Corryton veteran honored with PFC Glenn Paul Wood Memorial Mile

By Ken Leinart

He was an “ole country boy,” a son, a brother, a father and grandfather, a family man, and a good neighbor.

He and his wife, Allene, once ran a small grocery store and he would become a grocer by trade at a local store. Even after he “retired” from the grocery business he still served his community as a custodian at Ritta Elementary School.

However, it was another part of Glenn Paul Wood’s life that is recognized with the naming of the PFC Glenn Paul Wood Memorial Mile on Rutledge Pike in north Knox County.

Because he was also a soldier, a warrior, a “real life” hero.

A ceremony was held Wednesday, Aug. 14, at Rutledge Pike Missionary Baptist Church to honor Wood and dedicate the section of highway.

State Senator Becky Massey and state Rep. Dave Wright, the co-sponsors of the bill for the project, spoke at the event and a representative from Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ office read a proclamation from the mayor.

PFC Glenn Paul Wood is honored not just for his service to his country – his devotion to duty and honor – during wartime, but for a life lived by those same principles.

“Dad didn’t go to high school,” his son, Larry Wood, said. “He quit school after eighth grade to help on the family farm.”

That was life in rural America at the time. Duty and devotion were given to the needs of the farm, to the family, and in that manner, to the country.

Wood was drafted at age 18. An older brother, Adrian, had already been called up. A third brother, Don, would not be called to serve in the military.

“My grandad said, ‘You can’t take this one, I need him on the farm,’” Larry Wood said.

Larry then told a story from when PFC Glenn Paul Wood had been in the United States Army for a year serving in the Korean War.

“He was caught on this hill, him and his foxhole buddy were there,” Larry Wood said

“There was no one there to help them. They fought all night until their guns just glowed red,” Larry Wood said.

The fight for their position turned desperate, fatigue was setting in, and ammunition was running low. And the Chinese Army was still trying to get past them.

“Dad told me the Army had told him Chinese ammo would fit our guns. So they were in a foxhole digging through dead bodies trying to find ammo,” Larry Wood said.

“Then he said he saw a pair of tennis shoes sticking out in front of him and his first thought was, ‘I’ll just pull him out and get the ammo’ and when he did, it just peeled like a banana. And it didn’t gross him out because he’d seen so much already,” Larry Wood said.

“They held that hill all night by themselves.

When relief came the next morning, Wood said a long line of Chinese prisoners of war were marched by the two survivors with their hands held up.

“He didn’t know how many there were (prisoners), but there was ‘a ton’ and Dad said some of them would just stop and stare at the two and shake their heads, they couldn’t believe just two people had stopped them,” Larry Wood said.

PFC Wood’s sergeant told him he was going to write both men up for a Bronze Star for their bravery, but the sergeant was killed shortly after and the citation was never written.

Glenn Wood’s service ended when he and another soldier were in battle and a grenade exploded behind them sending shrapnel into their backs.

“Dad was an ole country boy so he knew he had to sit up or he’d bleed to death,” Larry Wood said. “He found a small tree to lean back against and he kept trying to get his buddy to sit up, begged him to, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t,” Larry Wood said.

“Dad watched him die right there.”

Glenn Wood spent almost another year recovering from the grenade attack, losing a third of a lung to the injury.

Once discharged, PFC Glenn Paul Wood came home, married a girl from Claiborne County, Kentucky, and began a good life.

His brother, Adrian, was captured during the Korean War and was a POW.

“He came back, he wasn’t killed,” Larry Wood said of his uncle. “But it changed him. He was never really the same.”

Less than a year ago Glenn Wood’s grandson, Phillip Wood, started the process of getting the Memorial Mile named.

“Senator Massey was a great help,” Phillip said. “She’s been with us the whole way.”

Massey said requests like these are hardly ever turned away. There is bureaucracy to go through, but once the name is submitted and the paperwork in place …

“The biggest part is finding the right highway,” Massey said.

You will see PFC Glenn Paul Wood Memorial Mile between mile markers 36 and 37 on Rutledge Pike, or State Highway 1.

And it is appropriate. This is where PFC Glenn Paul Wood was raised, where he became a man, where he served his fellow man as a soldier, and as a son, a brother, a father and grandfather, a family man, a good neighbor.

There are other “memorial miles” along this highway, along most state highways actually.

They stand as reminders, not just of the deeds and sacrifices of these men and women, but of something higher.

“We need to say the names of those who have gone so they are remembered,” Rep. Wright said.

He said when you pass one of the signs designating part of a road as a memorial you should say that name out loud.

A Vietnam-era veteran, Wright understands the importance of never forgetting those who stand tall for their country.

“We have to remember where we came from and where we are today,” he said.

Glenn Paul Wood died at the age of 85 in January 2016.  He received the Purple Heart after being injured by the enemy grenade while serving in the artillery division, the Combat Infantry Badge, the United Nations Service Medal, and the Korean Service Medal with two bronze service stars.