'Stories to tell': Veteran recalls Korean War service, time as Texas Tech professor
Retired Civil Engineer and Texas Tech Professor Fred P. Wagner, Jr. has a long military history in his family. Now 95 years old, Fred possesses a memory that would make even young people quite envious.
What he remembers is a lifetime of service.
“My dad was 40 years old when I was born," he recalled. "He joined the Navy in 1913 and got out in 1918. He came back to Dennison, Texas and was drafted into the Army and sent back to France after WWI to guard German prisoners.
“I was born in Breckenridge, Texas, northeast of Abilene to Fred and Edna Mae Wagner. My dad worked for Sinclair Prairie Pipeline and my mother was a schoolteacher but had to quit when she married dad in 1927. I had one sister who died at birth, so I grew up an only child. We moved to Azle, Texas in 1937. I didn’t play any sports in school, but I did take violin lessons in Fort Worth. I graduated from Azle High in 1945. I attended John Tarleton Jr. College in 1947 working towards a degree in Civil Engineering. In 1947, I attended Texas Technoligical College and earned my degree in Civil Engineering. I stayed in Lubbock and worked at the Texas Highway Department for one and a half years. That work experience proved very useful a few years later. I met my future wife, Betty Sue Malone, while attending John Tarleton. We married on Nov. 12, 1950. We had an infant son who died at birth on June 1, 1953. Our daughter, Cheryl Sue, was born in April of 1957.
“During that summer of 1952, the Korean War was not going very well. The presence of our Air Force was one of the positive actions for the U.S. The Air Force became a separate service of the Armed Forces. They could handle almost everything except the construction and heavy maintenance of airfields. Finally, they started working with the Army Corps of Engineers to reactivate several of the Engineering Aviation Battalions from WWII. This service was given the name SCARWAF or Special Category Army With Air Force. As time went on, the Air Force gradually took over this organization completely.
“The summer of 1952 saw a great many citizens drafted or called to active duty. I had gotten an ROTC commission in 1950 but was not called up. My mother found out from the secretary of the draft board indicated that I was to be drafted. I found out that someone in my position could volunteer for two years of active duty, so I wasted no time taking care of the paperwork. On June 16, 1952, I received my orders and was assigned to the 6th Armored Division at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, but was sent for 13 weeks of temporary duty at Fort Belvoir, Virginia to attend the Associate Engineering Company Officers Course for 13 weeks. Since this was a temporary duty, the Army would not pay for Betty’s travel, so we drove to St. Louis and stayed there for a few days. We decided that Bett would take the car and drive back to Lorenzo, and I would take the train to Washington, D.C. Two or three of my classmates were married and brought their wives. I called Betty and said I could find a place to live if she could get to Washington. She was soon on her way and arrived about a week later.
“After completing the three month school, I reported to Fort Leonard Wood and assigned to a training company. I taught demolitions to recruits. In early 1953, I was given orders for Korea. I was lucky enough to be assigned to SCARWAF. I flew commercially to San Francisco and then a long bus ride to Camp Stoneman. I and some of my friends waited there a couple of weeks until a ship was available to take us to Japan. We boarded the troopship USS Hase, built during WWII in 1943. It made 19 round trips and transport about 75,000 to Korea. My trip was one of the last the ship made as it ended its service in August 1953.
“It is 4,536 knots from San Francisco to Tokyo and it took us two weeks," he recalled. "The last evening (onboard), we saw a few Japanese fishing boats in the distance. The was the first time on the whole trip that we had seen any ship. We arrived in Yokohama the next morning and saw lots of other ships. We were loaded on a blue Air Force bus to Tachikawa Air Force Base.”
Fred had no way of knowing at the time, but less than two months later, a C-124 Globemaster crashed three minutes after takeoff from Tachikawa, killing all 129 servicemen on board. At that time, it was the deadliest crash in aviation history.
“On the night of April 26, we were taken by bus to a C-46 out on the ramp. They lined us up and we got life jackets on, then parachutes. With much effort, we got into the airplane," he said. "We landed at air base K-2 near Taegu. We were then loaded in the back of a truck going down a dirt road to the 417th Engineer Aviation Regiment. I noticed the machine guns guarding the ends of railroad tunnels. We arrived in Pyeongtaek and was met by a Jeep from the 1903rd Engineering Aviation Battalion. I was assigned to Company A. The battalion was building a concrete runway, parallel taxi way. The living conditions were not bad for me (as an officer).Three or four of us lived in a so-called squad tent. There were two diesel fired heaters in the tent. After I had been there about seven months, we built a tropical building as sleeping quarters replacing the tents. Later, I moved to Battalion Headquarters and served as an S-3.”
An S-3 is the staff officer responsible for operational and training plans of the unit.
“I departed the base on March 1, 1954 flying to Seoul and then to Tokyo," he said. "After a few days, a California Easter C-54 was being loaded with cargo and I was the only passenger. We stopped at Wake Island and Japan on the way back to Travis Air Force Base.
“I took a bus to the airport in San Francisco and was able to get a ticket home. I had a thirty leave before reporting back to Fort Leonard Wood. Betty and I took a vacation to south Texas. I took a bus back to Leonard wood. After serving for 22 months, I went back to work for the Texas Highway Department in Lubbock and worked there for 17 years. I decided to continue my education. I went to grad school at Texas Tech and received my Master’s Degree in 1968 and my PHD in Civil Engineering in 1972. I was an Associate Professor and taught at Tech for 22 years. My wife had a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Home Economics and our daughter, Cheryl Smith, also has a degree in Civil Engineering."
Betty passed away in June 2010 and Fred now lives at Carillon in Lubbock. He was proud to have gone on the Texas South Plains Honor Flight in 2019. His favorite stop was the Marine Museum at Quantico, Virginia.
“I like to do creative writing and telling good stories," he said.
Enjoying a long, rich life, former Air Force Captain and Texas Tech professor Fred Wagner, Jr. still has a lot of “good stories” to tell.
Larry A. Williams is the veterans liaison co-chair for the Texas South Plains Honor Flight and co-author of "Texas South Plains War Stories.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock veteran recalls Korean War, time as Texas Tech professor
