By Julia Leaman
leaman@newsroom.byu.edu@by2:NewsNet Staff Writer
Only twenty-four credits into his BYU career, Glen Roy Draper was drafted in the Korean War in 1949. His story is now going to be included in BYU's Memorial Lounge computer system.
Draper was assigned to the Communication Section, Headquarters and Service Company, First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division.
Jim Carmickle, the Sergeant in charge of the Message Center, and a friend of Draper, published a journal and autobiography of his own experiences in the Korean War. Here, he gives a portion of his account.
'22 September (1950) was not one of our better days. Mortar shells had been falling in and around the C.P. area all night; almost got a couple of the troops. At 0600 we were issued another canteen of water and told it had to last all day.
'At 1730 an artillery barrage landed in the C.P. area and supply dump. Seven were killed and 30 were wounded, and again I helped carry out the casualties to be evacuated. Our Communication Section was not spared; one killed outright and five wounded, two of which would later die of their wounds. What a mess! .... At midnight I went to sleep exhausted.
'The next morning I heard that (Sgt., Glen) Draper (one of those wounded yesterday) had died last night of shrapnel wounds in his back. As I look back on it, this was the first chink in my religious armor. Up to this point, I had been gaining security and serenity in the strength and power of Gods love. But this incident caused me to stop, wonder and question.
'Draper was a full-blown Mormon. He carried his Mormon Bible with him at all times. When he had free time he read in it. He lived it, he believed it. He was fully religious without being obnoxious to others about his beliefs. He was a real nice guy, one everybody loved. And now he was gone.
'Our Chaplain explained that God takes those who are ready to be taken. Perhaps because he was so good, and believed so firmly, God wanted him in heaven (where most of his family already was). I wanted to believe that, and my faith in religion helped me believe it. Perhaps I was taking it too hard because I knew Draper so well.
'We had no further casualties that day, though a few shells did land near by. Most of us just sat around, perhaps dazed by the previous day's events,' Carmickle said.
All of Glen's brothers died as children and his mother died when Draper was only five years old, leaving his father as the sole survivor from the Draper family.
Glen never married and has no living relatives.
Although it was sometimes emotional for him, Cadet Jerry Pehrson, 24, a senior from Orem majoring in manufacturing engineering technology, said, 'It is very humbling to think that Glen's father would allow him (Draper) to go to war, having previously lost the rest of his family.'
In 1976, Glen's father passed away at the age of 83.
'The trials his family faced are sobering, yet they held strong to their faith and religion,' Pehrson said.
Pehrson researched and compiled many of the biographies that will eventually find their home in BYU's Memorial Lounge computer system, including Draper's.