In May 1948, the local steel mills had no openings for new hires, so Bill Gobert, his cousin, and three other boys of their senior class decided to enlist. Both the Air Force (their top choice) and the Navy had their quotas filled, so his cousin enthusiastically suggested the Marine Corps. On their first day they were subjected to unceremonious haircuts cut to their scalp, making one nearly unrecognizable to himself. Gobert joined Platoon 203 with 82 men from New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Parris Island molded them, but Camp Lejune refined them. Anyone who could swim well and wanted to go onboard ship were prime targets for the Recon Company recruiter who met them upon arrival. Each recruiter represented a branch or specialization and did their best to draw in the arriving Marines with great interest. His pitch managed to sway Bill, and he was off to the 2d Marine Division Reconnaissance Company for 28 months of padding rubber boats all over North America. He was on leave at home when the North Koreans invaded – his mother delivered the news. Gobert knew he would be shipped out immediately when he returned to Lejune in three days, but when he arrived, he was surprised to find his name absent from the list. He was left behind while the Division was stripped to supplement the 1st Marine Division heading to the Far East. For two weeks he waited, somewhat dejected, while his buddies made it overseas and into combat. He finally made it over in September just after the Inchon landing. The Recon Company, then under the control of the 5th Marines, was evolving from a company of nine-man boat teams into a motorized unit of four-man jeep teams. At the time they were in Seoul, however, they were on foot. They felt out the fringes of Division lines to report exactly what they encountered. Information from natives, prisoners and captured documents was often unreliable; aerial photos could help, but were also lacking for their own reasons, and information from allied units and upper echelon was frequently delayed. These shortcomings left the responsibility of accurate scouting to Recon Company. With the city secured and city fighting concluding, they sent out foot patrols to search the surround low hills for stragglers, prisoners, and locate positions to report strength and disposition. Gobert ran point on his first patrol in combat. At the end of the month, they reverted to Division control and set up security around the embassy in Seoul. While the days were warm, the nights became progressively cooler after dark, but the week exhibited the relative comforts provided for Recon Company. While the line companies lived in holes and ate C-rations, the recon Marines had the luxury of warm meals and tentage or occupied buildings. Soon they displaced to Ascom City and then to the harbor to embark to Wonson. * The primary mission for Recon Company was to patrol the massive 80-mile gap between X Corps on the East Coast and Eighth Army on the West Coast. In this sharp, mountainous terrain, they employed their first motorized patrol to cover the vast distances to which they were assigned. It set the precedent for their transformation from rubber boats and more closely matched the Army’s reconnaissance units, however the Marines had only jeeps, not armored vehicles, and lacked almost all the heavy weapons with which the Army was equipped. When they came under fire they were hit hard and speed became a great necessity. They were, after all, not interested in engaging the enemy to a great extent, only making contact and returning to Division to report their findings. The company explored each town along their route where the natives reported straggling enemy troops moving at night. Their run of fights across North Korea began. One native reported 4,000 Reds in the town ahead, which was an intimidating number for the company, but they pushed on. Only five North Koreans hit their small perimeter that night, but non got through. They finally met the enemy in force outside of Huksu-ri – enough so that they turned and sped back to Hungnam to report their findings. They continued this pattern of seeking out the enemy, exchanging fire, and splitting to report back. At the outskirts of Chinhung-ni, they dismounted their jeeps and a foot patrol encountered two T-34 tanks in town, which they disabled with grenades. Screening the flank of 7th Marines resulting in several enemy infiltrations and discoveries of small pockets of soldiers who they exchanged fire with but frequently broke off before accounting for any casualties. On November 4th, after several of these short spats with unknown results, they headed for Sudong-ni in the early morning. They quickly wiped out a platoon of enemy, destroyed four T-34s with recoilless rifles and air support, and captured four prisoners. Even though it was quite late and nearing dark, they received orders to make further contact. Gobert’s 3d Platoon drove on – right into an ambush. The eight jeeps started up the road seeking more Chinese when around the bend they were met with ripping machinegun fire. All the men of the first jeep were killed with several others wounded. In the last jeep of the column, Gobert leapt out with Fred Suffolk and scrambled to get under the vehicle. Cracking gunfire smacked against the ground and metal hulls of the jeeps. Gasoline was soon trickling from above them and they decided it was time to move. They dove in opposite directions – Gobert sneaking behind a large rock in a stream near the road. His rifle had been shot and blown up. He could only rely on incoming air support. He waited for half an hour under fire until the Corsairs came raining .50-caliber and rockets on their first pass. A 500-lb bomb followed with a final strike of napalm on the hill before them. Gobert prayed the drop was far enough away, but he still felt the heat of the blast from his chilly, watery refuge. After two hours, they returned to the 7th Marines with two killed, two officers and nine men wounded, and two jeeps lost. * Weary, weak and barely lucid, the Recon Company Marines maintained their grit during the breakout from the west side of the Chosin reservoir and days-long march to the blown bridge at the Funchilin Pass. They survived on hardly any food except for handfuls of Tootsie Rolls from an air drop at Koto-ri. The drop of candy was a mistake after confusion over the Marines’ operation word ‘tootsie roll,’ but the chocolate treats were welcomed the sugar was a necessary supplement to their lack of food. Many men had frozen toes, feet, fingers and hands among other wounds and injuries. They made it to the Fuchilin Pass to find the blown bridge which was completely demoralizing as it seemed they were out of options. They were trapped on one jagged side of the vertical drop until engineers installed a treadway bridge to span the chasm. Bill was in the last fire team on rear guard, still fighting off skirmishers trying to inflict damage on the Marine column. Their last stand here became a source of pride as it ended up being only the ‘half assed’ Recon Company with their twenty jeeps between the 1st Marine Division and what seemed like the entire Chinese Army. The long days between the end of November and beginning of December was the worst experience during Bill's Korean tour, much of the time filled with survival rather than fighting. He reached a breaking point and openly wept at Koto-ri when 117 were buried in a mass grave. Not as much for the deaths of so many, but for the helplessness he felt for them and those who still lived. Would any of them live through the next day? After covering the breakout through the Funchilin Pass, the Recon Company reached Sudong-ni with Regimental Combat Team-1 which had been cobbled together from the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, service troops, 2d Battalion, 31st Infantry, and other Army personnel who had escaped entrapment on the east side of the Reservoir. They were the last unit to pass through the town after the 5th and 7th Marines. It was after midnight when they reached the area and were quickly surrounded by Chinese who pounced on the exhausted men. The counterattack was unorganized but effective, fighting through the night until the Chinese retreated near dawn. After hours of marching on foot in full combat pack, sleeping bags, blankets and heavy winter clothing, the Marines reached Majon-dong where they boarded Army vehicles for transport to Hamhung. Most fell asleep immediately as they were off their feet, and they rejoiced upon reaching the hospitality of Navy ships anchored at sea. Though many would continue to fight in Korea for a number of months, the Chosin campaign was over. Bill returned to duty with Recon Company when they went back online in January. His war in Korea was far from over, but the breakout was behind him and 1950 was by far more tumultuous than any month in 1951. They were not out of action for long and beginning in January, immediately commenced searching for guerillas hiding in the Andong area. Every day, their motorized patrols ran into roadblocks, but only once engaged a large group of guerilla fighters. It was great training for new men who knew little about motorized reconnaissance. Their routine remained much the same through Operation Killer in February and during the Spring Counter Offensive. They made motorized patrols into Chunchon and along the communication route to Seoul. On one occasion, they hid out in a town for two nights well concealed to trace enemy cavalry and infantry patrols, ultimately directing air strikes on them. After his promotion to corporal, the Recon Company became most active throughout the spring continuing patrols throughout the hills around Division area. Once they committed to the Punchbowl area in autumn, Recon Company had the distinction of participating in the first aerial assault by helicopter. During Operation Summit in September, they were air lifted to Hill 884 and climbed down the knotted ropes as part of “Towhey’s Raiders”. When Bill left Korea, he knew he had been part of history during the year he served in combat. He frequently carried Tootsie Rolls as a reminder. He found Recon Company to be great duty, especially compared to a typical rifle company who faced the enemy in combat for far longer periods. The Recon Marines strived for concealment and rarely fired a shot except in self-defense. They also had the luxury of adequate protection from the elements and better provisions than C-rations. His last six months in the service saw his promotion to sergeant while acting as a guard at the Navy prison in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was miserable duty and on the very last night was called to the sergeant’s office to sign papers. He was promptly chewed out for arriving wearing shower slippers and confined to the base until the next day when his term of enlistment ended.