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Anthony “Dino” Marcione grew up among the steel mills and tough neighborhoods of West Aliquippa and Monaca, PA.   When the needs of the Korean War fell upon the Ohio Valley, he and many of his buddies were drafted into military service.  Dino was swept into the Army and landed in Korea at age 20.  Stationed on the front lines, he manned a Browning .30 caliber, water cooled machine gun with the 40th Infantry Division—which was technically part of the California National Guard.

“We fought the Chinese in Korea.  Waves of them,” Dino recalls.  They were close.   “The Air Force fried those guys with napalm,” he laments, shaking his head.  It’s kill or be killed.  “Tell them about getting wounded and refusing a medal,” prompts his wife, Ann.  Dino shakes his head again.  “A land mine blew up near me and I got cut up a little.  I could have gotten a Purple Heart, but guys around me were losing arms and legs.  They deserved a medal more than I did.”

“What kind of reception did you get when you came home?,” we ask.  “Nothing,” he quips.  “You saw somebody on the street and they’d say, ‘Hey where you been?  Haven’t seen you in a while.’”

Firepower

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Anthony Marcione of Monaca, Pennsylvania was drafted into the Korean War at age 20. Sent to the front lines, he manned a machine gun against invading Chinese nationals pushing south into the Korean peninsula. “Our firepower is what kept the Chinese from running us over,” Anthony admits, “but it was brutal up there on the line. Just brutal.”

This audio short was produced by Kevin Farkas. Music: Jake Beamish/”Project 111212,” Patrick Pederson/”Dark Ambient” (available on Soundcloud.com).

In My Own Words

This interview was conducted by Kevin Farkas/Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh on June 17, 2014 at VFW Post 128, Rochester, PA.