Korea

 

1. Anti-aircraft guns at Kimpo when arrived
   1. Highway from Seoul to Osan (Air Base)
   2. had straight sections periodically with control towers just off the road to allow use of the highway as an airfield in time of war.
   3. Soldiers with machine guns in airport
   4. Guard with shotgun in our parking lot from dusk till dawn
   5. There because we had a Brigadier General living in our housing group.
2. The Boomer
   1. Every day a Blackhawk spy plane crossed Korea, once from east to west and once from west to east. The flights were to monitor the North Koreans.
   2. With each pass there was a boom from the plane breaking the sound barrier.
3. CW3 Camire
   1. Wife was Korean so he spent a lot time in Korea over the years. He was the “office fund” keeper and I was told some years later he was court-martialed for embezzlement from the office fund.
4. MAJ Halcrow – AG officer who conducted Art 32 hearings for the office.
   1. From one of the Dakotas or somewhere cold like that. Helped us get a diesel block heater. Told of being in VN when Norman Mailer (the only artist like person of note to support the war in VN) came for a visit. Mailer wanted to go into Cambodia. The Army had strict orders not to go there so they hovered a helicopter just at the border and let Mailer jump off and walk around in Cambodia for a few minutes, after which time he climbed back into the hovering helicopter and they flew away.
5. Colonel Bare – Wife was Gracie
   1.  Pronounced “Bark”
   2. He was a veterinarian, very appropriate.
   3. After we returned to SC we were driving on Interstate 20 when I remembered the houses in Washington, GA. We left the Interstate and drove to Washington where we stopped to eat at a Hardees. While eating, we heard someone call out Marilynn’s name. It was Gracie Bare. She was in transit and happened to stop at the same place to eat that we did.
6. Fog Rain
   1. Code name for alert exercise. Had one a month. Call came usually about 5:15 a.m.
   2. Periodically we not only reported in full combat gear but also got on heliocopters and flew to Pusan to pretend to set up an emergency command center.
7. Flying in Twin Rotor Copters
   1. Had two rotors and carried 50 or more people. Large door in the rear opened to form a ramp to drive vehicles on and off.
   2. Flew in nap of the earth flight to fly below radars. Made for constant up and down movement. This was compounded by the odor of diesel fuel buring and the wobbling like a porpoise of the copter due to the two motors not being quite in synch with one another. A lot of peope threw up along the way. I managed to avoid doing that.
8. Brave Shield/Ulchi Focus Lens
   1.  Annual readiness exercise with troops from US (active and reserve) coming over for two week exercise.
   2. I went to Pusan via copter and was a legal representative in the alternate HQ. We had 24 hour staffing. Not much sleep.
   3. Dallas Fanning came over for one of the sessions.
9. Katherine broke her arm at playground
   1. Only a few days after we got to Korea
   2. Were not sure if she was seriously hurt. Offered her candy and when she would not reach with the arm she said hurt we called a cab (car not there yet) and took her to the hospital. It was broken.
10. Marilynn’s cat scan at Korean hospital
    1.  The Army had not cat scan machine so we had to go to a Korean hospital. When she was secured on the table for the scan, a technician suddenly squirted liquid from a hypodermic needle into her eye. It turned out this was the constrast fluid for the scan and this was the Korean way to check for an allergic reaction to the contrast medium.
11. Chinese Defector in MIG
12. Trip to DMZ in Small Helicopter – Probably a HU1
    1.  Small helicopter. Made me think of a motorcycle in the sky. Later read the same metaphon in a book.
    2. Avoided ROK army positions as they had promised to shoot down any heliocopter like ours regardless of markings since one of that type had been smuggled through China to North Korea. We only were told this when we got back from the trip.
13.  Trip to DMZ by Car
    1. Mine fields on both sides of road
    2. Tank traps on both sides of the road
    3.  Arches made of concrete every mile or so that spanned the road. These were to be blown up and block the road if the North Koreans invaded.
14. The DMZ
    1. Yellow line painted on the ground to divide North and South Korea
    2. Guards on both sides stood with tows at the line on their side, face to face with counterpart on the other side of the line. Our guards all had to be 6’2″ and over 200 pounds so they were almost all looking down at the North Korean guards.
    3. Went into North Korea and had picture taken. Warned not to reach into pockets. North Korean guards with submachine guns peered through windows at us with no smiles.
    4. Tree with no limbs
    5. Truck at the bridge with motor running 24/7
    6. Trucks at guard barracks with motors running 24/7
    7.  Flags on the conference table. Had big battle about who would have biggest flag. Then who would have tallest flag. Finally compromised by letting one side have taller flag and the other have a larger flag.
    8. North Korean building was just a facade.
    9. Huge flag pole in North Korea
    10. Model village in North Korea with “residents” who came by day and left for the night.
15. Defector
    1. While on our way to the PX on a Saturday we encountered a small convoy of Mercedes with General Officer flags. When we went by the Hartell House later we saw some of those cars and numerous MPs. It turned out that a journalist had defected from North Korea by running accross the DMZ. When he did, soldiers followed after him and a shoot out ensued. The defector was then hidden at the Hartell House. There were official denials that he was there.
16.  Prime Minister Thatcher
    1.  One day we noticed strange looking people wearing bermuda shorts who were prowling around in the housing area. Some of them occupied a spot on the hill where Tom and his friends usually played.
    2. Then a helicopter landed and out walked Margaret Thatcher. She had come to go shopping in Itaewon.
17. Big Eyes
    1. Pointed at Katherine saying Big eyes.
    2. Picked Katherine up and walked away with her (with no explanation) calling others who came to look
18. Christmas Tree Lights
    1. We went to the PX for the lights and were told that there were none. I said let’s go check the store room to be sure.
    2. When we got the store room there were lots of them, apparently being held for the black market. We got the lights we needed.
19. Censorship
    1. CNN was our main news source. Some CNN stories were blanked when unfavorable to ROK
    2. No MTV allowed into the country by TV so people had tapes of it sent to them.
20. Videotape Clubs. Almost nothing on AFKN (Armed Forces Korea Network)
    1. People had tapes sent from US with MTV, soaps, movies, etc
21. First Customer
    1. Merchants in Orient often make the first customer of the day a very good deal to bring them good luck.
    2. Marilynn got a real deal that way on some cloth goods and sent people to the shop. They did not get the same price.
22. Standard Issue on Yongsan – Strict division of labor
    1. Sew Lady – Would make clothes by looking a picture in catalog
    2. House Boy – In charge of Yard Boy and Maid
    3. Yard Boy – Yard and washed car
    4. Maid
    5. Tailor – Came to your house, measured and came back with cut and pinned material to further fit. Rode a bicycle.
23. Pretend Office Workers
    1. Workers on Yongsan pretended to be office workers, more status. Came on bus dressed in suits and changed at the house to work. Any who worked outside were careful to cover face, neck and hands to avoid making it obvious by tan that they were working outside.
24.  Blackmarket
    1. Drastic import tariffs and restrictions to keep positive balance of payments. Japanese products were especially prized.
    2. Sealed box cars loaded with Japanese VCRs bound for the Yongsan PX would arrive empty in Seoul but the money for them was in the system as though purchased.
    3. Ration Control System tracked what you bought at PX and Commissary. Limits on quantities of various items such as alcohol and electroinics.
    4. Shops in Seoul offered blackmarket items in their windows with PX price tags still on them to show authenticity.
25. Fake Marriages to Gain Immigration Status and Military Benefits
26. Banana Riots
    1. Commissary bananas were a prized item. After a fight broke out among those trying to grab them, a closed circuit tv camera was placed over the counter where they were displayed.
27. Spam and Rice
28. Blonds
    1. Touching blond hair brought good look
    2. Tiffany on Tom’s soccer team had platinum blond hair. Near riot to touch her hair in taxi in Itaewon.
29. Lion
    1. Marilynn took our shar pei, Chang, for a walk in Itaewon.
    2. People scattered thinking that she was walking a lion.
30. You want antique?
    1. Buyer held up new metal (brass) pot and asked if the store had any like it that were antiques.
    2. Owner disappeared into the back of the store. Hammering and clanking sounds
    3. Walked back with same pot and said “Antique” now.
31. TM is for tall man
    1. I tried on a shirt and found that it became untucked if I raised my arms. When I put the shirt back saying it was too short, the store owner said this is shirt for tall man, see right here – and pointed at the TM for trademark.
32. Col. Bogen – You from Yong San, you know Colonel Bogen?
    1. Immigration official at Kimpo asked us this question.
    2. Jewelry store clerk in Hong Kong asked us this question.
33. ROK President visited Yong San
    1. We were warned not to go to windows on side of buildings that faced where the Pres would be. The story was that his guards would shoot at anyone who was in those windows.
    2. I had to go to a meeting near the Pres’s location. As I rounded the corner, I met a Korean Secret Service type with a black suit, sun glasses and an attache case on the ground at his feet. As I approached, he bent over to the case and was about to open it when I turned into the door of the building where my meeting was. No doubt in my mind that the attache case contained a submachine gun.
34. Eating Places
    1.  Fried Kentucky Chicken – There when we first arrived. Finally got a real KFC before we left.
    2.  Burger King was first real fast food place in Seoul. We would drive or take subway across town to reach it. Later had one on Yong San.
    3. Street vendors sold dried squid.
    4. Various “Clubs” on Yong San provided fairly decent food.
    5. Hartel House – Field grade officers only
    6. UN Club
    7. Officers Club
    8. Rod and Gun Club
    9. East Gate and South Gate – Don Dee Moon and Tan Dee Moon
35. Large shopping areas
    1.  Could buy rolls of Izod and other labels
36. Butcher Shops
    1. Had complete heads of pigs for sale.
    2. Had dog meat for sale
    3.  “Cleaned up” we were told before the Olympics.
37.  Computer Shops
    1. Illegal clones of Apple and IBM computers
    2. Illegal copies of all kinds of software, to include documentation
38. Christmas Tree Boxes Retrieved from Garbage Truck
    1. We happened to leave the tree boxes on the back porch when the garbage truck came by. The boxes were taken. I chased down the truck (which had an armed guard) and asked about our boxes. They all pretended not to understand. I then climbed into the truck and found a stash of boxes, including ours, neatly flattened at the front of the truck bed. As I pulled our boxes out I also saw meat and other items from the commissary hidden there. When I got home I called the MPs and told them of the commissary items. No indication of anything being done about it.
39.  Kwong Ju
    1. Resort hotel by a lake that featured a swan boat
    2. Hotel played sound of cuckoo birds in the halls
    3. Took personality tests which were used to divide attendees into several groups. Given a set of clues upon which to provide an answer. Prediction was that our group (which was composed of those who did not test as Army personality types – were business executive personality types supposedly) would finish long before the other groups. We finished in minutes while the other two took up to an hour or so.
40. King Sajohn
    1. Had first written language created
    2. Pictographic with each character showing you the shape for your mouth and where to place the tongue.
    3. Virtually all Koreans can read their language, though they may not know the meaning of what they are reading
41. College Admission
    1.  Very stressful. Students compete for specific majors/qualifications. You don’t apply for college you apply to become an English teacher, etc. The selection process is all or nothing. You get what you apply for or you don’t go to college.
    2. Students study very hard getting up before school to study and studying after school.
42.  Cheju Do
    1. Semi-tropical island
43. Tear gas from nearby university
    1. Korean police routinely used tear gas to break up demonstrations. With the right wind blowing we got some of the fumes.
    2. Riot Police in Buses
    3. Face masks and shields of police resembled Star Wars troopers
44. Funeral on a Bus
    1.  Almost no Koreans owed private cars. Almost all cars on the road were either taxis or chauffer-driven cars of the wealthy.
    2.  Once saw bus with coffin in back and funeral party in the front.
45. Police Escort Returning from Kimpo Airport
    1. We went to Kimpo to pickup the family of Curtis Downes (had been in our sub-division in San Antonio) who came over for a visit On the way back from the airport I made a wrong turn so we pulled over to consult our map. While we were doing this, 2 or 3 Korean motorcycle police pulled up and asked if they could help (The Mercedes fooled them into thinking we might be important people we assumed.) When we said we needed know the way back to Yong San, they said they would lead us back to the correct hiway. They did with motorcycles all around us with lights and sirens like a political motorcade.
46. Bobby Mitchell Chevrolet Logo in Commissary Parking Lot
    1.  Parked next to car with Bobby Mitchell logo on it. Since that was a Florence auto dealer, we waited a few minutes to see who might come to the car.
    2. The car belonged to Warren Nelson whose sister, Susie, is the wife of Tim Scott, who performed our marriage ceremony. He was in Korea working for AIDE.
47. CPT John Fitzpatrick
    1. USMA graduate. Played with Chicago Symphony. Offered scholarship to Julliard and appointment to WP, took the latter.
    2. Played piano at the Hartell House.
    3. Now a lawyer in Richmond, VA.
    4.  Meghan taught his son, John, who was one of her favorite students ever. Helped sway her to name John John.

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