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Hernando Today

The Call To Korea

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2008

WEEKI WACHEE - Edward Jost had barely settled in America before he was called to war and took a bullet in the face for his country.

"Uncle Sam says we need you, and you go, right?" Jost said Friday as he recalled his path to the United States, the Army and the front lines of the Korean War.

Born in Austria, Jost (pronounced Yost) was a U.S. citizen because his mother had been born in Allentown, Pa. She returned to Austria, got married, gave birth to Edward and then moved to Queens, N.Y., leaving him with his grandparents.

But Austria had been ravaged by the second World War, and Yost's grandparents worried about 16-year-old Edward's future.

"You can't stay here," Jost recalls his grandfather saying. "You have a better chance in America than in Germany."

So Jost went. Three years later, he was drafted in the U.S. Army even though he could still speak little English or read the skills test.

"But I understood enough," he said, laughing.

By 1953 Jost was a staff sergeant with the Army's 7th Calvary Regiment, firing rounds at Communist forces from the base of what soldiers had come to call Papasan Mountain, where he almost lost his jaw.

Yost, now 76, will be among some 50 Korean War veterans who will accept recognition for their service at a ceremony slated for 2 p.m. Sunday at Elks Lodge 2582, 14494 Cortez Blvd., Brooksville.

"It's just a way to thank them for what they've done for us and for the sacrifices they've made," said Gail Cleaves, veterans coordinator for the post.

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite will hand out coins to veterans as a token of that appreciation.

The event is also meant to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war on July 27, 1953. The lodge decided to hold off on the event until the fall, when more part-time residents return, Cleaves said.

Edward Jost turned 21 on that day. His sacrifice came a couple of weeks prior.
Jost and nine other comrades were on patrol with dogs trained to sniff out the enemy. The dog gave a sign, Jost recalls, but it was too late: Ambush.

All but one of the men was wounded in the firefight, though none were killed, Jost said.

"Even the dog got shot," he said.

A bullet cut through Jost's mouth below his bottom lip, cutting his bottom teeth "like a hacksaw" before grazing his arm.

He heard about the armistice while recovering in the medical ward. Most of his teeth fell out. He was fitted for dentures.

"I was in the hospital saying, 'Son of gun, they couldn't have done it two weeks earlier,'" he recalls with a wry smile.

After three months, he was sent back to Korea, where he put his cabinet making skills to work building furniture for the barracks and chapel.
Jost married Rosemarie Chalfon, who he had met in Queens before leaving for Korea, when he returned to the states. In one of those astounding it's-a-small-world moments, the couple realized they hailed from the same town in Austria.
Jost made cabinets for a living, and the couple later owned a delicatessen and hardware store in Queens. They moved to a roomy rancher in River Country, just south of Weeki Wachee Springs, in 1985.

Two decades later, Jost finally got the Purple Heart he was due. His five sons convinced him to pursue it, and Brown-Waite's office worked to make it happen.

"You earned it, Dad," Jost recalled his sons saying. "And it will be a memento for your grandchildren."

Jost, who has served vice-president of German-American Club in Spring Hill for about eight years, admits it was hard to come here and bear the brunt of his fellow Americans' anger at the Germans for Hitler's acts, then lose a part of himself to the war.

But he's had a wonderful life here, he says. The promise of a better life had been fulfilled.

"Whatever you make for yourself, that's what you've got," he said. "Work hard and things will work out."

If you go

WHAT: Ceremony to honor local Korean War veterans
WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28.

WHERE: Elks Lodge 2582, 14494 Cortez Blvd., Brooksville.

CONTACT: Gail Cleaves, 799-4464.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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