Jan/Feb 2008 - KWVA - Korean War Veterans Association

Korean tyke standing outside the Radio Co. gate
Roof-making with rice straw (11/54)
Korean elder with “honey buckets” (12/54)
raids of shops selling Japanese goods,
which were confiscated.
Chang Duk Palace and Duk Soo
Palace were good places to visit with a
camera, as were the Buddhist temples
with their rows of sculpted monkeys lining
the roof ribs. What I found even
more remarkable, at Inchon, was a little
wooden church with steeple and cross
that was shingled with flattened beer
cans. It was known as Beer Can Chapel.
A peculiar, slow thumping on a deep
drum and singing that sounded like wailing
signaled an approaching funeral procession.
As it passed, the casket of the
deceased person—which included the
individual’s earthly possessions—
showed striking decorations made with
brightly colored pieces of cloth. A similarly
adorned canopy was stretched over
the casket, which was carried along the
road on a frame by some half dozen men.
The adult male relatives marched
ahead of it, wearing brown paper hats,
headed by a man carrying a wooden pole
with a bright red banner. The musical
accompaniment included a set of tinkling
bells which followed the accents of
the drumbeat and a shrill wind instrument
that whined away on its own,
independent track over the rest of
the noise. The singing-wailing flock
walked a crooked line, their blood
charged with alcohol. The lately
departed, wobbling along with the
bearers, was carried to a grassy field
to be buried under a circular mound
of earth.
A tapping noise at night was the
sign of a Korean walking along a
path, striking the ground ahead of
him with a stick to signal his presence
and avoid colliding with someone
or something in the pitch dark.
One night, while fellow
“Brooklynite“ Irving Peckler and I
developed some film in the dark
room, Peckler (in a nostalgic mood)
wished we could go out for pizza.
Well, I could make it—if I had the
ingredients. It was a deal. What
started as a joke grew into a plan of
action. (See the story starting on p. 25 of
the March/April 2007 issue.)
Peckler sent a grocery list home.
When the stuff he requested arrived, we
slipped into the mess hall kitchen at
night and made pizza for the boys in Hut
4! This tricky mission, pulled off in
absolute secrecy, never got into the company’s
history log book.
While I was in Korea we got wind of
trouble on another peninsula. This one
was Indo-China, which includes
Vietnam. In 1954, with France facing
defeat in the French-Indo-China War, the
U.S. sent military advisors to Indo-China
to help contain Communist expansion in
that area. Rumors started flying that at
rotation time we’d be on our way to this
new hot-spot instead of going home.
Luckily for us, and terrible for the next
generation of fighters, that place didn’t
turn red-hot until 1961.
I salute all who served, sacrificed, and
suffered in Korea. I hold hat over heart
for those who gave their all and offer my
deepest sympathy to their families.
Reach Anthony J. DeBlasi, 455 Shady
Nook Road, West Newfield, ME 04095,
(207) 793-8808, tonyjdb@psouth.net
NOTE: All photos are by the author,
unless otherwise indicated.
Anthony J. DeBlasi is the author of a short
book (55pp.), Korea Back When…
Retrospective by a Former GI in a War-torn
Land, E-Book Time, LLC, 6598 Pumpkin
Road, Montgomery, AL 36108, www.e-booktime
.com, ISBN 978-1-59824-462-5, $8.95.
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The Graybeards January-February 2008