Colorized Portrait of Marine Pilot. WW2/Korea. Interesting Letters

[Eric Queen]

Capt. Robert G. Hayton. Enlisted in mid 1943. Flew with VMR-353 during WW2 and 1 MAW in Korea.

[Eric Queen]

There were a couple interesting letters with the photo. Here is one. Will most more if any interest.

 

July 6, 1951

Dear Folks,

It's a hot day today, dry and dusty. The rainy season should be here, but to date the weather has been fine.

Got a letter from you yesterday. Thanks for squaring the excise tax away for me. However, should they send out a collector I would be tempted to give him a shovel and broom to clean up around camp as it would be too dangerous for the Marines to have him in the lines with a rifle.

Yes, I got the picture of the marine band, very good too. The Divisions and Wings each have good bands, almost up the Washington outfit.

I am flying an R4D out here. The R5D is a 4 engine DC-4. They bring supplies from Japan over to Korea. The we take them up to the lines in the old R4D, as the fields up close are too small for the 4 engine jobs. Then we evacuate severely wounded men out to Pusan where they are put on hospital ships. I evacuated a North Korean woman soldier the other day. She blew up a bunch of Army Engineers with some mines and grenades, so the Marines shot her and took her prisoner. A plenty tough individual. You can't treat anyone like her as an ordinary female. She would just as soon kill you as look at you.

We have also been flying night flare dropping hops, as I may have mentioned before. We go up across the lines and work on the supply roads. We drop the flares and a night fighter shoots or bombs the trucks and tanks. It is no picnic as the Reds have a lot of AA guns. They cannot see the R4D as it is painted a dull black, but they shoot at the sound or the flares, and consequently shoot way behind us. It's exciting however as the AA looks like a bunch of red balls flying up at you.

The peace talks are scheduled to begin soon. Hope they come to an agreement of some sort. I'll still have to stay out here probably, but the pressure will be off.

Myles should be able to get out soon. Lots of Marine Reserves are being released now in the states. The Navy is OK for some, but he has done his service and should get started on this career.

Hope this finds you all fine. I'd certainly like to sit down to a plate of those green peas you mentioned. Haven't noticed any around here lately.

Eunice is working hard in Santa Ana fixing the garden, etc. She likes it as it keeps her busy and the time passes quickly.

I'll write again soon. Love to all. Bob

P.S. Enclosed is some Korean money for Jimmy. 10 Won

[Eric Queen]

Tough crowd...........LOL

[wcdino685]

Tough crowd...........LOL

lol Jimmy didn't share his won's

 

 

That's pretty awesome though hearing a first hand account of AA fire from the Korean War. Flying a prop plane in that era seems a bit unease.

 

 

 

[Brig]

Fantastic portrait, very nicely colored. Gotta love it...during war, the tax man still comes knocking