On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Kenneth Zimmet enrolled in the United States Maritime Service, the forgotten service shipping supplies across the seas to ensure victory.  He left his job as a driver at T.R.I. Engineering in Los Angeles and was sworn in a month later, reporting to Avalon for training in seamanship.  Though he would have preferred advanced training as a radioman, he ended up assigned to the steward branch and graduated May 13, 1944 as Steward’s Mate 2/c.  

The young messman joined the crew of the S.S. Schenectady, an oil tanker that had suffered a split hull after sea trials.  Like so many of the hastily built ships that suffered structural flaws, she was ‘belted’ and entered the service.  Once Zimmet joined at San Pedro, they sailed on June 10th for Australia and New Zealand, the Persian Gulf, the Marshall Islands, Curaçao, and through the Panama Canal for the Pacific again.  From Leyte, they sailed back to San Francisco on May 3, 1945, where Zimmet debarked for cook and baker school upgrade for a month.

His next two ships were the S.S. Fort Christina from San Pedro to Christobal, Canal Zone, Curaçao and England and later on the S.S. Marine Fox and Hovenweep.  When he landed in Australia again, he and two mates were celebrating Independence Day at a local café.  Within half an hour of their arrival, he met Jean and they set into motion getting married.  It only took twelve and a half hours – first a short trip to the church, where they learned they needed Jean’s parents’ consent to marry.  Within an hour, they had their signatures and their taxi driver served as best man.  Several other merchant sailors attempted to follow the idea, but the water police collected all the sailors and brought them back to the Hovenweep.

Jean flew to the United States with their newborn son, Kenneth Zimmet, III in 1948 and the family settled in Ojai.  It was not the last time Kenneth would leave the Pacific Coast for service abroad – he joined the National Guard in the post war years and was among those mobilized later for service in Korea.

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Winters in Korea were awfully cold, and many meals began to cool before reaching cannoneers on the line even when packed in insulated mermite cans.  Meals piled onto cafeteria style trays chilled even faster.  The men still appreciated any way to avoid canned rations and gladly accepted whatever came out of the kitchen. Turkey and beans on a cold February day was a most welcome dinner for gunners working hard shifts.

The Ventura County unit, B Battery, 981st Field Artillery Battalion, was called to active duty with the rest of the 40th Infantry Division on September 1st, 1950.  The battalion furnished the Division’s 155mm guns that would be parted out to each regiment in support of operations.  From their early training at Camp Cook, they moved to Japan by the end of March 1951 where they participated in additional training and defended Northern Honshu.  After more than a year, they finally sailed for Korea in three echelons.  The 2d Echelon landed at Inchon on January 22d where they boarded trains for a twelve-hour ride to board open trucks for another forty miles to the front.  When they finally reached their camp, Zimmet’s canteen was completely frozen.

Soon they were online, having taken over from the battered 24th Division in the Kumhwa Valley and with meager heating arrangements were freezing in their trenches and sandbag bunkers.  Outside of B Battery was a sign reading “Ventura City Limits” that was suspiciously similar to the one that used to stand on Highway 101.  Stacks of boxes adorned with the familiar crescent symbol of Army stuffs encroached on Zimmet's kitchen. His equipment was primitive compared to the industrial kitchens on merchant vessels, but it all worked to feed over 140 artillerymen three meals a day.  It was hard work in dreadfully cold conditions, though it was likely that the kitchen was the best bunker or tent to be in given the constant heat from preparing food. The worst part about it all was the constant shelling from both sides. Day and night artillery came in and the 981st Field answered with barrages of their own.  When the guns were firing over twenty-four-hour periods, the cooks could also fire and would jump in to relieve tired gunners.

As was typical for an artillery unit, they often stayed on the line longer than the infantry in order to support other units.  When the infantry went into reserve, the 981st remined to support Republic of Korea battalions, eventually returning to Division control in May, just before Zimmet left for his wife and son after five months in combat.