| Name |
Raymond John Mabey |
| Birth |
28 Jan 1934 |
Buffalo, Erie County, New York  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Census |
5 Apr 1940 |
213 Madison Street, Buffalo, Erie County, New York [2] |
- Arthur Mabey Jr, Head, M, W, 25, M, completed 4 years high school, born in New York, Paper Hanger & Painter, own business
Mabel Mabey, Wife, F, W, 24, M, completed 8 years school, born in New York
Raymond Mabey, Son, M, W, 6, M[sic], born in New York
Bruce Mabey, Son, M, W, 2, M[sic], born in New York
|
| Census |
20 Apr 1950 |
834 Washington Street, Buffalo, Erie County, New York [3] |
- Arthur P Mabey, Jr, Head, White, Male, 35, Married, born in New York, worked 48 hours last week
Mabel F Mabey, Wife, White, Female, 34, Married, born in New York
Raymond J Mabey, Son, White, Male, 16, never married, born in New York, Bootblack, Hotel
Bruce A Mabey, Son, White, Male, 13, never married, born in New York
|
| Residence |
9 Dec 1958 |
114 Coshway, North Tonawanda, New York [4] |
- New arrivals - Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Mabey, 114 Coshway Pl, formerly of Buffalo, parents of Lawrence, 2.
|
| Anecdote |
7 Jun 2010 |
- The Korean War had ended, and Ray Mabey had only a few months left to serve in South Korea before heading home to Buffalo.
At 19 years old, the 6-foot-4 Marine could hardly think of anything else, believing that the worst was now behind him and his fellow troops. That was until an evening in June 1953, outside the Korean port at Inchon, near Seoul, where an estimated 2,000 prisoners of war were awaiting their release.
Mabey, a member of the 1st Marine Division, Shore Party, was with a friend inside a PX at the Ascom City encampment when they heard a crackling sound.
Could that be machine-gun fire? they wondered.
"Nah, we thought, that's not real. There was a John Wayne movie that was being shown on a big outdoor screen at the camp, and we thought it came from that," Mabey said. "Then there was another burst, and we knew it was a real machine gun."
Sirens shrieked.
The camp was put on high alert. Marines were assembled and issued bandoliers of .30-caliber clips for their M-1 rifles. A captain selectively ordered some of the leathernecks into troop trucks without any explanation.
"The captain pointed and said, 'You, you and you,' " Mabey said.
The captain, he noticed, was staying away from the smaller Marines, picking only the bigger, more muscular ones.
Sitting inside one of the trucks, Mabey knew something serious was in the works. They were then driven to the perimeter of the prisoner of war camp, which was adjacent to a rice paddy.
Sheer horror greeted them.
Under the eerie glow of prison spotlights, a wide section of doubled-fenced barbed wire surrounding the camp had been crushed, as if from a stampede. Inside the camp, the ground was covered with dead and wounded North Korean and Chinese soldiers.
Mabey and his fellow Marines were informed that there had been a prison break, and they were to clean up the carnage.
"Half of us were ordered into the rice paddy to search for escapees and the other half into the prison camp," said Mabey, who was assigned to the camp detail.
Eyewitness accounts later described the prison compound as blood-soaked.
"In the camp, men were mutilated by the machine-gun fire," Mabey said of the grim assignment that kept him and his fellow Marines busy throughout the night.
South Korean soldiers had earlier abandoned their posts, leaving U.S. personnel guarding the camp outnumbered by the POWs, setting the stage for use of heavy firepower when the break occurred.
The world later learned that thousands of anti-communist POWs from the North had participated in prison breaks at different compounds after South Korean President Syngman Rhee had ordered their release.
The power struggle between South Korea and the United Nations Command was way above Mabey's pay grade, but it would have an impact on him that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"We were told to place those who were still alive into trucks separate from the trucks where we were piling the dead," Mabey said. "Some of the wounded had crawled back into their Quonset huts, and we had to go in after them. There were no lights in those huts. It was black. You could hear them moaning and moving about inside."
What disturbed Mabey the most was that no medical personnel, Red Cross workers or ambulances were summoned to help the wounded.
"We stacked the wounded on the tailgate of the trucks, and then they were dragged to the front of the trucks," Mabey said. "and when each truck was full, they closed the tailgate, and drove the truck away. I lost count of the trucks we loaded that night."
The work was exhausting, and, at one point, sandwiches and coffee were served, but no one, Mabey said, had much of an appetite.
Now 76 years old, the retired truck driver from the City of Tonawanda says he never forgot the orders from his captain before they started the gruesome cleanup.
"He told us, 'Don't say a word to the press or you'll be court-martialed, do brig time and then be given a dishonorable discharge," Mabey said. "The captain then added, 'And don't dare sell any photos or film to the press. If any of you know of someone who has camera, I want you to report him.' "
The next day, according to Mabey, he and the other Marines who worked the cleanup were separated and transferred to other camps.
"I ended up on a hillside in a tent up by the 38th parallel, the demilitarized zone," Mabey said. "None of us were left together, so we couldn't compare notes, but what did I know? I was a 19-year-old private who was looking forward to going home."
Mabey says he is not sure if anyone has ever provided an eyewitness account of what he and his fellow Marines experienced that night so long ago, but for him, he said, it was time to get it off his chest.
|
| Reference Number |
12426 |
| Reference Number |
12426 |
| Death |
5 Apr 2016 [5] |
| Burial |
Elmlawn Cemetery, Kenmore, Erie County, New York [5] |
- Born Raymond John Rabb; Died Ray Mabey; Jan 28, 1934 – Apr 5, 2016
|
| Person ID |
I12361 |
Maybee Society |
| Last Modified |
7 Apr 2024 |
1934 - 2016 (82 years)
