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Each evening, Rudolph Simmon Weddle, known as "Rudy" to his friends and associates, watches the sunset from the dock of his Floral City home with his wife Jeane. The inviting setting amid warm southern breezes and the sounds of nature are a stark contrast to the cold, barren mountaintops engulfed with the sounds of war that marked Weddle's days over fifty years ago.
A Virginia native, Weddle was born and raised in Roanoke graduating from Jefferson High School in 1948. In July 1948, he enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years. Upon completion of basic training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, he was trained as a switchboard technician at the U.S. Army Signal School in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey.
Assigned to the 51st Signal Battalion at Ft. Meade, Maryland in February 1949, Weddle's duties took him on a cross-country tour of colleges as a member of a signal exhibit team and to the islands of Vieques and Hawaii.
Upon completion of his two-year enlistment, Weddle was honorably discharged on July 10, 1950, 15 days after the Korean War began. Placed in the inactive reserve, he was recalled to active duty in October 1950.
Arriving in Korea early December, Weddle was assigned to the 3rd Signal Company, 3rd Infantry Division as it was advancing near the Yalu River. However, the onslaught of a million Chinese quickly halted the division's advance. Fighting for survival, the division withdrew under heavy enemy pressure to the North Korean port of Hungnam for evacuation by sea to the South Korean port of Pusan
Upon arrival at Pusan, Weddle's division was reconstituted and led the advance from Pusan until the battle lines were stabilized generally along the 38th Parallel. In May 1951, the 3rd Infantry Division was dispatched to the battle lines' center sector to repel a breakthrough by two enemy divisions that had decimated a South Korean division. Weddle remained in the sector with the division until he was wounded in action two months later.
As a lineman responsible for laying and maintaining landlines of communications between company, battalion and regimental headquarters, Weddle saw duty with the 65th, 7th and 15th Infantry regiments. With the enemy constantly severing this primary means of communications, Weddle was constantly exposed to enemy attack as he traversed the battlefield day and night to maintain this communications lifeline.
On July 15, 1951, while on a mission to find and repair a severed landline between regimental and division headquarters, Weddle earned his Purple Heart. Moving by jeep in the dark of night along a mountain trail with a comrade, the severed landline was found and repaired. As the first rays of light illuminated the mountaintop, Weddle, seeing a wooded structure nearby, proceeded to check it out.
Entering the dark structure, he heard a noise to his left. As he turned to the noise, he found himself face to face with an enemy soldier who fired his bolt-action rifle point blank at Weddle. The bullet smashed into Weddle's left arm, miraculously missing his heart by inches. Simultaneously, Weddle opened fire with his M-2 carbine killing the enemy soldier.
Hearing the exchange of gunfire, Weddle's comrade ran to assist him and transported him to the battalion aid station. Because of the heavy and constant fighting, Weddle remained at the aid station for two days until evacuated to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital with further evacuation to a military hospital in Yokohama, Japan.
Initially, Weddle lost the use of his left hand, resulting in his being medically discharged in November 1951 as a proud recipient of the Purple Heart and Combat Infantryman Badge. After three surgeries and extensive rehabilitation over a period of years, Weddle regained the use of his left hand but still is unable to grasp objects.
After his medical discharge, Weddle returned to Roanoke and worked for Bell Telephone until he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) under the G. I. Bill. After attending college, he returned to Roanoke to work for the Quaker Oats Company for eight years followed by a 20-year career with the Virginia Foundry Company where he rose to the position of Senior Vice President for Sales.
A Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Weddle and his wife Jeane relocated from Marietta, Georgia to Floral City in 1995 where he enjoys sunsets, gardening, fishing and boating. Additionally, he relishes visiting his three children, three step children, four grandchildren and three step grandchildren.
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