How can I find any information about why my Father received the Bronze Star in Korea?
How can I find any information about why my Father received the Bronze Star in Korea?
A "Forward Observer" is someone who is assigned to an artillery unit (usually they are a team of two or three) who are attached to another unit for the purpose of directing artillery fire. They get told the target by the unit they're on the ground with, they get on the radio, and they issue a "call for fire" to the artillery unit they're assigned to. When the artillery fire hits, they then adjust it by giving directions to the artillery unit until it's getting the maximum effect. Then they have the artillery unit shift fires as needed until the target is destroyed.
They're called "Forward Observers" because they're forward--on the front lines with the unit they're supporting--and they are observing the artillery fires and adjusting the fires for maximum effect.
Officers and noncommissioned officers in other branches (infantry, armor, etc.) are trained on how to call in artillery, but they're not as good at it as a trained artilleryman is. So a forward observer is like gold to a supported unit, especially when things are going really, really bad.
It looks like he may have been discharged as a Staff Sergeant, but only have been a Sergeant in Korea. That's not unusual; my father Corporal and was discharged as a Sergeant First Class (but he was on a 3-year enlistment). And the 194th may have been the unit he was assigned to "run out the clock" on his enlistment; I found this clipping from the Alabama Journal dated 17 June 1952 on Newspapers.com:
In the Army, Soldiers wear patches on their shoulders for specific reasons. The patch on their left shoulder is for their current unit of assignment. That is the Viking patch, and is the 47th Infantry Division, which was mobilized at Camp Rucker, to which the 194th Tank Battalion was assigned.
On their right shoulder, Soldiers who have been to war wear what is known as a "Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, Former Wartime Service," more informally known as a "Combat Patch."
The patch you have described is the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 25th Infantry Division. It is a Taro Leaf with a lightning bolt, since the division was originally raised in Hawaii. It's pretty distinctive, and your description is spot-on. It's official nickname is "Tropic Lightning," but in Vietnam, soldiers referred to it as "The Electric Strawberry."
Assuming your father didn't serve in World War II, we can conclude he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division when he was in Korea.
The Division does have an association, and it looks like they have an archive of donated records at the Marshall Center at the Virginia Military Institute.