PBA Galleries

• Approx. 117 letters (most with envelopes) written by Dale Dalgas, mostly to family in Oregon from combat zones in the Korean War. 
• Two manuscripts diaries, partially used, 17 pages and 26 pages, from 1948 and 1950.
• Dalgas’ dog tags; two medic buttons; two medic badges; 7th Infantry Regiment Unit Crest; United Nations Korea service ribbon; a United States Korea service ribbon; and a medic armband with a red cross.
• A large color banner with Dalgas’ name, serial number and unit along with a map of Japan and other decorative features.
• Three snapshot photographs, of a “Korean Market”; a sign for the American Forces Korea radio network; and a DC-3. 
• A rare original “Christmas Card” propaganda leaflet from “The Korean People’s Army – The Chinese People’s Volunteers” addressed to American Soldiers, 4 pp., wishing for peace amongst the opposing forces.
• A large U.S Army Armed Forces commemorative plaque, naming Cpt. Dale R. Dalgas, 45th Inf. Div. Med. Co.

Uncommon archive of a medic in the Korean War, with  over one hundred letters written from the area of conflict, most to his parents, giving details of his life and cares, such as in July of 1952, “Yes we are up front now but it isn’t as bad as you might think. I am still mail clerk and barber… Today I went to the shower the first time in two weeks. I don’t think I have been any dirtier in my whole life…” He also relates that he  bought a shotgun and sent it home on which he might have to pay duty. In other letters he relates that he was glad to be in combat medics instead of at a hospital so that he could go through the same hardships at the front as the combatants; sympathy for the soldiers lessens as one moves away from the front. The archive is housed in a later wooden “ammunition box.”