He was called to active duty July 4, 1947 and went through the Medical Field Service School at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, following which he was ordered to Japan for “occupation duty.” He flew across the Pacific on a C-54 MAC aircraft full of other doctors like himself, but; unlike him, they were mostly all complaining about having been drafted long after WWII had ended. Their attitude irritated him so much that he volunteered for the Airborne upon arrival in Japan. He went through the 11th Airborne Division’s “Jump School,” and then had assignments as Medical Officer and as Regimental Surgeon of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. During his tour of duty in Japan, he was promoted to Captain in July 1948. He returned to the U.S. as Medical Officer, 11th Airborne Division, Camp Campbell, Kentucky in June 1949. The Korean War broke out a year later, June 1950, and the Airborne moved quickly.

By September 1950, Captain Robert Bernstein was in Korea as Battalion Surgeon of the 2nd Battalion, 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (Rakkasans). There were only two combat parachute jumps during the Korean War, and he made both of them with the 187th Regimental Combat Team. He was also wounded when he was in the Rakkasans. Dr. Bernstein tells it this way, “We were in North Korea, going after guerillas in the mountains, and our battalion had sent a reinforced Company to hunt them down. We probably shouldn’t have even been out on that operation. But, the battalion commander had me with him, among a little group of his staff, six of us, and we were out about 20 minutes ahead of the company. We were moving up a narrow valley, with rice paddies in the valley floor between mountains on either side. Our little group was going along, singing Christmas Carols, when suddenly the North Koreans on the hillside opened up on us with small arms and automatic weapons fire. We quickly scrambled over the nearest rice paddy berm and took cover as best we could, but; not before I had taken a bullet, right in the butt. The company of paratroopers came up and drove off our attackers. The medics put me on a litter, however, I got off and walked out, or rather limped out, to keep from getting stiff. I was operated on in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.). The surgeons tried unsuccessfully to take the bullet out and I still carry it today, lodged in my right buttock.”