MANSFIELD — There’s just a touch of the ornery in old soldier Dean Utt.
“You
know I was standing almost close enough to Marilyn Monroe to touch
her,” he said. “She was wearing fatigues. So what were you going to
see?”
Obviously enough for a 19-year-old Korean War combat veteran to remember even at the age of 81.
Neither has Utt forgotten his nasty stretch in Korea in 1952-53. His auto vanity license plate reads “72 TKBN.”
Translated that stands for the 72nd Tank Battalion of the 2nd Division that served on the front lines just north of the current 38th parallel that divides North and South Korea.
“I’m a West Virginian,” Utt said. “I was born and raised in Webster Springs. I came to Mansfield in 1948 or ’49 to get a job. I’m not sure about the year, but I worked at the Ohio Shale Company up on the brickyard road.”
By the time his draft notice arrived in 1952, Utt had married his first wife, Minnie.
“I was married on the 5th of the month and gone to the Army on the 10th,” he said.
His first child, Carol Flockenzier of Mansfield, was born while he was in Korea. He took his basic training as a tanker at Fort Hood, Texas, and was quickly shipped overseas to Korea.
“I wound up being a staff sergeant because the captain in my outfit wanted all his tank commanders to be at that rank,” Utt said.
That officer, he added, never showed up on the front.
“I never saw that man in my life,” he said.
Utt commanded a five-man crew on a Sherman M-4A3E8 tank.
“They called these tanks the ‘Easy 8,’ but I can tell you that they could run pretty rough.”
There was a five-man crew, and Utt usually was the driver. He said he simply didn’t trust anyone at the controls but himself. He went through three Sherman tanks and has a photo of himself standing beside one that was hard hit by a heavy enemy shell.
“When that shell hit, it knocked us over and we had to scramble out,” he said. “We were way in front of the defensive lines and had to run for shelter to a bunker. That was hit, too.”
Just the same, Utt said he never lost a crewman. He did see a number of brief friendships end when a buddy was killed.
“I still have a little trouble getting too close to people for that reason,” he said.
Short of a slight hit by a shell splinter, Sgt. Utt got through the war in one piece.
He came home; had a brief family reunion and was sent on to Germany. He was with armor again, but said military life in Germany was a lark compared to service in Korea.
“I just had it made,” he said.
But things didn’t work out as well when he came home.
“I was a little wild,” he said. “Just a different person.”
He went back to work in the brickyards almost as soon as he got home.
He and Minnie had seven children. Two of them, Ron and Kimberly, died young. The others are Don Jr., Kenneth, Cheryl Gonzales and Becky Carmel, all of Mansfield. He said there are 24 grandchildren and 45 great-grandchildren to date.
After his first marriage ended, Utt married to Bonnie Lou Ward, a descendant of a Richland County pioneer family.
There were no children, and Bonnie Lou died in 2004.
Utt left the brickyard to work at General Motors in Ontario in 1959. He retired in 1990. He is a member of the American Legion and has been with several other veterans organizations. He also is a life member of the local Moose Lodge.
An avid golfer, bowler and dirt track racing fan, Utt is usually on the move. But times change for even “ornery” men.
“My doctor made me quit drinking beer and smoking — and I did love my cigars,” he said.
He still visits the links, the lanes and the dirt tracks. But he admits keeping up his big yard and garden are getting harder and harder to do.
Maybe hardest of all are the memories of that long-ago war.
“I was just a 19-year-old kid then. When I came home I was just a different person. It happens,” he said.
Obviously enough for a 19-year-old Korean War combat veteran to remember even at the age of 81.
Neither has Utt forgotten his nasty stretch in Korea in 1952-53. His auto vanity license plate reads “72 TKBN.”
Translated that stands for the 72nd Tank Battalion of the 2nd Division that served on the front lines just north of the current 38th parallel that divides North and South Korea.
“I’m a West Virginian,” Utt said. “I was born and raised in Webster Springs. I came to Mansfield in 1948 or ’49 to get a job. I’m not sure about the year, but I worked at the Ohio Shale Company up on the brickyard road.”
By the time his draft notice arrived in 1952, Utt had married his first wife, Minnie.
“I was married on the 5th of the month and gone to the Army on the 10th,” he said.
His first child, Carol Flockenzier of Mansfield, was born while he was in Korea. He took his basic training as a tanker at Fort Hood, Texas, and was quickly shipped overseas to Korea.
“I wound up being a staff sergeant because the captain in my outfit wanted all his tank commanders to be at that rank,” Utt said.
That officer, he added, never showed up on the front.
“I never saw that man in my life,” he said.
Utt commanded a five-man crew on a Sherman M-4A3E8 tank.
“They called these tanks the ‘Easy 8,’ but I can tell you that they could run pretty rough.”
There was a five-man crew, and Utt usually was the driver. He said he simply didn’t trust anyone at the controls but himself. He went through three Sherman tanks and has a photo of himself standing beside one that was hard hit by a heavy enemy shell.
“When that shell hit, it knocked us over and we had to scramble out,” he said. “We were way in front of the defensive lines and had to run for shelter to a bunker. That was hit, too.”
Just the same, Utt said he never lost a crewman. He did see a number of brief friendships end when a buddy was killed.
“I still have a little trouble getting too close to people for that reason,” he said.
Short of a slight hit by a shell splinter, Sgt. Utt got through the war in one piece.
He came home; had a brief family reunion and was sent on to Germany. He was with armor again, but said military life in Germany was a lark compared to service in Korea.
“I just had it made,” he said.
But things didn’t work out as well when he came home.
“I was a little wild,” he said. “Just a different person.”
He went back to work in the brickyards almost as soon as he got home.
He and Minnie had seven children. Two of them, Ron and Kimberly, died young. The others are Don Jr., Kenneth, Cheryl Gonzales and Becky Carmel, all of Mansfield. He said there are 24 grandchildren and 45 great-grandchildren to date.
After his first marriage ended, Utt married to Bonnie Lou Ward, a descendant of a Richland County pioneer family.
There were no children, and Bonnie Lou died in 2004.
Utt left the brickyard to work at General Motors in Ontario in 1959. He retired in 1990. He is a member of the American Legion and has been with several other veterans organizations. He also is a life member of the local Moose Lodge.
An avid golfer, bowler and dirt track racing fan, Utt is usually on the move. But times change for even “ornery” men.
“My doctor made me quit drinking beer and smoking — and I did love my cigars,” he said.
He still visits the links, the lanes and the dirt tracks. But he admits keeping up his big yard and garden are getting harder and harder to do.
Maybe hardest of all are the memories of that long-ago war.
“I was just a 19-year-old kid then. When I came home I was just a different person. It happens,” he said.
