THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508170167
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Faces and places
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Mason Lankford, 63, stared at the newspaper his wife, Shirley, handed him.
``That's you,'' she said, pointing to a young GI in the picture of the Korean War Memorial on the front page of a recent edition of The Virginian-Pilot.
Lankford, a barber on Holland's main street for 38 years, peered at the faces. Staring back was the 21-year-old soldier known as ``Sleepy,'' who got his career start trimming hair for his fellow GIs.
To his left was his best buddy, Donald A. Scott from Detroit, with whom he lost contact after the war. In the foreground was another soldier in his company - the Seventh Division, 13th Engineers.
Their images stood out in the snapshot of a portion of the mural containing 2,500 faces culled from military archives.
Lankford recognized the faces from 43 years ago, but it was eerie to look at something he was so unprepared to see. He had read of plans for the monument but never expected his picture to be included.
``All those people over there and I happened to turn up,'' he said.
He remembers when the picture was taken, Lankford said last week, finishing his final haircut of the day. A photographer had been at a USO show featuring Marilyn Monroe, then also 21. Lankford's company had built the stage and gotten front row seats.
He compared several worn black-and-white pictures - one of just himself, another with Scott, with the newspaper. The images were remarkably similar.
Lankford, who weighs the same as when he wore his Army uniform, wasn't surprised. He still has all his teeth and hair.
``I look similar,'' he said, ``just older.''
Lankford, born in Southampton County, was 20 and working at a former ink plant in Franklin when he was drafted in 1952.
He spent eight weeks in basic training in Aberdeen, Md., then went to Atlanta for advanced training.
``They shipped us over there right quick like,'' he said. ``They were hurting for troops.''
About four months after being inducted, he was on the front line. He spent 16 months in Korea - six of them in combat. His company worked ahead of the infantry, setting mines and stringing barbed wire.
The night they landed, a captain stood in the middle of the field with a microphone and greeted them. ``He said, `You boys want to know where your bedrooms are? You're standing on them.' ''
One night after about four days on the line, Lankford was exhausted and fell asleep in a tent he shared with about a dozen other soldiers. During the night, the area was hit with artillery fire.
``I woke up the next morning and I was the only one in the tent,'' he said, ``and it was half torn down.''
His bunkmates had all run out and jumped in foxholes, while Lankford slept through the shelling, earning himself the nickname ``Sleepy.''
Three weeks after arriving in Korea, he ran head on into a Chinese soldier during a battle.
``A flare went off, and all I could see were his slanted eyes,'' Lankford said. ``I threw my M-1 in his gut, and all he could say was, `GI, GI.' ''
The soldier, trembling, motioned with his hands in front of his mouth that he wanted a cigarette, said Lankford, who took him back to the camp and gave him one.
``I don't know what would have happened if he had got me first,'' he said.
Lankford doesn't consider himself a hero though he's proud to see his picture included on the mural.
William Lecky, one of the architects who designed the memorial, hopes every soldier who served in Korea will identify with the representative pictures.
Many have thought they knew someone, said Lecky, a partner in the Washington firm of Cooper Leckey Architects.
The granite was quarried in California, then shipped to Cold Spring, Minn., where it was cut, polished and etched with the faces. One of the men doing the sandblasting thought he recognized his father's picture. The next day, he brought his parents there, and they all sat and cried.
``You hear a lot of heart-wrenching stories,'' Lecky said.
``Frankly, I'd love it if everyone who went out there to see it thought that was their picture or thought they recognized their buddy,'' Lecky said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by John H. Sheally II
Mason Lankford holds up the newspaper photo of the Korean War
Memorial mural in which he was featured.
by CNB