D. Clarke Evans Photographer

Ernest Samusson, Jr.

Colonel, U.S. Army
1941–1971

Cadet, Ernest Samusson, Jr.
Riverside Military Academy, GA, 1941

I went up a hill to see where the fire was coming from and was gored by a carabao—a big cow with horns.

I grew up all over. I was an Army brat and my father was an infantry officer. I went to Riverside Military Academy in Georgia—The Citadel. I keep in touch with my classmates. There are only five of us left.

Upon graduation in May, 1941, I got a direct commission in the Army. I was in officer basic school when Pearl Harbor hit. We went to the South Pacific under General MacArthur. Our first station was New Guinea. We landed in Luzon on 9 January, 1945 at Lingayen Gulf. I was an operations officer of a battalion. We went ashore and were immediately committed.

The Japanese didn’t fire artillery the way we did. We fired en masse. They tended to fire a single gun until they were sure where they were going. I went up a hill to see where the fire was coming from and was gored by a carabao—a big cow with horns. My fatigue shirt and pack were hanging on the horns of the carabao as he trotted over the hill. I was evacuated to a hospital ship. I didn’t have internal bleeding, I was just beat up. Everybody died laughing when they found out what had happened. I talked my way off of the hospital ship because I wanted to get back to the unit.

I was an intelligence officer when the war ended. During the occupation we were in Korea. I was sent in with an advance party. We were the first white people a lot of them had ever seen—especially the kids. We visited a Japanese airbase in Korea, met the Japanese commander, had tea and he showed us where they stacked all of the arms. Only the guards were armed. That night we were put up in a hotel and the Japanese guarded us. It was a funny feeling.

Trained units came in to help the Koreans take over. We just occupied to keep it settled down. The Japanese had been in Korea for years and we moved them back to Japan. There were communists trying to take over. I had to try a guy in a little railhead town. He was a big boss there and was countermanding our orders.

Around Christmas, 1945 I came down with malaria. I had the simplest kind but I almost died. I was born with a blood condition that I didn’t know about. I was evacuated by hospital ship to the U.S.

When Korea broke I served a year there in I Corps Headquarters in intelligence I was sent to Vietnam in routine staff work. I was in the Department of the Army. President Kennedy wanted to know what was going on so he had a team go from one end of Vietnam to the other and report back to him. I tell flyboys that I was on the first helicopter shot down. It happens to be the truth, but I wasn’t on it when it was shot down.

I joined the Army in 1941 and I got out 1 August, 1971. My final rank was a bird colonel. My best duty was on top of a volcano in Hawaii at Kilauea Military Camp— a rest camp for all services. It was like being the mayor of a small city.

I never had a worst duty and I’ll tell you why. A commanding officer gave me some advice. He said, “Son, never stargaze”, meaning never think about being a general. He also said, “Make up your mind you’re gonna like where you are and nine times out of ten, you will.” I’ve followed those two things. {05-04-2018 • San Antonio, TX}