This past May 16 there was a Stars & Stripes Honor Flight to Washington D.C. I had the priviledge of telling Korean War veteran Jim Bohn’s story before he participated in the flight.
Bohn died last Wednesday, Sept. 8. There will be a memorial gathering for Jim Bohn on Friday, Sep. 18 at 9 a.m. Grand Hall at Cedar Ridge 101 Cedar Ridge Dr. West Bend.
Jim Bohn, 86, is a Korean War veteran. He received a telegram from the Army of the U.S. in 1952.
At 24 years old Bohn was ordered to report to Texas in three days.
“The short story is they needed medics and I was headed to Korea,” he said.
In an effort to get his orders changed, Bohn became a paratrooper and expected an assignment in Germany, but that wasn’t to be.
“I was in great physical shape; 135 pounds of guts and steal but I was scared,” said Bohn. “I was a young guy. I liked women, I liked fun but I didn’t want to be in the Army but I had to.”
It was September and Bohn arrived in Busan and moved onto Incheon, went through three quick days and nights of training before joining the 30th Infantry.
Right before Christmas Lt. Bohn was out with Sgt. Sam David from Texas. “He was regular Army and we were trying to retrieve a guy who was wounded,” said Bohn. “We shouldn’t have been out there. The Chinese started lobbing mortar shells, harassment fire and Sam got killed. I took one in the ass.”
Bohn didn’t realize he was hit. He mentions during a breath that he got a Purple Heart. “That was a bunch of B.S.,” he said downplaying the medal given for being wounded or killed in service.
Admittedly shook up by the incident, Bohn was reassigned to the Korean Military Advisory Group.
“I was way behind the lines and I was fine with that,” he said. Bohn worked in the surgeon general’s office of the Korean army.
The work he remembers most was inoculating 8,000 men for small pox in about four days. After received his “going home orders” Bohn was recognized for his service.
The medals are still shiny and crisp and white. Bohn refers to them as “junk.” “We did what we had to do,” he said.
In September 1953 Bohn was discharged. He flew into Colorado, back to Wisconsin, met his future wife, raised a family and worked for his parents at Bohn Pharmacy at 27th and Fond du Lac Avenue.
Bohn is anxious to be on the Honor Flight and visit D.C. “I like history,” he said.