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Where Edward Glinka arrived South Korea
Edward Glinka was born in Cleveland, OH but his parents were born in Poland. He grew up on the east side of Cleveland, in Slovak Village. He has one brother from another father and
two sisters; only one sister is still alive.
He enjoyed playing baseball, dancing and music. At his school, from first through third
grade, morning classes were in Polish and afternoon classes were in
English. He was good at school. He finished high school then went to
Lincoln Institute for Industrial Management.
Later on, he met his wife at his cousin’s wedding. He got married when he was 20 years old and
six months later he was drafted to be an interpreter. He trained at Camp Breckenridge in Kentucky to be an interpreter and a Browning automatic rifleman, but because he had relatives in Poland the government thought he would
be a communist sympathizer so they sent him to the Korean front to be a cook.
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When he arrived in Korea, he arrived at Incheon Beach.
His first impression was that it was very smelly and a common site was
human waste. It was very cold in Korea only 5-10 above zero. His mustache would be frozen solid in the
morning. For the first 6 months, he
was on the front line shooting at the enemy and living in fox holes in the
ground which he said made him feel like a bug. The remainder of his time, 15 more months,
was spent cooking for the front line.
He cooked from four a.m. until eight p.m. one day and then the next day
he had off. On the days he had off
they used him to deliver food to advanced locations and get supplies for
cooking. While he was a cook, he lived
in a tent with 16 other guys. His
typical day was preparing meals for 215 men from his division or sometimes
998 men of the whole battalion.
Because they didn’t have much technology there, they mashed potatoes
with a baseball bat and cut meat with a bayonet. They also made whisks with baling wire. The eggs would be frozen solid and turkeys
had to be thawed before being able to be stuffed. One of the experiences he had while being a
cook was that their own artillery shot too short and took out one of the
kitchen walls. This was one of the
most frightening experiences for him.
At times, he had a chance to talk with some Korean prisoners of war who said they must fight or their families
would not be fed.
On his final day on the front,
men of all divisions saluted him and thanked him for providing them
meals. This made him feel very
appreciated and proud even though there was nothing about this job that he
had enjoyed. His main goal had been to
just survive and get out just like his Commanding Officer, Major Wells. Everyday he said the Act of Contrition and
expected that he wouldn’t survive. After
his tour ended, he felt relieved. He
was in the military for a total of 21 months as a rifleman and cook. He received an Infantry badge and two
Battle Stars while serving.
After he was discharged, he
visited his brother in Atlantic City with his wife Mary Ann. He and his wife still lived in Cleveland. His first job after his Tour of Duty was a
shoe salesman and from there he went on to work for American Steel and
Wire. They were turned into US Steel
and he stayed there until he retired.
He is currently living in the Cleveland suburb of Medina
and has four children and ten grandchildren.
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