KALAHEO — A veteran of two wars will join an all-expense paid trip to see the national memorials in Washington, D.C. The Honor Flight formed in 2005 with a mission to bring veterans of the Second World War to visit the
KALAHEO — A veteran of two wars will join an all-expense paid trip to see the national memorials in Washington, D.C.
The Honor Flight formed in 2005 with a mission to bring veterans of the Second World War to visit the national memorials that honor their service. The organization says it is in recognition for their sacrifices in fighting fascism and allowing freedom to endure.
“It’s a bunch of people who have a vision of doing something for World War II veterans,” said Gene Bullock, a Kalaheo resident who is making his first trip to Washington.
Without a Hawai‘i chapter, Bullock will pay his own way to the Mainland, where he is invited to join Honor Flight San Diego for a two-day stay in Washington.
Bullock said his niece, Janet Allen, coordinated everything with the Honor Flight volunteers. He said the volunteers donate time, money or airline tickets for programs in 20 states.
“Janet talked to me about making this trip,” he said. “She’s always setting up things like this, because that is her nature.”
After a long flight East, Bullock said he expects everyone to be tired and the brief reception and dinner will be followed by much needed rest. At age 88, he is the eldest Marine on Kaua‘i and only recently gave up golfing to care for his knees.
He and other Honor Flight veterans will tour the World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, and witness the changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
The afternoon visits include the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial and the Air Force Monument, followed by the Navy Yard Museum.
Bullock said the memorials help people to remember their feelings of the war and the times. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to some people, he added.
The trip means a lot after serving on board a repair ship in the South Pacific, and then as a Navy corpsman assigned to the Marines in Korea. The Marine unit won a Presidential Citation for action while he was with them in the field.
“People got killed daily,” he said. “You think about it, and you think about it all your life. That’s why they have these special memorials, and that is why I want to go back there and see them.”
All together, Bullock’s 1st Marine Division Association’s Kaua‘i chapter cap has 18 service ribbons — and seven of them have combat stars.
Bullock still meets with Navy League retirees on Tuesday evenings. He said the Marine Corps League is an active group on the island, with a Toys for Tots campaign and a lot of other volunteering.
Bullock was raised in Los Angeles and was attending George Washington High School when the war began in 1941. The school district awarded diplomas to students that enlisted if they were at least six weeks into their senior year.
His parents signed the paperwork and Bullock was off to Navy basic training in San Diego.
The Marines were losing a lot of men at the time, mostly from beach invasions, he said. Nearly his entire Navy class was sent to corpsman school.
He was working at Terminal Island Naval Hospital near Long Beach, Calif. when he was assigned as a corpsman to the USS Ajax (AR-6). It was just launched and undergoing trials.
Bullock would spend the remainder of the war on the Ajax, as it maneuvered around the Pacific, repairing and upgrading small vessels coming back from battle. It also had 26 beds, an operating room and a dental office on aboard.
“We didn’t get any action,” he said. “We were far enough past that.”
What he did see were the islands after the shelling. He said it was amazing to swim to the atolls and see crystal-clear bays and pristine beaches.
As the fleet neared Japan, he said the Ajax was preparing anything that would float in preparation for the eventual invasion of Japan. The ship was patrolling the Philippine Sea when word got out about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
They were deployed to Okinawa as part of naval occupation forces.
After a month they sailed back to dry dock in San Pedro.
At the time, Bullock said he was single and the ship’s doctor offered a promotion if he would extend his enlistment.
“I said no thank you, I am getting off of this pig,” he said.
Bullock went to work as a truck driver for the next five years. He made good money hauling steel and metal parts throughout Southern California.
When the Korean War broke out, he was called back to active duty and assigned to a training center in San Diego. He grew bored with monitoring hygiene of workers at mess halls and requested different duty.
“I was big, bold and stupid,” he said.
In two months, Bullock said he was transferred to fleet Marine Corp. The Marines did not have a medical unit of its own and the Navy assigned them corpsman.
Bullock was issued Marine Corps greens and assigned to a tank division. After cold weather training at Camp Pendleton, he was shipped to Korea for the next 11 months and 15 days.
The Marines had a terrible first year, he said. They had a lot of casualties from harsh winter fighting. He arrived just before the second winter.
The routine included daily patrols that could range from one to 15 miles.
He drove a Jeep to speed up his response time once he became the only first-aid man for around 160 Marines.
“The Marines treat their corpsman like kings,” Bullock said.
He recalled the antitank mines would lift a 60-ton tank right off the ground. Antipersonnel land mines would blow away legs between the knee and the ankle.
He treated gunshot wounds to stop the bleeding, and tag the casualties for evacuation to a hospital unit.
“We never did know what happened to them after we moved on,” he said.
During one particularly heavy day of shelling, Bullock said he sought cover under a field desk. He recalled a sergeant major yelling, “What’s the matter doc? You want to live forever?’
“He wasn’t too sweet of an individual, but everybody said he was a good S.O.B.,” Bullock added
He recalled Marine Corps General Oliver Smith, who was famous for saying, “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.” It was in response to criticism for his strategic withdrawal after becoming surrounded in sub-zero temperatures during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
“That is the attitude that they have,” he said. “You can say General Patton is an S.O.B., but most guys say they would want that guy leading them.”
Bullock was reassigned to California where he became an inspector at a Naval yard. His duties included testing the fast content of ice cream in mess halls, and responding to ship loading injuries at a time when it was all done by hand.
“There were metal bands around everything, and if they snapped it could really hurt someone,” he said.
He retired after 22 years as a chief petty officer.
The war in Vietnam was about to begin and he said it was likely he would have again served as a Corpsman for the Marines.
Bullock went back to driving a truck and retired on a Teamster pension and his military retirement.
After several Kaua‘i vacations, he and wife Evelyn bought their Kalaheo property and moved here permanently in the 1960s.
The two were active in the local Lyons Club and in square dancing circles. Bullock was once president of the volunteers for National Tropical Botanical Garden Na Lima Kokua.
Evelyn volunteered at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. She passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2004.
His stepdaughter passed away from breast cancer in 2008.
Bullock also served on the County Salary Commission and currently serves on the Agency on Elderly Affairs.
For more information and to donate visit www.honorflight.org.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
