Coming home golden

COLDWATER - Maurice Harting, a 90-year-old Korean War veteran, vividly recalls coming home in 1953 after serving his country for 16 months.

Nearing the country's western shoreline, Harting had better positioned himself on the troop ship to get an unobstructed view of the approaching iconic landmark.

"I climbed up here to make sure I was going to see that Golden Gate Bridge because my brothers, after being gone for years, they said it was a wonderful sight," Harting said.

Turns out, that moment had been captured by a photographer.

Decades later, while flipping through the pages of the November 1997 edition of VFW Magazine, Harting saw himself above a group of returning servicemen, gazing out at the United States and all of the promises and opportunities it offered. Awaiting him was a reunion with his parents, siblings and soon-to-be wife and a family farm poised for expansion.

"And there's the camera (around his neck) that I gave him for a Christmas present," his wife, Mary Ann, pointed out.

The couple, who today celebrate their 66th anniversary and on Saturday, Independence Day, have a son, Jim, three grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. They retired and moved to Coldwater in 1991 to be closer to Jim.

Like so many other area men and women, Harting had selflessly answered the call of duty when it came, leaving a rural community to risk life and limb in remote locales, in the name of freedom and country.

"It was a job you had to do, and you just did it. That's all. You had no choice," he said. "If you had to die for your country, you had to die for it."

Maurice Harting and five of his six brothers, who were raised in Cassella, all served their country in the military.

"Six of us served in the military. They've all passed away. I've got one sister that's alive, Ruth Luthman. She lives in St. Marys," he said. "We never talked about (our military experiences) much. We were just glad it was over."

Eugene Harting, the oldest of William and Anna Harting's seven sons, worked for NCR in Dayton.

"When he got to Columbus they sent him back home," Maurice Harting said. "Where he worked was essential for the war."

Roman, Richard and Carl Harting all served in the South Pacific during World War II, he said.

"Roman and Rich both (were in the U.S. Army). They stayed together all during the wartime, from the beginning to the end," he said, adding that Carl Harting was in the U.S. Navy.

Paul Harting served in the U.S. Army in Germany during WWII, where he was badly wounded.

"I remember when they came and told my mom that my brother was hurt in the service, and she said, 'Which one?'" Maurice Harting recounted. "He was totally disabled two days before the war ended in Germany."

"He got shrapnel in the brain and a plate in his head," Mary Ann Harting said, holding back tears. "He lived with us until he died."

Walter and Maurice Harting both served during the Korean War. Maurice Harting was dispatched to Korea while Walter Harting served stateside.

Maurice Harting graduated from St. John High School in Maria Stein in 1947. A few years later, in 1951, he was drafted in the U.S. Army.

He and Mary Ann Homan met at a dance at Eldora the last weekend of July in 1951. They immediately sparked a connection even though Maurice Harting would soon be leaving for basic training.

"But luckily he was at Fort Knox so he came home a lot of the weekends, and I met his family at Christmas and then he was gone," his wife said. "I didn't see him again until May of 1953. And then we dated for a year and (got married)."

Maurice Hartings was one of 11 Mercer County men who were drafted at the same time.

"I knew quite a few of them. Most of them. It helped a lot to know people there," he said. "We came home a couple weekends together and things like that. I went overseas with a couple of them guys. When I was discharged I came home with one of the guys I served with, and we hitchhiked from Fort Custer, Michigan, in the middle of the night."

Maurice Harting received additional training in Japan before being sent to Korea as a combat engineer, working alongside the South Korean Army, he said. Assigned to the U.S. Army's 194th Engineer Combat Battalion, Company A, he was responsible for a wide array of duties, including demolition and road work.

"The Koreans didn't have any equipment or anything like that so they had us working there," he said.

He focused on carrying out orders and staying alive, not only for himself but for his girlfriend and mother back home.

"That's the first thing I thought about when I got to the frontline of Korea. Seeing all that, I thought, 'What is my mom going to say? What is my mom going to say if I don't get back?'"

The letters written to him by his girlfriend and mother helped keep his spirits up.

"I was the envy of the whole squad, getting all that mail from home," Harting said, laughing.

He managed to stay clear of injury and after accumulating enough points for frontline duty was able to leave after 16 months of service. He was originally drafted for two years of duty.

Once home, he resumed his courtship with and later married Mary Ann Homan and set his sights on buying back the cattle his family had sold off because no one was around to take care of them.

"We moved in with Mom and Dad and my disabled brother to get started. Money was tight in those days, in the way of getting started," he said, adding he earned $50 a month while in the U.S. Army.

Whenever confronted with difficulty in his life, the words of a fellow serviceman rang out and prodded him on, Harting said.

"I remember in Korea, one particular tough time, one of the guys said, 'If I ever get back home, I'll never complain about anything,'" he recalled.

Speaking to the current civil unrest unfolding across the nation today, the couple said they're deeply hurt by the desecration of the U.S. flag and the negative attitudes displayed by some toward police officers.

"It just tears your heart up when you see that," he said. "When you think about what we all went through - not me, just everybody - fighting for this country and freedom and now the people are not satisfied with it, it just doesn't make sense."