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existed between the Cholla people and other Koreans, especially those from
the Kyongsang Provinces to the east.
Living conditions for a young officer in Korea during the early s
were adequate but far from comfortable. I lived in a small Quonset hut,
which also housed my three senior noncommissioned officers. There was
a centralized space heater that was designed to radiate heat throughout
the hut but seldom did this very well. Shower and mess facilities were
shared among myself (the only officer), the NCOs, and the enlisted men.
My duties required me to travel most of the time to check on my widely
dispersed troops. Life on the road in those days was a real adventure due
to the poor road conditions and bridges that were susceptible to seasonal
flooding and other problems. Nonetheless, I managed to visit my soldiers
and check on their operational status, living conditions, and concerns on
a regular basis.
Monthly paydays were particularly eventful. It took almost a week to reach
all my soldiers. Troops were paid in Military Payment Certificates, printed
by the armed forces, rather than greenbacks, this being before the days of
direct deposit and computerized accounting. The payroll officer was always
armed, for there were reported to be occasional bandits who would steal the
payroll, although I never encountered any such problems. Pay in those days
was very low—my own salary was less than $ a month, and my soldiers
received considerably less. Yet I sent most of my money home and even saved
a considerable percentage since there was little to spend it on. (Today when
I read about grossly inflated corporate salaries and Hollywood alimony pay-
ments of six figures per month, I do not have a lot of sympathy.)
Recreational opportunities were few. We had an older-model movie pro-
jector and watched a movie about twice a week; we also received a monthly
box of paperbacks from the USO. The U.S. airbase at Kunsan, which was
about a two-hour drive from my platoon headquarters, had a gym, small
library, bowling alley, and club facilities, where one could get an occasional
“restaurant-type” meal. Other than that, we were pretty much left to our
own devices for diversion. Several of my soldiers enjoyed hunting, and some
of us would hunt pheasants and ducks in the fall and winter. We had two
or three mixed-breed camp dogs that, with a little training and experience,
turned into good bird dogs. My favorite was named Pabo, which is the Ko-
rean word for “crazy,” and she was a devoted hunter and companion. Re-
grettably, a few weeks after my return to the States, I learned that Pabo had
fallen into the hands of some local residents and had been eaten, a not un-
common fate for dogs in those days (even today dog meat is consumed by