- Sgt. Flaherty
Who was behind that huge auburn mustache that was filtering the grime and dust of the Korean landscape? He trimmed it neatly and wore it proudly. Sgt, Flaherty, like many of the men in Company L, and our future company commander were an airborne paratroopers converted to infantrymen after the ARCT (Airbone Regimental Combat Team) 187 was deactivated in Korea.
The loss of men due to rotation and casualties left our company defenseless. We were sent into reserve for replacements and training.
To celebrate our first week in reserve, Sgt, Goff, our mess sergeant decided that pancakes would be a fitting Sunday breakfast. He meant well, but a bite into them was like biting into the heel of a combat boot. Perhaps a Bengal tiger’s incisors could cut into it. Sgt. Flaherty brought his mess kit to Sgt. Goff, removed a pancake, dropped it on the floor, placed his boot over it, then removed his bayonet from its scabbard and shouted,
“Time to resole our boots!” then began to cut around the pancake sitting below his boot.
Andy Concha and I were hysterical with laughter. We returned to our tent to relay the news to the boys who hadn’t seen the event. It wasn’t long before the company clerk, Gillis visited to say that Sergeant Goff wanted to see Andy Concha and me.
Goff was a tanned and wiry WWII veteran without a sense of humor. He said he’d like us to dig a 6′ x 4′ x 3′ trench which will be his refrigerator. Directly outside our tent, in the blistering heat we dug his “refrigerator”. Upon completion, a two-man detail came with a wheelbarrow full of gravel and filled in our dig. At the center of this “refrigerator”, they pierced the gravel with an artillery shell casing cut off at its end. This became Company L’s piss tube.
After three weeks of integrating the replacements, and daily training, we were sent back to the MLR (frontline). Sgt Flaherty attended to every detail when we went out on a patrol or a raid. “Take enough ammo, lock your weapon, and keep your head down!” he would always remind us.
It was on August 12, 1952 that Company L was to raid Hill 121. We had a Centurion tank with an 87 mm cannon and two heavy machine guns firing overhead. Artillery pounded the Hill. Just as I had practiced the night before, I fired a flare as a signal to cease fire. We moved in for the attack.
Sgt. Flaherty, on my left, led us up the Hill. A concussion from a grenade knocked both of us up, and then to the ground. I knew my bunker buddy, Wayne was to the left of Flaherty. I crawled over to see if he was hit. Wayne was gone, and Flaherty was being evacuated on a litter by two KATUSAS (Koreans Attached to the U. S. Army). I had the flare attachment on my M1 barrel, but I forgot to bring ammo, so I quickly threw my two grenades and withdrew. Upon passing Flaherty, I saw that he was unconscious and his macerated jaw lay flat on his chest.
Sgt. Flaherty was evacuated to Tokyo Army Hospital where his damaged jaw was reset. After a few weeks, he returned to Company L, but by this time I was rotated to Japan.
At one of our company reunions, I told Flaherty if he predeceased me, I will deliver the eulogy, no matter where. Flaherty passed away in September 2005. My wife and I flew to Bushnell Military Cemetery in Florida to attend his funeral. After my eulogy four men introduced themselves. They told me that as a team, they and Flaherty were flown as civilians on a secret mission to Laos. They were to fight the combined Laotian and Vietnamese communists who were attempting to overthrow the government that was friendly to the U. S. They lived in the jungles of Laos making a tent from their ponchos and sleeping on their backpacks in case they had to bug out. They killed water buffalos, monkeys and snakes for food. The water tasted like mud dissolved in iodine. After their mission was completed, they were to leave Laos by an antique aircraft. It crashed upon takeoff, but no one was hurt. Johnny McCallum who told me this story weighed 175 pounds when he left for Laos; he weighed 135 pounds when he returned.
Flaherty’s ashes lie in Bushnell Cemetery among the thousands of American patriots who defended their country above and beyond the call to duty.
For his complete memoir of the Korean War read,
Cold Ground’s Been My Bed: A Korean War Memoir by Daniel Wolfe danielwolfebooks@aol.com