Lawrence R. Weaver Jr.: ‘As soon as you heard a noise, you opened fire’

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A man's eyes could play tricks on him while pulling night duty on the front lines during the Korean War, Cogan Station resident Lawrence R. Weaver Jr. said.

Weaver's unit provided heavy machine gun support to the infantry during the war. Situated about a mile behind the lines during the day, the unit would move to the front lines at night, where Weaver would alternately spend four hours on guard duty and two hours sleeping.

"When you first go online, you'd see a tree in the distance. By the time your four hours were up, that tree looked like it was right in front of you," Weaver said. "It was an optical illusion, but you knew (the enemy was) out there running around all night."

Where eyesight failed soldiers, they made up for it by using their sense of hearing, Weaver said.

"We had beer cans stuck on wires. When they started rattling, you knew they were there," he said. "You didn't see anything, but everyone opened up.

"It's mayhem. As soon as you heard a noise, you opened fire - the infantry, the artillery. You fired at everything in front of you," he said.

Weaver, who was born and raised in Williamsport, was 17 years old when he enlisted in the National Guard on Feb. 3, 1950. He was assigned to the local Guard unit, the 200th Field Artillery, Battery B, which operated out of the armory on Penn Street.

The Korean War broke out in June 1950, and Weaver was placed on active duty in January 1952. He went to Fort Campbell, Ky., for training and then to Camp Stoneman, Calif., to ship out for Japan.

Weaver said that when he left California, he was an "acting" artillery mechanic. He received on-the-job training from a warrant officer but shipped out before he could receive any formal training.

"I still knew how to do it," he said.

It took Weaver nine days to get to Japan by boat. He was only there long enough to get his orders for Korea, he said.

Weaver landed in Inchon and, from there, was sent to the 27th Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division in Kumwan Valley, about 50 or 60 miles north of Seoul, "right along the 38th Parallel."

"All screwed up" is how Weaver recalled his first impression of the situation in Korea.

"When I first got there, I was the Jeep driver for the platoon leader. I delivered mail and chow every day to guys on the front line," he said. "There was a field kitchen two or three miles behind the lines. When I went back to get chow, I had to use a section of road that the Chinese had zeroed in on with mortars."

Eventually, Weaver was assigned to man a mobile Quad .50-caliber anti-aircraft gun - an armored half-track vehicle with a battery of four .50-caliber machine guns mounted on a single turret. The guns were used for anti-aircraft fire and to support American troops when they were attacking the enemy, Weaver said.

"The infantry starts their push and we're right behind them, firing over their heads," Weaver said.

Weaver said he saw the enemy up close and personal "many times."

"It got hairy all of the time. I was scared," he said. "You got used to being scared. Each day was never the same. Some days you'd come under mortar fire. Other days there'd be artillery going overhead."

In the Kumwan Valley, the North Koreans were entrenched in a hill called Hill 1062. According to Weaver, the enemy forces, who were clearly visible to the Americans, seemed impervious to attacks from the air.

"You could see (the North Koreans) through binoculars. As soon as air strikes occurred, they disappeared. As soon as the air strikes were over, they came back out again," he said.

Weaver said one of his most vivid memories of the war was during non-stop action at the Chorwon Reservoir.

"They were firing a 90mm cannon right at the enemy for a week," he said. "We were shooting at them and they were shooting back at us. That was scary. Nobody could take more than a week of it."

Weaver said his unit would spend two weeks at the front, then spend a week in reserves behind the lines.

Although Weaver spent much of his time looking through the sights of .50-caliber machine guns, he often felt like his primary "weapons" were a pick and shovel. Weaver's unit had to erect earthworks any time they moved to a new position, which they did frequently, he said.

"Every time we moved to a new position, we had to dig in," he said.

Weaver said he may have downed an enemy MIG jet during the war, but that was never confirmed.

A corporal during his tour in Korea, Weaver turned down an offer for promotion in exchange for staying 30 more days. He returned to the United States in October 1952 and remained on duty with the National Guard until he was discharged in February 1953.

He eventually took a job with the U.S. Postal Service, retiring in 1994 after more than 30 years.

He has been married to his wife Jean for 56 years. They have seven children.