(1) Robertson, as a young Marine lieutenant en route to Korea in 1951, had asked the assistance of his father, Virginia Senator A. Willis Robertson, to keep him out of combat.
(2) His father had intervened and gotten his son and a friend taken off the troopship and kept in Japan. Four other young lieutenants had also been taken off the ship for cover so that no political influence would be inferred.
(3) Some months later one of the four had caught the ear of a General's aide at a cocktail party and volunteered all six for transfer to Korea, much to Robertson's anger and dismay.
(4) The six had gone to Korea, where several were forthwith wounded, but Robertson had been assigned as the "liquor officer" with frequent booze runs to Japan.
http://www.schlatter.org/liquor_officer.htm