“The Korean War”: A Unit Diary
Author Bud Hannings Tells History Day by Day
There are people who do great things
for this country and no one is ever
the wiser.
For the most part they serve well, if unspectacularly. But every once in a while
an everyday guy goes out of his way and
does something profound for the citizens
and country in which he lives.
In the case of Bud Hannings, he’s done
it a couple of times. His latest is a 1,088-
page, three-volume history of “The Korean War.” It is labeled “An Exhaustive
Chronology,” which no one will argue.
For historians and veterans of the Korean War, Hannings’ work easily can become a cornerstone reference about one
of the most difficult and misunderstood
wars in recent history.
He believes history is best told by laying out events so that the readers can judge
for themselves the “hows” and “whys”
that led to the war’s outcome.
He has helped the reader by sorting
through volumes of research and painstakingly choosing, editing and rewriting. Hannings found, as writer Barbara Tuchman
states: “Research is endlessly seductive;
writing is hard work.” This is evident by
the unit diary-like entries of events, major
By R. R. Keene
and minor, with order of battle, listing of
nations and details of the war at sea, in
the air and on land. Not to be ignored are
16 appendices that provide significant
statistics and supplemental information,
including Medal of Honor winners, commanders of each American military branch,
casualty figures and air aces.
It is an impressive work by a man who
could have harnessed his energy and
drive to focus on materialistic goals that
would ensure his success in business and
investments.
Who is Bud Hannings, you ask?
Private First Class Bud Hannings of the
motor pool enlisted in 1960. Enlistment in
the Marine Corps was, in his case, predicated on a radio contest in Philadelphia,
no doubt thought up by typically creative
leatherneck recruiters.
The contest rules: If you passed the
test, you could be one of five selected to
enlist in the Corps and go to Marine Corps
Recruit Depot San Diego in sunny California, vice the low-country marsh known
as Parris Island, S.C.
Besides, Hannings said, “I was taught
by Franciscan nuns, if you were anything,
you were patriotic.” Consequently, Hannings considered himself a winner. He
and four others ended up in Quonset huts
housing Platoon 202 (next door to noisy
Lindbergh Field), snapped in with the M1
rifles and pulled butts at Camp Matthews.
It was, however, as promised, sunny in
California. And, his drill instructors gave
him the following nuggets of truth and
wisdom: “Nothing is insurmountable for
a Marine, and Marines never quit.”
“And I believed them,” he added.
Hannings didn’t mind being a PFC because “nobody seems to bother them.” He
left his salty single chevron status as a
Marine reservist at the gate of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and went back to
civilian life in 1965. His drill instructors’
words stayed with him (even when he
opened an ice cream store that went out
of business in three years because he gave
away ice cream to all the little kids).
Fortunately, he didn’t give away his
motor pool experience. He worked in the
trucking industry and later established an
independent agency handling cross-country shipments. He was civic-minded, and
in 1983, he was elected commissioner of
Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pa.
But, it was the Nov. 4, 1979, taking of
American hostages in Tehran, Iran,
