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Published on: 5/1/2008
Last Visited: 5/14/2008
Patrick Quinn came to America by boat with one of his brothers in 1947.They were from Kilkeel, County Down.Pat was 22 years old.The crossing was rough, and lasted eleven or twelve days.When they finally arrived in New York, they stayed a few days, then headed for Chicago, where they had family.Pat was a carpenter by trade, and planned to build a life for himself in a new home, a new country.He lived at 55th and Morgan in Visitation Parish.There were a lot of Irish in the parish.He was hired by Henry Brothers Construction, which built a lot of churches and schools back in those days.But Pat's plans for a future were soon interrupted.As an Irish citizen entering the U.S. on a permanent visa, Pat knew he was subject to the draft.America was between wars then.He registered, as the law required, and was drafted in 1949.His total commitment to the Army would be five years.He was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington for basic training and spent thirteen months there.He was released to the Army Reserve in February of 1950 with the rank of corporal.He was called back up in September of that year, but now the stakes were much higher.The Korean War had started.
I recently sat down with Pat in the kitchen of his home in Burbank, Illinois, where he and his wife Ann have lived since 1972.They have two children, Thomas and Maureen.Pictures of their 6 grandchildren are on the refrigerator.Pat is a soft-spoken, humble man of 83 years who hasn't lost his brogue.I asked him to tell me what happened to him in the Korean War.For the next 2 hours, Pat took me back to America's "Forgotten War."Some of what you are about to read is not for the faint of heart.Pat has an astonishing memory.But then, it would be hard to forget what he went through.
"I didn't mind going to Korea," says Pat."We had to stop Communism somewhere.I knew where Korea was on a map, but that's all I knew about it."Pat's troop ship landed at Inchon in November of 1950, where he joined L Company, 30th Regiment, Second Infantry Division.He was made leader of a rifle squad."I had a squad of nine guys."By February of 1951, Pat was promoted to the rank of sergeant.The weather was brutal in Korea that winter."Everybody was about frozen to death, including the Chinese," according to were afraid of American planes.For the first two days they were given nothing to eat.They kept marching because the Chinese had no place to put their prisoners.There were no POW camps at that stage of the war.The only way Pat knew which direction they were taking them was by watching the Big Dipper.
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Pat kept praying.
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Pat encouraged him, telling him the next camp was just over the hill, but the kid couldn't take another step.Pat told him to hang onto his jacket, and he'd pull him."I'll never know where I got the strength."
By April of ‘51, there were about 700 POWs with Pat and his squad.They were brought to a row of mud houses they quickly named "Bean Camp," after their diet.Because there was nothing to identify it as a POW camp, American planes bombed and strafed the buildings regularly.16 POW officers were killed in one day by their own planes.Whether they fell from friendly fire, starvation, lack of medical care, dehydration, or the severe weather, Pat and his fellow-captives buried four or five comrades every day.They named the burial ground "Boot Hill."Out of the 700 prisoners of war, 130 came home.Those who survived also had to deal with beriberi, night blindness, Pat.They engaged the Chinese and North Koreans in skirmishes.Pat led his squad into enemy territory on patrols.
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Pat knew of another route and tried that, but it was no good."The bullets were ricocheting off the mountains and the rocks.
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A Chinese soldier ran up to Pat and his six men.
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Pat and his squad were searched and led to the side of a hill.
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Then they started marching Pat and his squad.More POWs were captured and added to their number.They only moved at night, because the Chinese fever, and malnutrition.Then there was the body lice, worms and frostbite.Young men begged God to take them."It was a living nightmare," says Pat, "but you couldn't let it bother you."To this day, Pat has no feeling in his fingertips or toes.
Later, they were moved by train to another camp.The POWs were put in open cars instead of boxcars, where it would have been warmer.The train was hidden during the day in a tunnel.Some POWs snuck into the boxcars, but the engine was kept running and the men were being asphyxiated.Pat and another Irishman named Paddy May went back to find them.
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Then, on August 19, 1953, Pat Quinn and his fellow POWs were exchanged.Pat was a prisoner of war for 31 months.His elation from surviving and being free was indescribable, he says, "Like floating on air."
On the ship that took Pat and the other POWs to San Francisco, they were interrogated.There was great fear the POWs had succumbed to Communism, had become collaborators.The paranoia of McCarthyism had already taken hold.Pat was hospitalized when he got back to the States, first in San Francisco, and again at Great Lakes when he returned to Chicago.He had lost 30 pounds.
After he recovered, Pat went back to work as a carpenter for Henry Brothers.He could no longer work on roofs, because with no feeling in his toes, it was now dangerous.He eventually went to work as a carpenter for the Water Reclamation District, where he spent the rest of his career.He married Ann in 1955 and they raised two kids.
Pat retired in 1990, at age 65, but is still a very busy guy.He's been very active at Gaelic Park through the years, and he volunteers once a week at Hines VA Hospital.While he was being treated there himself he decided he'd like to help out.He's in the Escort Service.He takes the patients to physical therapy and to get x-rays.The men don't have to hold his coat like the young soldier in Korea, they have wheelchairs, but Pat is still helping his buddies up that hill.
Pat refused to tell me about his decorations.He insists that he is no hero."Just a lucky survivor."Most people would disagree.
Pat served "his" country for five years, putting his life on the line again and again, and enduring unimaginable hardships.And he wasn't even a U.S. citizen, at least not technically."As far as I was concerned, the day I raised my hand and took the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, I was a citizen."After his ordeal in Korea, he applied for U.S. citizenship and it was made official in June of 1955.Many of his Irish comrades didn't make it back to apply.
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Pat Quinn became part of that campaign, tracking down information on soldiers and their families in the Chicago area.
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Pat Quinn was there at the ceremony too.He helped to make it happen.
When I was finished interviewing Pat, he pulled a little pouch from him pocket, opened it up, and let the contents spill onto the kitchen table.It was the Rosary he carried with him in Korea.The beads were mostly disconnected, the Crucifix and medals detached.He had worn it out.He now refers to it as his good luck piece.
Over 140,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in Korea, and there are 8,000 MIAs.As Pat Quinn puts it, "Freedom is not free."
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