Veterans Day 2012: Honoring those who served; Waukon's Kenneth Fahey recounts his military service while in Korea

by Lissa Blake

Kenneth Fahey had barely ever been out of Waukon when he was drafted into the Korean War.
A 1948 graduate of St. Patrick’s High School in Waukon, he farmed with his father, Joe, and his brother, Pat, on a small farm north of Waukon.“I had been expecting to get drafted,” remembered Fahey. “There were quite a few from Waukon.”
In the fall of 1951, Fahey got his orders to attend eight weeks of basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, after which he hitchhiked back to Waukon, where he married his high school sweetheart, Mary Bresnahan, before returning for eight more weeks of tractor operator training. “It was all a new experience for me, I’d never been away from home before,” said Fahey.
Fahey said one of the biggest surprises for him as a 20-year-old kid from the country was the number of people of color there were in his unit. “The 11th Engineers Company was about 80 percent colored. It was a shock for me because I had never met anyone of color before,” he said. “They were sure good guys, and I enjoyed them all.”
Fahey said while being away from home was a hardship for him, he got a lucky break when he met Mel Fiegan of South Dakota, who is still a good friend today. “He was a squad leader at Ft. Leonard and we became friends. Because of that, I never had to pull any guard or KP or anything,” he said.
After basic, when the 11th boarded the M.M. Patrick for Japan, Fahey’s friendship with Fiegan helped ease the trip. “Mel was in charge of the library on ship for the officers. So I got to hang out there with him for most of the journey,” he said.
Fahey remembers it was a 16-day journey to Japan, and many of his colleagues got sick during the trip. After they landed in Japan, they took a smaller ship to Pusan, Korea and boarded a train for Seoul.

A GOOD JOB
Fahey was quickly put to work as a road grader, operating heavy equipment. “Our company commander was against the colored, so he put all of us white guys on equipment, while the men of color were stuck digging ditches,” he said. “I never felt like they held it against us, because that’s just how things were then. It’d be a way different story now.”
Fahey said his primary duty was to grade roads near the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH). They had to keep the roads in good enough shape for the medical helicopters to land very close to the unit. “They landed right at the door,” he said.
Fahey said while he never had any close calls, he could often see the light from the tracer bullets up in the hills. “The guy who had slept next to me the whole time hit a land mine with his road grader and died. There were a lot of guys who died after stepping on mines. I guess I never stepped off where nobody else ever went,” he said.

R & R
Fahey said he spent a total of 14 months and four days in Korea, and would occasionally get the okay to go to Seoul or Japan for a little rest and relaxation. “We ran around seeing all kinds of shows. It was pretty different for a kid from Waukon,” he said.

FALLEN HEROES
Fahey said one of the toughest things for him during the war was the friends he lost. “My best friend, Don Baxter, was a prisoner of war. He died over there in a prison camp. He froze to death,” he said. “There were others from Waukon, John Ryan and Dale Roeder. They did time as POWs too.”

COMING HOME
Fahey returned to Waukon in June of 1953 and returned to farming. He and Mary had nine children.
“I always liked farming, but so much of it has changed. It’s so modern. When I left for Korea my dad was still using a team of horses and when I came back he’d bought his first tractor,” he said.
Fahey said after selling his farm in 1992, he still enjoyed helping other farmers with putting in crops and harvesting corn up until about three years ago. He said one of the results of his time is Korea is that he gained a lifelong love of travel, and still travels with his family today.
“My wife doesn’t travel, but my kids do. A few years ago, my daughter (Diane Ernst) and I landed in Germany, got on a bus and went to the Czech Republic and through Poland, Russia, and into Finland. We then got on a barge with our bus and everything, which took us to Sweden. Sweden is a beautiful country because it’s never been in any wars. Then we went down to Denmark and back to Germany,” he said. “I’ve also been to Ireland and China and seen the Great Wall. I guess I got the bug for traveling. You want to travel when you’re young, don’t wait until you can’t get up those steps.”

WAR TODAY
When asked how he feels about the wars Americans are involved in today, Fahey shook his head. “We shouldn’t be in them. You’re not going to change those people’s way of living,” he said.
“It just seems the women have no rights at all. If the women in these countries could get some rights, maybe things would change. I remember hearing a story of a young girl who was sold by her family to an older man. And she ran away. When her folks caught her, they cut her ears off,” he said. “You wouldn’t treat your dog that way, but it’s been that way for hundreds of years.”
But Fahey said he is still convinced the world is a good place and feels fortunate he was born in America. “I think all the people are good in the world, but this is a great country,” he said.