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Dean Lynn - Korean War
Dean Lynn grew up on a small Illinois farm before being drafted in January, 1952 into the U.S. Army. By July he was serving in Korea with the 245th Tank Battalion, assigned as a loader in an M-4 Sherman tank. Lynn saw extensive combat over the next several months, and after one incident at Hill 854, was awarded a Bronze Star for valor as well as South Korea's Wharang Distinguished Military Service Medal for his heroic action that day. Lynn shipped back to the states in 1953, shortly before the armistice ended the war.
Interview Links
Feature Excerpt
The Hardest Part of Service
Abstract
Interview Session 01 (Audio)
Growing up in Mason City, Illinois, being drafted, and basic training
Interview Session 02 (Audio)
Photos
Caption
Dean Lynn was four and a half in 1934. Shortly after his Saturday morning bath his mother curled his hair, but his father then took him to get a haircut before Dean was to start school.
Where:
Unknown
When:
1934
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Haw Grove was the one room school on land near the McHarry farm, where Dean Lynn grew up. He is standing, second from the left, while brother Charles is standing in front of their teacher, Mrs. Beams.
Where:
Haw Grove School
When:
1936
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean and his older brother with two of their cousins in the late 1930s at the family’s Salt Creek farm. From left to right are Kenny and Jack Lynn, Dean’s big brother Charles, and Dean on the right.
Where:
Salt Creek Farm
When:
Late 1930s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Cassie and Charles Lynn, Dean’s parents, in the 1940s when the family lived on a farm near Mason City, Illinois.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
The Lynn family lived in the ‘Big House’, an 18 room house on his mother’s girlhood home, the McHarry farm near Mason City. The photo probably dates from the mid-1940s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Mid-1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean’s Parents, Charles and Cassie Lynn, in the family buggy pulled by Tony, Charles’s parade horse in the late 1940s. They are parked in front of a neighbor’s house in Mason City.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
The family’s Salt Creek farm house as it appeared in the late 1940s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean’s mother on Captain in the front yard of their family farm in the late 1940s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
The Lynn brothers, Charles, McHarry and Dean, on the family farm northwest of Mason City, Illinois in the late 1940s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 1940s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
This barn, built in 1893, served the Lynn family well on their Mason County farm. The barn was built on a slope, with hay stored above several horse stalls in the bottom level (not seen here).
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
One of the logs Dean’s father harvested while the family lived on the Salt Creek farm. Logs like this one were sometimes cut and used to shore up coal mines that honeycombed much of central Illinois at the time.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Charles on Trigger, Dean’s quarter horse. Dean bought Trigger due to the horse’s distinctive coloring, which was favored by Indians as well.
Where:
Unknown
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean Lynn’s high school graduation photo in 1948. He attended Mason City High School.
Where:
Mason City High School
When:
1948
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
Dean carried this article from the Mason City ‘Banner Times,’ the announcement of his engagement to Roberta Follis, in his billfold all during his service, state side and Korea, from January, 1952 to October, 1953.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Early 1950s
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
Dean Lynn and Roberta Follis during Roberta’s visit with Dean during basic training at Ft. Knox Kentucky on January 1, 1952.
Where:
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean Lynn’s basic training photo. He started basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky in January, 1952.
Where:
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
When:
1952
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
A line of M-4 Sherman tanks are standing by for a training exercise during basic training at Ft. Knox, Kentucky in early 1952.
Where:
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
When:
Early 1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean is learning how to dig a fox hole, the hands-on way, while on bivouac during basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky in early 1952.
Where:
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
When:
Early 1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean Lynn during his basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1952.
Where:
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Roberta Follis (then 18 years old) at home in Illinois in early 1952.
Where:
Illinois
When:
Early 1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean stands in front of the M-4 Sherman tank he was assigned to while serving in Korea shortly after he arrived in country, circa July, 1952. He was assigned to tank 21 in C Company, 245th Tank Battalion.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Several of Dean Lynn’s crew members take up their observation duties some time in 1952. These were some of the crew who fought at Old Baldy, also known to the crew as Quagmire Hill.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean’s tank is loaded down with heavy logs used to lay in the road to give them better traction. Dean is on the left with Lt. Kengla next to him. Above Kengla is Frank Gray, then Wilhelm and Allen in the driver’s hatch. Circa fall of 1952.
Where:
Korea
When:
Fall of 1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Map showing the combat at Hill 854 near Songowol, South Korea, an action in September, 1952 when Lynn won the Bronze Star for valor.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
Dean Lynn’s tank platoon takes up a position along a ridgeline on the front lines during the winter of 1952-1953. Note the rugged terrain that was characteristic of most of the front by that stage of the war.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952-1953
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Christmastime at the front in December, 1952. The Christmas tree and garlands mark the location of the unit’s ammunition bunker while they served on the front lines in Korea.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
This is the view that Dean had while on guard duty, looking out into no-man’s land during the winter of 1952.
Where:
Korea
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
The troops were treated to a USO show in the spring of 1953 behind the front lines in South Korea. Dean mentioned that the unit’s officers were “evicted” from the show before it started.
Where:
Korea
When:
1953
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean gets a rare chance to relax while the unit was recuperating in the rear in the spring of 1953.
Where:
Korea
When:
1953
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Frank Gray and Dean smile for the camera while the unit was in the rear early in the fall of 1953.
Where:
Korea
When:
1953
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean’s father, Charles rides his horse Tony during a Western show. Donald Splain is also in the photo, which was taken on the family farm in the late 1950s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 1950s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean joins his daughter Tammy Jo Holmes on her wedding day in August, 1984. She was married at the Methodist Church in Mason City, Illinois.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
1984
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean and Roberta on the lawn of their Mason City home in the late 2000s.
Where:
Mason City, Illinois
When:
Late 2000s
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean and Roberta Lynn with their granddaughter Britany and her husband Gregory Neunuebel on their wedding day in August, 2011. The couple were married in St. Louis.
Where:
St. Louis
When:
2011
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo
Caption
Dean participated in an honor flight and visited the Korean War Memorial in Washington D.C. in April, 2013.
Where:
Washington D.C.
When:
2013
Ownership:
Narrator's Photo