Lance+Corporal+Charles+Gerberich

12/18/1951 - 12/5/1952
They put me in the water purification. I was in water purification for eight weeks. I finished at the top of my class. I was in Camp Legune, North Carolina. From there, I was assigned to the second Marine Air Way, North Carolina. The reason I was assigned to the second Marine Air Way was because I was in water purification. The soldiers were coming back from Korea and had to be rechecked to go back to Korea. That was part of my job.

Then they told me I was going to Korea. I had five months of service and President Truman in office said you needed six months to go over. media type="custom" key="4505592"

They flew me back to Norfolk, Virginia. Myjob was taken there so I got reassigned to Camp Legune, North Carolina. We were moving a helicopter pad and I was assigned there to do all the drainage lines. Being plumbing, they figured I could handle that. It was something I could do. I got discharged on December 23, 1953. From there, I served six more years in reserve and got an honorable discharge in 1959. I could have stayed in and made it to sergeant, but I dropped out.

It’s very important in the Marines to learn to work as a team because in battle you know no one is going to turn and run on you and everyone is going to stick by your side.

Full transcript of interview with Mr. Gerberich: