"The historians really did not know what happened." (Audio interview)

Earl R. Hufford

Earl Hufford, Korea, ca 1952. War: Korean War, 1950-1953 Branch: Army Unit: 11th Evacuation Hospital, Medical Corps Service Location: Fort Meade, Maryland; Camp Pickett, Virginia; Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Lewis, Washington; Seoul, Wanju, Inchon and Inje, South Korea Rank: Private First Class

“If you ever watch MASH on television, that’s the way it is,” says Earl Hufford, who was there, in Korea, not as a sardonic doctor like Hawkeye Pierce but working a variety of support jobs, including stints as a chaplain’s assistant. Hufford was a college student in Ohio with a Methodist preacher’s license when he was drafted. His aptitude for things medical landed him in a series of courses—he even learned how to do autopsies. Although his unit treated wounded North Korean soldiers and built a hospital for them, the enemy didn’t return any favors. They bombed Hufford’s facility, thinking it was a bacteriological weapons site, although it was plainly marked with a red cross.