to find Hix directing people and introduced him to Phelps and Spires. The ranking officers began discussing plans for evacuation and Jack and I wandered off to find the doctors.

  “Quincel and Rothchild were in their usual tent, tending to bedfast patients. As we entered they both gave the exhausted smile of men tired of holding on and hugged us each in turn. Together we began helping them move soldiers to the helicopters.

  “The numbers at the camp had swelled in the week we were gone and the helicopters were forced to head to Pusan with a full load and return again. The South Koreans escorted the first load of prisoners back and while they were gone we readied the rest of camp to depart.

  “Hix found Jack and I helping the doctors move the last of the dysentery patients and said, “You weren’t exaggerating. Another week or two and we would have lost a good many of these men. As is, there’s plenty here who may not make it.”

  “We nodded in unison and I said, “Things have gotten worse since we left. Looks like once we escaped the Koreans really started coming down on them because most of these men have been beaten.”

  “Hix shook his head. “You can’t look at it that way. If you hadn’t escaped, you’d still be here and not a single one of these men would be going home.”

  “Captain!” a voice called out, drawing our attention away from the discussion. “Over here! Come quick!”

  “Hix ran towards the middle of the camp, Jack and I close behind him.

  “Two soldiers were inside the tent holding a Korean on either side. The captive wore khaki pants and a white shirt with a scarf tied around his neck that had become unraveled and hung loose around him. Blood ran from his nose and mouth and dribbled down onto his shirt.

  “Would you look at this?” I said aloud, recognizing the man upon arrival.

  “This an old friend of yours?” Hix asked.

  “Jack pointed to his chin and said, “You could say that, right Major Han?”

  “Han’s body was slack and weak and his head hung towards the ground. At the sound of his name he raised his head and shuddered when he saw us standing before him. His shoulders sagged, tears streaming down his face.

  “Jack removed the Korean sidearm he had taken several days before and walked up to Han. He placed the barrel of the gun under Han’s chin and used it to lift his head and stared down at him.

  “Didn’t think you’d be seeing me again did you son of a bitch? Didn’t think you’d ever have to answer for all the times you’ve tortured and maimed people did you? Didn’t think I would ever find your ass did you?”

  “With each question Jack asked his voice grew angrier. Between each one he pistol whipped Han, thick slashes of flesh being removed with each swing.

  “After the third question Jack drew Han’s face up again. Every man in the tent was silent and watching as Jack cocked the hammer back and slowed his breathing.”

  My uncle paused and watched the full golden ball of the sun begin its final slip below the horizon. The world was suspended between day and night and for a moment everything had a glow about it.

  “In war, you do what you have to do,” Uncle Cat said. “Most of the time you move and react before you have time to consider what you’re doing. It’s the body’s natural tendency to act in a manner of self-preservation and sometimes that means having to kill another man.

  “Over the course of the war I had watched my brother kill men, but I had not watched my brother become a killer. We had both done what we had to do to survive.

  “In that moment, watching him stand over a helpless and quivering Han, I had to step forth and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t do this Jack. There’s no going back from this.”

  “Jack pressed the barrel harder into Han’s face and raised his face higher, staring down the bridge of his nose. He stayed that way for several seconds as Han quivered, then lowered his weapon.

  “He took two steps back from Han and continued to stare at him as I slipped between them. “You won. It’s over.”

  “In one fluid motion Jack raised the gun and fired half a dozen rounds into Han. I turned to see Han’s chest explode with blood and bullets and I saw him fall back to the ground.

  “It wasn’t until he hit the ground that I noticed the small gun fall from his hand.”

  My uncle stood and walked back to the edge of the porch. His gaze was pinched tight to block the on-coming sun and I could see crow’s feet folded around his eyes. He returned to the pole in front of us and rubbed his hand along it.

  Without turning back to me he said, “The next page in the book is the last remnant we have from Korea. It’s a patch of Hans’ scarf, still has some of the bastard’s blood on it.

  “We each had our own reasons for deciding to include it. To me it was important because
it marked the last time Jack saved my life, the last of many times.

  “To Jack it signified that he wasn’t just even with the man that scarred him for life, but he had won in the end.

  “Together we decided to include the scarf because it marked something even more important to both of us. It was the last shot we ever fired at another human being as long as we both lived.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  My uncle remained with his back to me for several long minutes, standing and rubbing his hand along the grain of the wood. He didn’t look at it as he did so, just ran his hand the length of it and stared off into the distance.

  The sun was now a half circle on the horizon, flaming orange as it seemed to sink into the lake before us. The sky glowed orange around it like dying embers in a fire and gentle streaks of purple extended from it.

  “Five hundred and fifty six,” Uncle Cat said. “That’s how many men we pulled from Ah-San. I don’t know how many ended up making it, but that’s how many we gave a chance.

  “Three days after the raid Hix called us back into his office. Spires was with him and there was a certain ominous feeling in the air.

  “Please, sit,” Hix said as we walked in. He was seated behind the old desk with Spires standing close by. Spires’s arms were folded across his chest and both wore stony expressions.

  “I shot a quick glance at Jack as we both took our seats, already not liking where this was going. We were both healing well, but still in no real condition for another assignment.

  “Hix leaned forward over his desk and studied a piece of paper for several long seconds, glancing between it and us as he did so. “I’ll be honest with you both. Right now I’m sitting here with very mixed feelings.

  “As I commander I am sickened. There are men that have been in the Army for years and years that haven’t amassed the kind of record you have in less than a year. You boys are rare stock and I’m none too pleased about what I’ve been ordered to do.

  “As a man that saw what you did at Ah-San, I am overjoyed. You risked your lives for men that now get to go home to their families.

  “And so will you.”

  “The last words hung for a second and my eyes bulged as Hix sat looking at us. He tossed the paper towards us and said, “It has been handed down by the United States War Department that we are to begin pulling out of Korea. As such, any and all men that are or have been wounded in the line of battle are to be discharged, effective immediately.”

  “The words fought hard to resonate with me and for a second it was difficult to breath. It was the very last thing I had expected to hear. The notion of home seemed so far away that I had almost removed it from my mind.

  “We were going home. Back to Mama and the river, to Birch Grove and bucking hay.

  “Home.

  “Jack picked up the paper and I looked down to see the words, “Notice of Discharge” and our names written across the top.

  “Sir, I would hardly say we qualify as wounded,” Jack said, looking up at him.

  “Spires shook his head and said, “I told you this wouldn’t be an easy sell Earl.

  “Son, you’ve got a scar running from ear to ear and a cluster around your eye there that looks like shrapnel’s still in it. Your brother has a hole in his leg. Neither one of you have anything but scar tissue on your forearms and wrists. I’d say that qualifies as wounded.”

  “Sir—“ Jack began, but Hix raised his hand to cut him off.

  “It’s out of our hands, it’s already been done. You depart this evening.”

  “This evening, sir?” I asked, shocked at the events unfolding before us. I took the paper from Jack’s hand and read it to find it stated just what Hix had already told us.

  “I’ve barely known you a week and already I can say you boys will be missed,” Hix said, reaching out to shake our hands.

  “I can second that,” Spires said, extending his own hand. “What you boys did for us at Ah-San, I’ll never forget. Maybe one of these days when we’re all back home I can buy you a beer and you can tell me how the hell you managed to pull it off.”

  “The two of them dismissed us. Jack and I left the office and for the first time in days stepped out into sunshine. The air still had a brisk chill in it, but standing there with the sun on our faces felt incredible.

  “We’re going home,” I said, the sound of the words sounding funny in the morning air. “You believe that?”

  “Jack shook his head. “Home. Damnation.”

  “Together we went and found Buddy and Marks, Sims and Caldwell, Dwayne and the other remaining members of the 5th. The lot of us spent the afternoon exchanging stories and throwing back more bad Korean vodka, laughing and slapping back and raising toasts to whatever we could think of.

  “Neither one of us had to pack because neither one of us owned a thing. Where we were going didn’t have a call for knives or guns or rifles, and even if it did we’d find some when we got there. If we could have left the clothes on our back we would have.

  “We both wanted to leave behind everything that had anything to do with Korea. We were both going home with our share of permanent souvenirs; there wasn’t any need to carry along more, the few small items in this book excepted.

  “Jack and I stayed in the bar until almost dusk and bid farewell to the boys. One by one they told us their hometowns and to give them a few months before looking them up. We told them if they were ever in Ohio they had a friend and a place to stay.

  “I even shook hands with Dwayne and told him he could swing by too.

  “Jack and I slipped from the bar and again made our way to the landing strip that only three days before had been taking us deep into the heart of Korea. This time it was taking us home.”

  My uncle turned towards me and rested his left shoulder against the post. The orange sun illuminated the left side of his face and deep shadows played across the right. He pointed to the album as it lay on the floor in front of us chair and said, “Go ahead and turn the page.”

  I slid my legs from the chair and in two quick steps went to a knee beside the album. There was just a precious few pages remaining to be turned as I peeled back one thin page and passed it from right to left.

  On the page was a white rectangle of paper, a few inches wide and several more long. There was no writing on it, just dingy white paper.

  I looked up to see my uncle staring down the length of the porch.

  “For the longest time Jack and I wondered what to put in this slot. At first we both wanted to leave it empty, to symbolize that we were leaving everything behind us on the shores of Korea, but in the end decided it wasn’t a strong enough symbol of that day.

  “Instead we went to the War Department and got a copy of our discharge papers. We folded them in three equal parts and there they are before you now, the official documents ending our time in Korea.

  “With just a couple of pieces of paper, we were going home.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Evenings in the fall aren’t like the summer. They don’t maintain their warmth once the sun goes down, but stay in direct correlation, temperatures rising and falling with it.

  A small chill worked its way into the early evening air and began to blow off the water and over the meadow to us. I shivered a bit when it hit me, but said nothing as my uncle stood motionless against the post, impervious to the air around him.

  “Over fifty men were amassed on the tarmac when we got there, all of them in some state of disrepair,” he began. “Jack and I were two of the healthier men present and I almost felt guilty about leaving as I looked at them. Many had lost limbs or were on crutches, had their heads wrapped or were bound to wheelchairs.

  “Don’t,” Jack whispered. “Don’t do that to yourself. We have nothing left to prove. We’re going home, just like these men.”

  “I already knew everything he was saying, but hearing it aloud helped emphasize the point.

  “We aided as much as we could with loading t
he weaker soldiers and settled in for the longest journey of my life. The trip to Korea had seemed quite short because we were going to war. No man wants to face that and the more you dread something the faster it arrives.

  “Going home was quite the opposite. The more time I had to sit and think of the coming summer evenings on the water, the golden waves of grain dancing in the breeze or the smell of Mama’s cobbler on the window sill, the more I longed to be home.

  “The flight from Korea to Hawaii took eighteen hours of air time. Twice we stopped on aircraft carriers in the Pacific, once on the U.S.S Sherman and once on the U.S.S. Polk. Each time we deplaned, used the restroom and got a quick bite of food while the plane was refueled, then we were back in the air again.

  “The stops were so short that they didn’t even bother to deplane those not strong enough to do it for themselves. Just wasn’t enough time.

  “We arrived in Hawaii on Thursday the 4th of April, the sun beating down on us at over eighty degrees. The first thing Jack and I did was lose the winter fatigues we were wearing and draw summer gear, as much to rid ourselves of them as to acclimate better to the Hawaiian heat.

  “Two solid days we spent lying in the sun, eating anything we could find and enjoying the first women we’d seen in months.”

  My uncle chuckled and said, “It’s a funny thing about women of the world. When we were in combat, we didn’t have the time or the money to bother with them. Didn’t matter though, to the women of Korea we were America and their ticket to it. Women in Pusan would have folded themselves into a duffel bag and let us carry them on to a plane if they thought it would get them here any sooner.

  “Once we got to Hawaii though, we were just another couple of poor boys from the mainland, passing through to somewhere else. We had time and some money and plenty of desire, but couldn’t so much as squeeze a sniff out of them.”

  My uncle kicked at the floor again, a tight smile on his face as he chuckled and swung his head from side to side.