CHESTER FRYE: Jersey Shore man learned early in life of way of the world

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It was his 19th birthday, and young Chester Frye was on a ship off the coast of Korea.

Frye, a member of the 7th Army Division, had spent about a month in Korea after serving for more than a year as part of the American occupation forces in Japan.

"I thought we were going back to Japan to resume occupation duty," Frye said. "Boy, was I wrong. Ten days later we went ashore at Iwon, (Korea) and headed right for the (Chinese) border."

U.S. forces had launched an offensive against the North Koreans and had them in full retreat. In their eagerness to keep the enemy on the run, the Americans used vehicles to shuttle combat troops to within viewing distance of Manchuria, Frye said.

Frye, a communications specialist assigned to a field artillery battalion, was enlisted to drive troops to the front.

"When I wasn't laying communication lines, I was shuttling troops," he said. "I picked up troops from the 1st Battalion of the 37th Infantry Regiment and took them to the Chosin Reservoir. We dumped those guys off and headed back."

On his way back up a mountain pass heading out of the reservoir, Frye said he passed his friend Russell Baney, whose unit was heading toward the reservoir. Baney saw Frye and waved, he said.

Not long after the Americans reached the reservoir, the Chinese came pouring across the border, surrounding many American units in the process.

Frye and other motorized units now had to rescue the very troops they'd transported to the reservoir.

"When I got back to my outfit, that's when I learned the Chinese had entered the war and had those guys trapped," he said. "Every vehicle that was available went right up to the border."

Frye said troops were "leap-frogged" out of the reservoir. Those closest to the enemy were trucked out of harm's way, then the trucks would return for the next closest units, he said.

"We did this all day long till about 10 o'clock at night," he said. "Anybody left behind was taken prisoner or killed."

Following his experience at the reservoir, Frye was assigned as a forward observer for the infantry.

"Our job was to call in artillery support when we needed it," he said.

The job did not last long. On his second day as an observer, he was wounded when his unit walked into an ambush.

"I was on my belly crawling. I had my carbine and I had half the radio," he said. "The sergeant had the other half, trying to get to shelter."

"That's when I got hit. The bullet went through the back of my arm and out the bicep," he said. "My helmet flew off into a ditch. The guy next to me got hit in two places."

Frye said his wound was not very painful. He was evacuated and spent a month in a hospital.

During his stay in the hospital, Frye's unit went into reserves, he said.

"They were loafing and getting fat and everything. I was out of the hospital about a week and we jumped right back into combat," he said. "I said, 'I was in the hospital suffering and you guys were enjoying life.' They said, 'No, we were just waiting for you to get back.' "

Although he was involved in four major campaigns while in Korea, the time he spent there after his stay in the hospital was "pretty darn dull," he said.

"The lines shifted back and forth. There were no real big battles after that," he said.

As Frye's tour of duty began to wind down, his fellow soldiers tried to keep him out of harm's way, he said. His tent mates forbade him to go outside, though on one occasion with just two days left before he shipped out, he looked under a tarp in the camp to discover a wounded Chinese soldier had crawled under it.

The soldier had a gaping hole in his leg that had become infected and gangrenous, he said.

"After that, they wouldn't let me touch anything," Frye said. "They said, 'If that guy had been in good shape and had a weapon, I'd have been dead right there.' "

Frye left Korea in June 1951. He arrived home in Jersey Shore on July 2.

Unlike many Korean War veterans who came home to little or no fanfare, Frye was honored in a parade, accidental though it was.

The borough was celebrating its sesquicentennial and recruited five local Korean War veterans to participate in a parade honoring the occasion.

"I just happened to be home at the right time," he said.

Frye said that after being discharged in June 1952, he worked a variety of jobs in the area, then took a job in Trenton, N.J., operating heavy machinery.

He held that job for 33 years. When he retired in 1993, he returned to Jersey Shore.