Transcript
My name is John Murphy and I was born in Tipperary, in Ireland and I came out here in 1949 and I was kind of wandering around, I didn't have any relations out in Australia, I was wandering around from job to job. 1950, a year went by and 1950 came up and I seen a newspaper one day with an ad in it saying that the Australian government was looking for trained soldiers to make up a contingent to go to the war in Korea.
I was a non- commissioned officer in the Irish army before I came out here, so I thought well maybe they'll take me. I didn't like communism and that's what happened in the Korean war the North invaded the South, the communists and I said well if they are looking for trained soldiers called K-Force to augment the 3rd Battalion which was stationed in Japan as an occupation force, so I said, Well I'll try that and contacted Swanbourne barracks and they said yeah, they're looking for trained soldiers.
I got a doctor's examination and in three days I was on my way to Puckapunyal in Victoria and in another five weeks, a refresher course at Puckapunyal army base, I was on my way to Japan and Korea and that's how I got to the war.
