Hershel Denny spent part of Tuesday morning sweeping leaves from his driveway.

The broom in his hand was a much more benign implement than the Browning automatic rifle that was in its place 59 years ago when the Pell City veteran was a soldier in the Korean Conflict.

“Have you ever seen the movie, ‘Pork Chop Hill?’” he asked, “I was on Pork Chop Hill when I got hit.”

Having taken a break from yard work for some conversation in his sunroom, Denny indicated a scar on his right arm, near the elbow, and recalled the early hours of July 12, 1953.

“That morning, the artillery was coming in heavy.  They had us pinned down, and I was on phone guard keeping in touch with headquarters when an airburst got me.  That shrapnel gets so hot you can’t feel it at first, and I didn’t even know I’d been hit until I looked down and saw I was bleeding.  I called in and said I needed help, and within five minutes, the paramedics were there.”

Denny was flown to a hospital in Tokyo, Japan, the next day and then to Camp Gordon in Augusta, Ga., to have surgery the following month.  He remained in the military hospital for therapy until his release in March 1954.  The injury paralyzed his thumb and the right side of his hand and left him with limited use of the index and middle fingers.  

“I waited on my discharge at Fort Benning from April to July of 1954,” he said.  “I couldn’t use my right hand, and in the military, if you can’t use your right hand, you can’t do anything, so I just sat around most of that time.”

Denny received a medical discharge as a private first class with five commendation medals besides the Purple Heart.  The Blountsville native had been drafted in 1952 at age 21 and, as part of the Third Division, 65th Regimental Combat Team, went directly to the battle lines in Korea after 16 weeks of boot camp at Fort Riley, Kan.  

He’s still not sure why he was sent there.

“It was useless, but we had to do it,” he said.  “North Korea was on one hill with us on another, fighting each other.  We didn’t know what we were fighting for, and when the ceasefire was declared, we hadn’t accomplished anything.  Nobody won, and nobody lost.”

By the time Denny arrived in northwest Korea, “the place was pretty beat up.  There was absolutely nothing, just mostly hills.  You didn’t see any trees or shrubs.  The artillery had beaten them all up.  When we were on Pork Chop Hill, the North Koreans were across Death Valley on Old Baldy.  They called it that because it looked just like a bald-headed person.  Everything had been beaten off of it.”

He recalls a lot of propaganda traversing the valley between the two hills.  

“It’s a funny thing, but about 3 o’clock every day, they’d talk to us on the PA system and play country music.  When Hank Williams was killed in 1953, they played his records every day.  They’d say things like, ‘Go home, G.I.’ and ‘Your wife’s got another man,” just propaganda stuff to aggravate us.

“Then they’d tell us where they were going to hit that night, and you’d better be ready because they would be there.  They didn’t wear shoes.  They wore bags of made out of material on their feet, and they could slip up on you in nothing flat.”

Denny saw combat the entire time he was in Korea and had only been back from a brief leave for 10 days when he was wounded.  A total of more than 900 American soldiers was wounded in the battle, and 243 were killed.  The armistice ending the entire Korean Conflict was signed less than a month after Denny was injured.

He returned home to Blountsville, where he worked as a shipping clerk for an electrical manufacturing company.  “That’s where I met my wife,” he said.  “She worked there.  Christine was raised in Pell City.  This was her home, and we moved here 48 years ago.”

The Dennys, who retired from work on the same day, had one son, two granddaughters, and six great-grandchildren. Mrs. Denny died last year.  “I’ve been through a lot, but her being gone is the toughest,” Denny said.  

He remains active with the American Legion Post 109, VFW Post 5266, and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 27, supporting veterans’ causes and benefits.  

“I think it’s important to support our veterans,” he said.  “We’ve got too many coming back who can’t find employment.  That’s not only in Alabama.  It’s everywhere.  We’ve got a lot of disabled veterans who can’t support themselves.  I’ve been very fortunate.  I went directly to work when I got back, and I get compensation for my wounds, so I can’t complain.  If I had it to do over, I’d do it all again.”