Shan, some of those tunnels were big. I mean big enough to drive a truck through.

Did you ever see Chinese Tunnel through the mountains up to the DMZ near Nightmare Range ? That is impressive too. What I always found amazing was all the railroad and road cuts through the mountains/hills had several huge square concrete blocks up on Y pillars. All ready for demolition to drop them in the cuts. The last 20 miles of South Korea up to the DMZ was pretty much all prepared Battle Positions. Mountains/hills all had trench lines and bunkers. The bunkers had machinegun mounts concreted in place with range cards painted on the concrete. All you had to do was drop yoiur MG in and you were ready to go. The DMZ is amazing. Miles of wire fences with another fence 1o meters behind it. Minefields galore. As new officers there, you learned to navigate your night patrols very accurately. And stay to the time schedule you were assigned.

I was on my way to 4th CHEM when they moved me into the DISCOM. I put in my time in Toko-ri

Many of you probably don't know me. After 2002, I've been on and off with Jane's FA18 and IL2. But for those that do. I GI-NORMOUS hello from Afghan.

Afghan


Kyrgyzstan

Hey buddy, I remember.

You take care, hear?

OG,

I don't think so. The tunnels I saw were large enough for a small tank, but not tall enough to accomodate a deuce-and-a-half. The tours for civilians didn't allow you to see many of the fighting positions. I did see a couple of very obvious observation posts that would have lasted through the first few seconds of an opening engagement.

It gave me the creeps knowing that we didn't find all of the tunnels and some of them are probably still active to this very day.

20mm-thanks for the thanks,too.
Rudel-keep yer head down,mang.By the way,my cousin's son is in Afghanistan now.His name is Aaron Austin.
Shan2-are you a Korean?I'll tell you something for sure-if I had to go fight as a ground pounder,and I could choose the men that were going with me-I'd take ROK's.
The NVA and VC in the Viet Nam War tried to avoid any contact with ROK forces.There's a reason for that...

A while back,I got a book from ebay,about Daddy's unit in WWII.
It is called Black Hawks Over The Danube.
He was in the 86th Inf. Div.,341st Inf. Rgt.
A German sniper barely missed him in a town called Hagen.
The 86th got into the war very late-only had about 6 weeks of combat.They lost 106 killed,if memory serves.They were in an action called The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket.
After the Allied victory in the ETO,the 86th was sent home to prepare for combat in the Pacific.
While en route there,the Japanese surrendered to Gen. MacArthur-who incidentally,is my cousin.
My father stayed in the Army.
He was in Japan,having easy duty and a great old time,when the Korean War started.
6 days later,his fanny was in the mud.
He was so young in WWII-it was bad enough,but didn't shake him up too badly.
Korea was different.
He was convinced he'd never get out of there alive.
When MacArthur made his move at Inchon,their unit made it up to within 18 miles of the border-I think it was Manchuria,need to double-check.MacArthur's biggest mistake was believing that the Chinese would not get involved.
Daddy said that when they got the order to pull out,everyone was quite relieved.Tracers,flares,shell bursts across the night sky.
When he got back to the States,he got out of the Army-which he didn't want to do,but Korea got to him-bad.And they were going to send him back.
He was stationed in Tyler,Texas,and met my mother there.She tells me that for several years afterwards,she would be awoken in the middle of the night,to his thrashing and screaming.
Probably the best of the extremely few things he will talk about,was the time when they got some intel about Chinese forces approaching,with Russian tanks.There was a road on a hill,that the tanks were driving up.Two very brave GI's awaited them,with a bazooka.When the tanks came within range,the shooter fired up the tank in the rear,so the other 2 couldn't back up.Then he fired the lead tank,trapping the second tank in the middle.He destroyed that one,too.
Daddy said they went up to take a look,after daylight came.Tanks still smoldering,bits of flesh and human hair,the stench of violent death on everything.
He also once saw a stretch of road that had a ditch on each side.The Communist forces had executed civilians,and both ditches were filled for about 100 yards.
My father is no war-monger,but he has no use for totalitarianisms,of any kind.
He also says that anyone that would start a war is a raving lunatic.

I was born in the ROK, Reb.

My father was involved in the war, too. He was a North Korean businessman whose family owned a cod liver oil processing plant off of the Yellow Sea. He helped fund the resistance against the Japanese occupiers (the old man was a pretty sly #%&*$#) until the end of WW2. Then the communists came in and nationalized the plant. Dad didn't take too well to that, so they murdered his wife and kids. (His brothers saw what was coming and relocated their families to the south, but his father had left the factory to him. And he couldn't shirk that duty.) He flipped out and spent years fighting as a guerilla, alone. (Learning skills that would come in useful, later.)

Then the Korean War happened and dad decided that was it. He walked down to Pusan while avoiding both allied and communist forces. As he was an able-bodied man during a civil war, he spent most of the rest of his time with the ROK forces.

His relationship with the ROK forces continued after his retirement due to his rather unique knowledge of the communist forces. Some of my earliest memories of him was when he was lecturing a bunch of ROK Rangers during the end of the Vietnam War. In the late 60s, he met my mother and the rest of it is history.

He never said as much, but I don't think he was fighting for victory...only vengeance. The man was harder than woodpecker lips and I'm sorry to say that he got far more than his fair share of sorrows in life.

My father was always grateful for the U.S. involvement in the war and the subsequent ceasefire. It was not lost upon him that the U.S. owed Korea nothing and he was very much indebted and honored by the American sacrifices.

edit:

You know something funny? Because of the way my father acted at night (just like yours did after the war), I was absolutely convinced that ghosts were real when I was a young lad.

Interesting stuff,shan.
I salute BOTH of our fathers,and all the people that died resisting evil.

Rudel, Are you in the marine signal corps?

That's me, month ago, now i have bigger beard, but look same :)We were playing paintball that day, i didn't even posed for the pic.. lol