Where I Was, Korea 12/30/67 - 2/14/69

[Art]

In the Army I was a Nike Missile Technician. After training at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama I was kept on as part of the cadre for several months maintaining the shop equipment at the school. Then I was packed off to Korea.

There were six Nike batteries in Korea operated by the US Army and several others operated by the Koreans. The Nike system was already on its way out and IMHO was only still in service because the Hawk system was of limited effectiveness above 30,000 ft. The big base at Camp Humphries at Pyong Taek was headquarters for the Direct Support outfit for all ADA units there but because of logistical necessity a platoon was stationed at B battery (Nike) 4th Bn. 44th ADA to support the southern batteries. I was assigned to that platoon which was attached to B Battery but not part off it. We had our own adjoining compound.

I was looking on line for info regarding camp Holliday and found little. Google maps showed basically all traces of the base to have been erased. However I found this youtube video taken by a 2 Bn. Sp. 4 while I was there. To say the least it brought back memories.

A couple of notes of interest. There are pictures at the beach. It was pretty primitive when I was there, in fact all of Korea was so the beach had few visitors except GIs. We'd go there, lounge in the sun and play football when off. There are pictures of Korean women dancing with GIs. Those pics were taken at the NCO club which had a door that opened to a street off the base. Every Korean woman there is a "soiled dove." The US Army supported prostitution in Korea. The women were licensed and army medics took care of their monthly "health checks." A junior NCO or Specialist (E4-E5) had nightly duty checking the VD cards of gals entering the club. I had it more than once and can tell you there were plenty of sob stories by gals who had missed a check up or out and out failed. There is a picture of a Korean fellow in a stack of boots. He is a houseboy - a houseboy was a body servant to a billet. At Camp Holliday I never made my rack, polished my boots or my brass or GI-ed a floor. Even at the time I looked on this as probably being contrary to good order and discipline but I sure didn't mind taking advantage of it.

One more note. The villiage by the battery had electricity from a loaner Cummins generator that was US Govt property and I'm pretty darn sure wasn't "officially" authorized. SOP at those batteries in rural areas, I know for sure at the three southern ones because we maintained them.

Note the M14s.. M14s were in use in Korea from the time I got there until I left. I never even saw an M16 while I was in the Army. Interestingly there is a picture of some guys with unloaded M14s. I personally never saw that. We always were armed on the road and our rifles were loaded with a full magazine and one in the chamber. We carried 4 spare loaded magazines for a combat load of 101 rounds. This was the period of the low intensity conflict and infiltration attempts by the North Koreans were common. The tremendous hostility of the South Koreans to the communists thwarted almost all of these. Toward the end of my tour there was an apparent attempt by the North Koreans to get at B Battery but we were told the ROKs intercepted them and wiped them out. Fine with me because we were undisciplined to the point I would have given the odds to them especially since it happened on a Friday night about 9 PM when most of the guys were in the club tossing a few down or hooking up.

So here it is. B Battery deep in the South Korean boonies when the South Korean boonies were still very 19th century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nTx5GH4Ac0

[barretcreek]

Thanks Art. Haven't been there since mid 90s but it had started to change.

[Former Cav]

I was there from around DEC 65 to Dec 18, 66. (went over on the troop ship the USNS Gen Edwin D Patrick...it took 22 days approx. and we left on thanksgiving day 65)
I was first stationed at Camp Ames down east of Taejon and I didn't even know I was guarding Nike missles. All I know, I was 18, and they gave me an M14 with ONE loaded magazine and told me to yell "HALT Chong gee" 3 times and if they didn't stop, SHOOT them!
They changed my outfit from Co E, 14th Rifle Inf to the 106th or 110th MP company and having an 11 echo tanker MOS I got shipped up north. I ended up at Camp Casey as an instructor on the rifle range. That was a gravy job.
And oh...PS.... I would have been better off marrying one of those "business women" then my EX wife who was a "high school sweetheart". the women over there always treated me A-OK and I NEVER got a dose (lucky..... some old time solder told me, when you pull that p****r out of that dirty h - - e, be sure to take a good long pi$$. Worked for me)

[Former Cav]

So here it is. B Battery deep in the South Korean boonies when the South Korean boonies were still very 19th century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nTx5GH4Ac0

Art, thanks for the memories. Funny, I didn't see the watch towers like we had at Camp Ames. Of course, we were a lot further south of Camp Holloway.

[Mark in Ottawa]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting

[PWC]

I was at Osan AFB 69-70 in USAF Security Service; "Skivy nine". Share a lot of the same memories but at a different place. SSgt Paul Hoover and I ran the Camp Humphreys parachute club on weekends; teaching army how to "skydive". Paul was a USPA licensed instructor, my qualifications came thru US military.

The day I reported in, everyone in the orderly room was watching Neil Armstrong come down the ladder...I got to see the first man step on the moon. I didn't know anything about it. The prior 2 weeks had been so full moving from Goodfellow AFB, TX to finding a house for my family in Sacranento and making my port call at Travis AFB, CA that I hadn't kept up with news.

Once went TDY to Taegu to pick up a No. Korean infiltrator's radio to test. He was caught and killed by the So. Korean people in Taegu. Remember, at that time, the south did not remember kindly the norths invasion and war. He was caught because he went into a store and bought a lo cost item and paid with a large bill and walked out without waiting for his change. The store owner followed him and informed the police. A crowed gathered and literally pulled him apart. The police and someone from the US military showed us the pics of his body.

The radio was a very effective lo power CW transmitter; no voice or 2 way comm.