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BY KENDALL DUFFIE
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
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Street Roots • Nov. 10-16, 2017
The Portland Veteran’s Project
The following are excerpts from interviews high school junior
Kendall Duffie conducted with Portland veterans. You can read the
complete interviews a t portlandveteransproject.wordpress.com
A uthor’s note: I wanted the veterans to be able to tell me the whole, uncensored
truth, while also protecting their privacy, so I ’ve only used their initials and birth
year when introducing them. I ’ve also only used commission photos, or photos
from their era, for the same reasons. - Kendall Duffie
Age: 88
Served: Army artillery, second
lieutenant, first lieutenant. Korea
n Korea, I served at the 38th parallel,
attached to a platoon of the 7th division.
As I mentioned, I was a forward observer,
and I was facing a hill called Old Baldy. I
arrived in Korea in March of 1953.1 knew
something was up, because instead of
putting me on a troop ship to Korea, they
put me on a Pan Am chartered airline and
flew me there. When I got there, they said,
“We don’t need you to shoot down airplanes
anymore because they’ve all been shot down.
We’d like you to be a forward observer.” I
said, “Why is that?” They said, “We have a
shortage of forward observers because of
casualties.” Great for my morale.
I
realized that there were veterans
around me that 1 didn't even know: a
man at the church where I work, my
questions, and I realized that other
Tell m e about any specific m emories or
experiences that stand out.
whom use a wheelchair, or have had
limbs amputated - have jumped from
I think the thing that bothered me the
most was when I was out at the radar
station, and I was told that the Chinese had
infiltrated my outpost, Westview. My
replacement had become a casualty. That
was very depressing. It could’ve been me.
Seventy-two hours later, the war was over. I
realized how stupid this whole thing was:
The war was stupid. The other thing I recall
(was that) most
of the senior,
professional
Army people
felt that the war
was never won,
that there’s a
stalemate. I
think that
43,000 young
Americans got
killed for no
purpose, for no
reason at all. I
felt very bad
about that, as
an adult. I feel
bad about the Vietnam war. I feel bad about
a lot of things - about what’s going on in the
Middle East today. But, at that point, I just
felt how lucky I was that I wasn’t there, but
also sad. That was the first time, in the
history of the United States, without a
victory. That was a shame. Today, we have
this problem with Korea, because we never
won the war. Had we won the war, we
wouldn’t be in the fix we are today.
Do you remember the day Pork Chop Hill
was attacked?
July 6, 1953, at 11 o’clock. I can’t
remember what I had for breakfast this
morning, but I know exactly what I saw on
July 6, 1953. It was the most unbelievably
horrible sight I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’ll never forget it. It was just terrible.
Thousands of Chinese swarming up the
hill against a small unit of American soldiers
on the South post. It lasted five days, and in
five days, the management decided to pull
out. They left Pork Chop and turned the hill
over to the Chinese. We had 273 casualties
in five days - heavy. How many casualties
were there in the Chinese? We counted
1,500.1 could see Chinese stacked two or
three deep in the trenches. It’s hard to even
think about it, because it was just seeing
your friends - your brothers - massacred.
(People) ask, “Did you ever kill anyone?” I
have to be careful how I answer that
question. I say, “I never pulled a trigger. I
have no idea how many casualties I created.
All I know, if I saw enemy activity, I just
See VETERANS, page 10
soldiers and sailed across the world,
has stuck with me in a way that I
hadn't experienced before. I knew I
would never forget what this World
Age 43
Service: United States Army. E4 specialist,
first lieutenant, captain. Afghanistan and
Iraq.
On returning from service:
here was a point at which the transition
from the time difference was a little bit
tricky; you’re used to staying up. It’s a full
cycle. I remember at one point being awake,
and laying in bed, like, “This is stupid. I can’t
go to sleep. I should just get up and do stuff.
I’m just going to run to Walmart, because I
know they’re open 24 hours, and I know I
need to pick up a few things.” I distinctly
remember walking into Walmart at like 3 in
the morning. The lights were super bright,
and I remember being in the toothpaste
aisle, because I needed toothpaste, and I’m
(thinking), “This is crazy. How is it that we
have 40 different toothpastes to pick from?”
Because I had just spent nine months going
to the (post exchange) that had two. I
literally had to sit down in the aisle for a
moment, to catch my breath, because I’m
T
Kendall Duffte is a junior at Oregon
Episcopal School, a college prepatory
like, “I don’t remember how to do this
anymore. How do I pick this?” But then I got
better. I can see where people get
overwhelmed, and can’t get out of that to
find their way back.
How did your military service affect how you
think about wars today?
I try to remain neutral
in that I try to remember
that the people who are
being sent over there are
being sent over there to
do a job. They may not
agree with the job, but
they volunteered, and
they signed up, so they’re
going to do the job. I
think that people that haven’t
been through that experience maybe don’t
realize that. I’ve had people who have tried
to get into a philosophical debate over the
war in Afghanistan or Iraq. I point to things
like, because we were in Afghanistan, little
girls were able to go to school. Who are you
to say, “Well, we shouldn’t have gone into
Afghanistan.” So basically, you’re saying that
you wanted to allow that to happen? To not
let little girls be allowed to go to school?
Then, they get into, “Well, the culture, blah
blah blah.” Well, I understand their culture,
but my way of thinking is all little girls
should have that. That, to me, is a
fundamental right. If there’s a culture that’s
denying that right to a subset of people,
then I do think that we need to help those
people. I try to turn it
around that way.
Probably the biggest
thing I did (in Iraq was)
to authorize the
expenditure of some
money that allowed a
part to be flown in that
was then used to fix the
pump that allowed a
whole town of people to
have running water. They
hadn’t had running water because someone
had spoken out in the town against (Saddam
Hussein), so he cut off that person’s hand,
and then broke their pump, so the whole
town was punished. We don’t understand
things like that, because we don’t have a
government that does that. As much as
people think our government is so terrible
and awful, when you put it into perspective
like that, it’s very different.