Veteran James Brown describes his work during the Korean War. World Photo by Madeline Steege

CHARLESTON - The Korean War changed Charleston resident James Brown Jr. and left an impact that would follow him for the rest of his life.

When Brown joined the Navy in 1950, the United States was just beginning its war in Korea. The 18-year-old went through basic training in San Diego as an operating room technician. After working at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, he was transferred to the U.S. Marines. In October 1952, he went to the front lines in Korea and got his first taste of battle.

Brown and the Marine platoon he was with were traveling back from having lunch and picking up supplies at an outpost about a mile from the front lines. In a field near Panmunjon, the platoon came under heavy fire from the North Korean military.

“When the mortars came in, (it) was my first real fear of panic,” he said.

After the mortars crashed down, Brown realized he was the only man not injured.

“When the dust cleared, I grew up real fast,” he said.

He looked for help from his fellow soldiers and from God, he said. The help never came and he needed to get the wounded men off the field, out of harm’s way.

“I was really overwhelmed. I was hoping I’d have some help,” he said.

One man had a cut on his face and another had a leg wound. He decided to send some of them back two at a time. But while some wounds weren’t life threatening, some were.

“I had one that had a belly wound and that is serious out there in the field,” he said.

He needed to make a quick decision to save the man’s life: Walk with him a quarter mile through the trenches back to the bunker, or go through the field, where they would be open to enemy fire.  

He needed some stretcher bearers to carry some of the badly injured. But again, Brown could find no help.

“I went over to a young Marine who was in a foxhole and ... I looked down at him and I started to ask him for help,” he said, “and he looked up at me and said ‘My sergeant told me to stay here.’ They didn’t want to get out and I don’t blame him a bit. He must have been maybe 17 or 18 ... he was really young and scared.”

So Brown walked the man with the belly wound back an eighth of a mile until he found help.

He didn’t expect a hero’s welcome when he got back to the bunker — and he didn’t get one.

“My sergeant, the Navy corpsman that was above me ... he asked me, ‘How come it took you so long to get him here?’” he said.

After the incident, Brown stayed near the front line, working in a hopital for about five months. He left the military in 1954.

His experiences in the war left him with post traumatic stress disorder, which he deals with even today. But he’s proud of the time he served in the military and of his work on the front lines. He goes to reunions with other corpsmen regularly, celebrating their accomplishments.

“We (are) a proud group...,” he said. “We did a good job and we did it right.”