Thorsby American Legion post member recognized for service
Published 8:47 pm Monday, August 6, 2012
Morris Price was recognized recently for 60 years of service in the American Legion.
His service to his country goes much deeper than that.
Morris Price displays the plaque he received recognizing his 60 years of service in the American Legion. In the background is the Veterans Memorial in front of the Chilton County Courthouse that Price helped push for.
Price entered the Korean conflict in April 1951. Five months later, he was injured as his machine gun crew was on the offensive during the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge.
A bullet went in Price’s nostril and exited the back of his head. He and four others were trying to make it to a medic when they were ambushed and taken prisoner.
The injured soldiers’ health was put on hold as they were dragged around the country. They walked all night to a North Korean camp, and then they took five days to make their way to a field hospital.
Even at the hospital, the only relief Price received was a pulled tooth.
“I lost a lot of blood,” he said. “I don’t really know how I made it.”
Eventually, Price was taken to a camp north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
“We got bombed and strafed by our people all night there,” he said.
After months spent on the banks of the Yalu River–near Manchuria, where it was so cold that many prisoners suffered frostbite–Price was freed and returned home, in September 1953.
Price joined the American Legion and other veterans organizations and began doing what he could for fellow vets.
