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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/b70d691be8511025dc46bd8cd3986a53.pdf
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Andrew Nicolaysen
Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Eric Nicolaysen
U.S. Army
1956-1958
Cold War (Korea)
October 14, 2012
Andrew Nicolaysen: Okay, so my name is Andrew Nicolaysen, and for the record, what is your
name?
Erik Nicolaysen: Erik Nicolaysen
Andrew: And we’re conducting this interview over the phone. I’m in Boone, North Caroline and
you’re in Chappaqua, New York.
Erik: Correct
Andrew: And it is the 14th of October 2012.
Erik: Okay
Andrew: …When and where were you born?
Erik: February 8th, 1933. I was born in Mt. Kisco, New York.
Andrew: Okay, and where did you, or what…branch of the military did you serve in?
Erik: I served in the US Army
Andrew: Was that active duty or National Guard?
Erik: Both
Andrew: Did you serve in active duty first?
Erik: No, what I did is I…joined the… I actually joined the reserves, not the National Guard.
I…the New Jersey…reserve division…When…New Jersey while I was attending Rutgers
University…and over the 3 years that I served with the reserve unit…I made
corporal…meanwhile I was also tracking with the ROTC at college…and I took a commission
upon graduation from college…in 1956…and got a promotion while I was in duty and ended up
leaving the service as a…as a 1st lieutenant. I then spent some time with a signal core company
in Ossining, New York. But then they were disbanded about a year after I got out of the service.
…I then spent about 6 months working with a medical unit and was stationed up…up near West
Point. On the…eastern side of the Hudson…a medical evacuation units, because they were short
officers…and then I…at that point, since they had full, they had official medically trained
officers in, so I was superfluous to them and went to the…ready reserve. And stayed with the
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�Andrew Nicolaysen
ready reserve until I got an honorable discharge and all told I spent about 11 years in the service
in one connection or the other.
Andrew: Do you remember why you joined the military?
Erik: …I just felt there was a duty, there was also a case too that the…draft was in effect at that
point, most people were…or a significant number of people were getting drafted so I figured I
was gonna go no matter what…and…I decided that if I was gonna go, I’d prefer to go as an
officer. ….and I was studying engineering, and signal core went well with the engineering so I
decided to…to…join the signal core unit at Rutgers University.
Andrew: When did you first go to Korea?
Erik: I went to Korea in late 56, stayed there through to the beginning of 58.
Andrew: And what did you do there?
Erik: I was assigned to the 51st signal battalion, and my first job was battalion motor pool
officer. We were responsible for the…secondary level of maintenance…on the battalion
vehicles. We had somewhere between 5 and 600 vehicles of assorted types: deuce and a half,
tractor-trailers, ¾ tons, jeeps…and…we then…and the normal preliminary maintenance was
done with each company, but then the major overhauls…were done by us and then if there was a
real major job the vehicle was transferred to the ordnance department that did the overhaul, but
generally…probably 90 to 95% of the work on the vehicles was done at the battalion level.
Andrew: Were you…
Erik: …then I got…after a while I was transferred…from that to a radio teletype platoon, which
was responsible for…radio teletype communications…between ICOR headquarters and all the
way down to Busan. …and then I…I finished…my last month or so of being in charge of
the…the maintenance unit that took care of the…generators and….welding equipment to smaller
equipment of that nature. And I was in charge of running that…operation for the last month or so
before I was discharged.
Andrew: How did you end up in the motor pool if you were a…signal officer?
Erik: …because when I…got there they looked at…our private work, and I had worked on the
assembly line at General Motors. So there were 3 of us who were lieutenants who arrived at the
same time…and the other 2 were assigned to line companies. By the way, I was trained in
microwave equipment, and the nearest microwave equipment was in Hawaii. But when we
arrived the…other 2 officers were assigned to line companies, basically stringing wire and things
of that nature. And I was assigned the headquarters company because I had worked on the
assemble line at General Motors during the summer, and therefore they thought I knew
something about…trucks. Luckily I had a sergeant who knew what he was doing. Much more so
than I did, that was for sure.
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Andrew: …Because you were there after the armistice, what was the nature of the combat that
was happening in Korea at the time?
Erik: Basically there was no formal combat, but the North Koreans…were, still had a propensity
for sneaking through the…DMZ, we were only 10 miles south of the…DMZ in Uijeongbu,
Korea, and we were 10 miles south of the DMZ so…our line companies, who were generally
out…doing a lot of…small…squads stringing along wire and things of that nature. They were
working behind the…sneaking through the…front lines or they would come south, even around
the…water. Even to the east and west coasts, and therefore there were certain
instances…of…attacks by them on…isolated units…although it was more a nuisance than
anything formal because…the activities during the Korean War were such that…that the South
Koreans hated the North Koreans with a passion. And the first…Korean or…farmer who would
spot these guys would immediately run to the nearest police or army station and report ’em
so…although they did pull us…to movement into the field on occasion and stuff of that nature,
they never lasted very long and don’t…to the best of my knowledge, there were few if any
prisoners taken.
Andrew: What were some of your most memorable experiences, while you were in the military?
Erik: It was a job like anything else, I mean, that…you know, I could remember…when I was in
the…still in college, I went to Camp Gordon for summer. The other 2 summers that I was in, I
went to…Camp Drum with the reserve unit…but I mean, that was mainly just training. The
entire time we were there, we were being taught the equipment…small unit…activity for a
supply unit or a support unit rather than a, you know, combat infantry… Probably the thing that
sticks with me the most was …qualification with weapons for the entire battalion and we had
about…we had about, I think about 1800 enlisted men…and then we had about 6 or 700 Korean
troops that were attached…and basically we had to qualify ‘till there was one captain, and myself
and another lieutenant, and we worked…for about 3 or 4 weeks, I’m trying to remember now,
but…qualifying everyone on their individual weapons and then we had…their table of
organization called for half a dozen .30 calibers, we had…oh maybe half a dozen .50 calibers
that were mounted on the top of the…deuce and a halfs when they had a ring to fire with them,
and then we had some bazookas…and…we had 1 or 2 recoilless rifles. So basically we to…you
know, talk through firing for the entire battalion and then individual weapons and then we had
to…do the crew served weapons.
Andrew: Did you make any…close friendships and relationships while you were in the Army?
Erik: Yeah I did, but…because of my age now, I think all of them are dead. I know 2 guys I was
closest to…were dead and I think most of the rest of them that…I was in at that time are also
deceased.
Andrew: Has your service and experiences affected your life? Like, continuing on?
Erik: Oh, I think it made for a little bit better organization…you know, follow through and not
put things off…you know, that carried over, I did…I did do constructions projects after I got
back out, In addition to working in the ...insurance agency. I built…5 or 6 commercial buildings
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�Andrew Nicolaysen
and half a dozen homes and remodeled other homes…and that required considerable
organization to do that as a side line, you know.
Andrew: Well, I think that’s about everything I need, unless there’s anything you would like to
add.
Erik: …not really…you know, there was…I enjoyed the period of time…I remember…one
thing I do remember about Korea was the coldness, when we went out in the field…wind used to
come out of Siberia, and…temperatures below 0…were not at all unusual and…I can remember
crawling under trucks with the old blow torches to release the brakes where they had frozen
overnight, and stuff of that nature, so we could move the vehicles. And…for those kinds of
things, everybody pitched in, officers, noncoms…you know…you know, If you wanted to move
the vehicles and get out of there, everybody did what they could, so…it was…but I do remember
how God awful cold it got.
Andrew: Okay, well, I think that…about finishes it up.
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/41cb084ed42d8679e9969932f4a024b3.mp3
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project
Description
An account of the resource
Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
File size
126 KB
11.6 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Army
Officer Rank
Officer rank (major, private, etc)
1st Lieutenant
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Nicolaysen; Andrew
Nicolaysen; Erik
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Nicolaysen, Andrew
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Nicolaysen, Erik
Interview Date
10/14/2012
Number of pages
4
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:12:40
Date digitized
2/6/2015
Checksum
alphanumeric code
fe82e370cdc15928e9fe8095315af49e
fd3c8ae26e98f363cd41cb0dd388f1b8
Scanned by
Leah McManus
Equipment
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
Resolution
300
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal; non-commercial; and educational use; provided that proper citation is used.
Source
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UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
Recording rate
A/V rate (48,000kzh x 16 bit)
48000kzh x 16 bit
Format, original
Electronic File
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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5018_Nicolaysen_Erik_20121014_transcript_M
5018_Nicolaysen_Erik_20121014_audio_A
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Erik Nicolaysen [October 14, 2012]
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Language
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English
English
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Nicolaysen, Andrew
Nicolaysen, Erik
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used.
Description
An account of the resource
Eric Nicolaysen enlisted in the US Army reserves in 1956, served in the Cold War, and spent some time in Korea. He did not see any combat during his time in the military.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Nicolaysen, Erik
Veterans
Cold War
United States
Interviews
1956-58
51st signal battalion
Cold War
Eric Nicolaysen
General Motors
Korea
radio teletype
reserves
US Army