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Jamie Farr who played the character of cross-dressing Klinger on televisions M*A*S*H show is respectful in his review of the new University of Toledo Press book 30 Below on Christmas Eve: Interviews with Northwest Ohio Veterans of the Korean War.

I only fought in Korea on a TV sound stage and in a dress at that but I have great respect for the guys who were actually there, said Farr through the publisher. These interviews tell it all ... from suffering with frostbitten feet to charging up Heartbreak Hill, from being tortured as POWs to being flown in to MASH units. Thirty Below on Christmas Eve shows the real Korean War and the real valor our boys brought to the fight and then some.

Andrew Bud Fisher edits the interviews in 30 Below on Christmas Eve, as he did its previously published companion book, What A Time It Was: Interviews with Northwest Ohio Veterans of World War II. The new book includes almost four dozen interviews of Korean War veterans.

Though not stated explicitly by the editor, the interviews in both books seem to be excerpts from longer sessions, said Larry A. Grant of The Citadel Oral History Program in a review of the book.

Interviews were conducted in the Ward M. Canaday Center of the University of Toledo Carlson Library

Interviews in 30 Below are arranged according to service: Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps, Grant explains. Another section, Active Reserves, contains stories of veterans who also served in World War II. The remaining section, Other Participants, contains stories of service during the Korean War period, mostly in other theaters, and also introduces two Koreans who later settled in the U.S.

The book includes a glossary of terms, explanations of acronyms and place names, a listing of personalities introduced by the recollections, biographical sketches of key individuals in the war, essays on the history of the era, and statistics of the war.

Grant notes that the text includes few annotations. Instead, the veterans recollections speak for themselves.

One recollection that reoccurs is the memory of how unprepared American forces were when they got to Korea.

This condition comes out repeatedly in the interviews, writes Grant. Leo D. Barlows comments are typical when the subject turns to the winter weather. Asked how he was equipped, Barlow, a Marine who landed at Inchon and fought at Chosin Reservoir, answers, It could get down to 40 degrees below zero and we didnt have the proper gear. We lost more people to the weather than to enemy action.

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About Books: Recollections of veterans paint word picture of Korean War