Richard G. Bleiler

Korean War veteran served aboard oil tanker.

By Jeff Werner, BucksLocalNews.com


Two years before the start of the Korean War, 17-year-old Richard G. Bleiler walked into a recruiting office in Philadelphia and enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

The next three years and nine months would be among the most memorable of his life.

Bleiler grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, graduating from Germantown High School in 1948. Less than three months later, he was a member of the U.S. Navy attending boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill.

“At that time, it was pretty much the way guys did it. You got out of school and you went and joined one of the services,” said Bleiler. “College wasn’t a big factor back in those days, not for the average guy.”

Bleiler had intended to join the Marine Corps. But when he got to the office, there was a Marine sergeant standing outside the door. “He got me by the arm and said, ‘I think we can use you in the Marines.’ I decided, ‘I think not.’ And I went and joined the Navy.”

After boot camp, he was sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, then to the island of Guam. He eventually wound up on the island of Saipan in the Marianas where he was stationed from January 1949 to June 1950.

Scattered with abandoned air strips, the island was in the process of being demobilized following World War II. “Literally hundreds of planes, anything from B-51 fighters up to B-29 bombers, were just left there — like a big junkyard,” said Bleiler.

He worked in the supply department unloading and loading ships and operating a forklift.
In his spare time, he and others would venture into the mountains where they explored caves containing the remains — bodies and skeletons — of Japanese soldiers. He has photographs showing piles of skulls and bones documenting the gruesome sight.

While en route back to the states for leave, the war started in Korea on June 25, 1950. So instead of getting his expected leave, Bleiler was sent to Bremerton, Wash., to help in the reconditioning of a small World War II escort aircraft carrier in the mothball fleet.

“If you have ever ridden passed an abandoned industrial site, you know what it looks like. These ships were the same way. They were falling apart and filthy dirty,” said Bleiler. “We eventually got the ship running again. They re-commissioned it. They threw a fast paint job on it and as soon as possible they sent us down to San Diego.”

From there, he made two trips as a seaman working on the deck of the USS Sitkoh Bay as it traveled from California to Japan carrying Marine Reservists and airplanes. After the second trip, he was transferred to the Naval Hospital in Oak Knoll, Calif., for treatment of minor frost bite to his hands and face.

Following his hospitalization, he was reassigned to the Navy oil tanker USS Taluga, where he spent the next 17 months as a gunner’s mate.

The ship traveled first to the Aleutian Islands before being reassigned to carry oil from Japan to the East Coast of Korea where they refueled a number of warships, including the USS New Jersey, Wisconsin and Iowa.

“We would keep going at a designated speed and these other ships would come up along side of us. We would string hoses over to them and we would fuel them while were under way,” he said.
The good thing, he said, was that after the ships were refueled, the crew of the Taluga would return to the coast of Japan. “The guys on the warships would stay there,” he said. “We had a lot better duty.”

The tanker spent about six months off the coast of Korea, protected by small destroyer escorts that traveled alongside.

The closest Bleiler came to combat was when a destroyer in the formation struck a mine. The explosion ripped off the bow of the ship and they lost 200 men, he said.

Bleiler said he considers his service among the most memorable of his life. “I’m grateful I came out unscathed. It was an experience you just can’t put a price on it. Had I joined the Marine Corps God only knows if I’d be here today. The Marine Corps and the Army took a hell of a pounding,” he said.

Following his discharged in May 1952, he returned to Pennsylvania where found a job with Bell of Pennsylvania.

During the 1950s, Bleiler installed phones in the newly-built homes in Levittown and Fairless Hills. He also worked on the phone systems at the sprawling US Steel Fairless Works plant and at the Bucks County Courier Times.

He married his wife, Louise, in 1953. They lived in Bensalem before moving to Middletown Township.

In late 1983, when the government broke up Bell, he took early retirement and formed his own company, RB Communications. He handled all the branches for First Federal Savings & Loan, Union Fidelity Insurance and the Bucks County Courier Times among many others. After his retirement in 1997 he and his wife moved to New Holland in Lancaster County.

They have two daughters, Pat Mervine of Langhorne and Linda Mooney of New Mexico, and one grandchild.