Jack Reissman - Korean War Engineer

[Walt's Daughter]

Received this letter from Jack Reissman, a Korean vet. I am looking forward to hearing from him and his buddies on our forum. Jack, a warm welcome to you. Feel free to jump in and tell us all about yourself. Papa Art, thanks for introducing us.

 

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Hello Marion,

This is me standing in the foreground of the steel trestle bridge the 430th built over the Soyang river South of the town of Inje. 1951-52. (see photo below)

 

I am glad to hear that I have been accepted to your Website.

 

I have been e-mailin Art Morneweck for sometime and he suggested that I join your website, since I was an Engineer in Korea during the war. (1951-1952)

 

I really thought I "blew" it when I sent a summary of the 430th Engineers activities while I was with them I didn't see a "Submit" icon and suddenly, I couldn't find my e-mail and thought it was lost somewhere.

Glad that you must have recieved it as I worked hard to remember what I was going to relate.

 

I said that I have quite a few pictures and was wondering if you might be interested in seeing some of them?

 

I have been in touch, by e-mail, with a number of my old 430th Engineers and have had so much fun relateing our experiences with each other. Here is pix of me and the Operations jeep I drove. (see photo below)

 

Don't know if any of the Korean War Engineers know of your website but it would be nice is any of them could tell their stories too.

 

I e-mail a guy who was in the 439th Engineers, one of the Battalions that were a part of the 32nd Group. He wrote a "book" about the 439th experiences in Korea and it is really nice reading.

 

If you would care to see more of my pictures, they are yours for the asking.

 

Thank you for responding to my application to your website.

 

A Wartime Engineer who spent a year in Korea,

 

Jack Reissman Pittsburgh, Pa.

[Walt's Daughter]

Here is pix of me and the Operations jeep I drove.

[Cadetat6]

Jack,

Where are the TOMATOES, that you grow at home?

 

papa Art

[Walt's Daughter]

Jack has sent me approximately 40 more photos from the Korean War, which I plan on sharing with you probably in slide show format. I hope to have it done in the very near future. Don't want to give a promise date right now because I have the BIG WWII reunion coming up next week and have lots to prepare for it.

[Korea Jack]

Art,

 

You know my tomatoes are coming to an end.

Had a great season making about 44 packs of cut up tomatoes to use as Spaghetti sauce thru the coming winter until next year's crop is here.

[Walt's Daughter]

Here's a slideshow I compiled from the photos that Jack supplied me with this week. These are all from the Korean War.

 

The slideshow may take a while to load if you have a slower connection. Thumbnails will appear first, then larger photos will appear one by one.

 

This one's for you Jack my dear. Hope you enjoy it.

 

http://www.6thcorpsmusic.us/slideshows/jac...k_reissman.html

 

This is what Jack had to say regarding the photos...

 

Hello again Marion,

 

Here are some pix relating to the 430th's "visit" to the isle of

Koje Do to help quell the POW riots that were ongoing in June of 1952.

 

The 430th went by train, with flatcars, from Wonju down to Pusan

and loaded onto an LST for the ride to Koje Do island

 

I have limited pix from Koje as we were quite busy until I was

able to get a ride "home", in July '52.

 

Hope you are able to figure out these pix and maybe some of the

guys would enjoy seeing them

 

A former Engineer, Jack Reissman

Pittsburgh, Pa.

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Hello Marion,

 

Glad to hear that you can use my pix on your website.

 

As I said, one of the biggest projects the 430th Engineers worked

on was the building of two bridges across the Soyang river just South of

the town of Inje, on the East coast of Korea.

 

They were built in the fall and winter of 1951. Started them with

no snow, but by the time we were doing the steel trestle bridge, we got

the snow, as some pictures show.

 

The 3rd platoon, I was a member, went up to the Inje pass, along

with some HQ heavy equipment operators, to maintain the pass for a few

months, December '51 'til February '52. Christmas day, '51, we had 3 feet

of snow which interupted our "holiday" meal. We had to go out to the pass

and start pushing the snow from the road down into the valley below. And

it was about -40 which wasn't easy to cope with.

 

I took a beautiful pix of the mountain pass while standing at the

top, looking down at a convoy coming up to where I was.

 

And I have a nice pix of our tents nestled in the snow in our

"home" area.

 

Thanks, Jack Reissman

Pittsburgh, Pa.

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Hello Again Marion,

 

Put 14 pix of my 1st e-mail, so thought I'd better send you

another one.

 

Most of the first bunch were of the steel trestle bridge that we

built up North over the Soyang river.

Lots of snow then and also before the snow.

 

Here are some more with the timber trestle bridge that was built

first. We worked 2 12 shifts on that one and had a seachlight desed to us

so that we could work at night.

 

I have more for another e-mail.

 

Thanks, Jack Reissman

[Korea Jack]

Hello Marion,

 

What a nice job you have done with the Korean War pictures that I sent to you!

 

I really appreciate your'e putting them on a "slideshow".

 

The 430th Engineer Bn. has to be proud of what they did during their stay in Korea, at a time that was not too sure of how the war was going to come to an end.

 

The Korean War didn't end like the WW2 war ended, with victory for "our" side, but at least it lessened the number of guys who would die in that rugged land.

 

I can't believe how South Korea has changed from when I was there, 1951-52.

The bigger cities have buildings and roads like the USA have. And the island of

Koje Do, south of Korea, has become a resort and vacation area complete with hotels and even a McDonalds.

 

I hope that some of the Korean War veterans will respond to this web site and appreciate the great work you are doing with it, in memory of your father.

 

Thank you again and I will be sure to keep in touch with all the great work you are doing.

 

Sincerely, Jack Reissman Pittsburgh, Pa.

[Walt's Daughter]

You are very welcome Jack. I enjoy putting things like this together and I hope that your buddies will drop by and take a look. It is up to our generation to keep all the memories and the history alive and it's my pleasure to be a part of it all.

 

Essayons, M

 

Oh, did you notice that I was able to "clean-up" many of the photos so they appear brighter and sharper? Ah, the wonders of software!

[Walt's Daughter]

Thought I'd add a current photo of Jack. I was talking to him about his digital the other day and he sent this my way.

[chambers]

Welcome Jack!! Hugs to you sir and thank you for joining the forum and sharing your photos and your words.

 

My grandpa was there in 1951.

 

Brooke