Joseph Ceh grew up hearing war stories. While his father never said a word of his time in service in the Austrian-Hungarian Army, his mother would tell him many stories of her village being ransacked during World War I when she was a young girl. In his home on East 32nd Street, Ceh learned about the horrors of war and the devastation it could bring.

Unfortunately, the Korean War had been brewing, and as Ceh graduated high school, he knew a letter would be coming for him soon. Sure enough, just a few weeks after his 18th birthday Ceh got a letter informing him that he had been drafted. He was to go to the draft board on Broadway in downtown Lorain for 12 weeks of training.

Ceh was sent to the French battlefields directly after finishing boot camp. There he got his first experience with the devastation war could bring. His mother’s stories came to life before his very eyes as he watched people starve to death in the streets. Some of whom were fellow military members.

In September 1945, Ceh was moved to a small outpost near Munich where he was informed, he would be going home. Joseph returned home, but it wouldn’t be the end for him just yet. He worked near his childhood home and joined the Ohio National Guard in the Buckeye Division.

Joseph settled into a normal life. In 1950, he married his wife, Irene, purchased a '48 Chrysler, and repainted their one-bedroom apartment. That's when the Ohio National Guard was put on alert, and Joseph was sent to Korea as a replacement in 1951.

“I had very little idea what was going on there, but I sure as hell was going to find out,” Ceh said in an interview.

Joseph Ceh was only 25 when he had to leave his wife to fight in Korea. They were both in tears as Ceh boarded a plane at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, neither of them knowing when or if he would come home.

For the first few weeks in Korea Ceh had to wait to be officially assigned a unit. As he waited, he was tasked with working on the equipment and weaponry. Finally he was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, 31st Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company G under Commander McArthur. This company had seen some of the most gruesome fights and had just been badly beaten by the enemy only a few days before.

The day after Ceh was assigned, the 7th was assigned to recapture the hill they had lost just days earlier.

“It was another hill among a whole bunch of other hills. Why that one was important, I don’t know. I didn’t have the chance to find out. I just got there, and it was time to go.” He said.

The moment the 7th appeared at the bottom of the hill; North Korean gunfire rained down on them. As the company moved up the hill, their frontlines had taken so many hits that bodies were rolling down the slope and those behind had to step on their fellow soldiers just to keep climbing.

Somewhere in that climb, Ceh was shot in the knee. “I don’t remember being hit. I was the only officer that wasn’t wounded or dead at that point and I was busy trying to keep things together,” he recalled.

The troop made it up to the top of the hill, at the cost of 30% of the infantry. Once the force arrived; the North Koreans unloaded everything they had. With no reinforcements on the way for them, the enemy decided to fire everything they had at once.

It was certainly overwhelming for the American soldiers. Ceh and two other soldiers dove into a small pit made by an explosive and returned fire. Suddenly a grenade exploded behind Ceh. It tore through his leg and his back. When asked about what happened after the explosion, Ceh responded that he had little memory of events. The only thing he could remember was how chaotic that battlefield was. Equipment and bodies lay everywhere, and someone needed to do something.

Although he doesn’t remember it, Joseph clawed his way up to an abandoned machine gun, ignoring his grievous injury. He used it to repel enemy forces until reinforcements arrived. When they did, he was told to see the medic. Two hours later, he arrived at the bottom of the hill to be treated by field medics before being sent to a makeshift hospital.

While he wasn’t discharged, he never served in anything like the battle for the hill. After less than a year of his injury, he was transferred to the intelligence unit and went home in July 1953 after earning the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions.

After service, Ceh became a devoted member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church and worked at Thew Shovel Company for 30 years. In 1973, he became the owner of Broadway Feed and Pet Supply until its closing in 2005. He and his wife Irene had a daughter named Patricia and three sons: Michael, Jeff, and Jonathon. He shared his passions for boating, fishing, and gardening with his children before passing away on April 8, 2015. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in New York.