Korean War Veteran Chuck Class, 89-- Part 1: The Sweater

I interviewed Mr. Class on Wednesday, December 12 at the American Legion Post 703 in Fox Lake, Illinois.

He has been with the post for 42 years in a multitude of jobs, including past commander.  Right now, until the end of December 2018, he is the Adjutant and Financial Officer and lives in nearby Spring Grove.

In the Korean War, he was in the Army in the First Cavalry, supposedly moved by vehicles, but he recalls more often by a lot of marching.  He arrived on scene in 1951-1952, when most of the "nasty stuff" was over and fighting was mostly around the 38th Parallel.  The early part of the war involved battle lines going all the way to the northern part of the peninsula and to the southern part.

Mr. Class  was with the engineers and involved in a lot of bridge and road building as well as explosives (especially disarming mine fields).

The weather in Korea is much like it is here in the Midwest, cold in the winter and hot in the summer.  He arrived over there in June and by December it was pretty cold.  He remembers being very thankful for a sweater he received.  But one time he took the sweater off on a warmer winter day while his unit was working in a mine field.  A shell came in, exploded, and perforated that sweater.  "Thank goodness I wasn't wearing it."

--Cooter