gone down with the boat that sank. But when he learned I was okay he sent me
a message: "Fine, be back at X Corps headquarters on December 27th." I caught
a plane at Tachikawa and got back to X Corps headquarters on time.
Q ..
Let me ask you at this time to comment on the KATUSAs, the Korean
augmentation to the United States Army program. As far as the engineers were
concerned, was it a good program?
A ..
Yes, the KATUSA program was a good one and it helped us considerably.
However, we only used them intermittently and in small amounts before our
evacuation of Hungnam. We made much greater use of the KATUSAs when we
started going north again in 1951. At one time I believe X Corps had over 7,000
KATUSAs. They worked alongside our engineers to build roads, repair railroads,
and otherwise help out the logistical efforts. They also manhandled supplies and
Q ..
Did you have any problems with the KATUSAs?
A
There were no particular problems, they were easy to deal with. The KATUSAs
learned quickly and worked hard. We screened them and put those who were more
mechanically adept to work at first maintaining and then operating equipment.
Some of them made excellent equipment operators. Many KATUSAs who
maintained our equipment believed that if the equipment looked well, it would work
well. As a result, they polished the vehicles but didn't pick up the hoods and look
at the oil levels. We had to teach them to change the oil and use grease guns.
After that the vehicles not only looked good but ran well. We also used KATUSAs
to manhandle supplies at which they performed well. A KATUSA could put 100
pounds of supplies on an A-frame and walk right up the side of a mountain. For
one attack I recall using 500 KATUSAs as a human supply chain.
We also used KATUSAs to carve out roads on the sides of mountains. We tried
to avoid disrupting the rice paddies that had been terraced over centuries with much
care. In general we tried to do as little damage as possible to Korean ecology. We
had an unlimited supply of dynamite and taught KATUSAs how to drill and
emplace explosive charges. Building roads by cutting into the side of mountains
had another advantage. The rice paddies in the flat lands required enormous
amounts of rock to act as a foundation, whereas a road carved out of the side of
a mountain had a natural rock foundation. Moreover, building roads on the sides
of mountains left us lots of rock to lay down foundations for roads in the flat
ground. Accordingly, we carved out roads on the sides of mountains whenever
possible.
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