There was always trouble between the units. At night they would try to slip into our are and steal whatever they could. We now had twice as many guards out at night as during the fighting. One night one of our guys, who was in charge of checking all the oil stoves in the battery, so they wouldn't overheat, was held up 20 feet from our bunker entrance. They took his wallet and watch.
Whenever I went over the pass to service battery I was armed and had to have someone ride shotgun up front. One night one guy from our section was on guard. He heard someone coming through the barb wire. He called "halt" then heard a gun cock. He fired and killed a korean soldier. The korean did have a rifle and it had a round in the chamber. In the morning a korean colonel brought a detail for the body and wanted to arrest our guy. He had a gun drawn. Our lieutenant took the gun away from him and told him to "get the hell out of here". The koreans would even try to coax George, our dog out on the road so they could grab him and take him back to their camp for the meat.
Anyway, we were almost ready to leave the area and the koreans were given some of our small wood buildings. On two of the photos you see them taking apart our mail room and loading it up. They were also given our officers' shack. This was a two room building, about 20 by 30 feet. This one they did not dismantle, instead they took it as is. There were about 40 or fifty of them. As we watched, they started crawling under the building. Soon most of them were under the shack. Then a command was given and the building rose up and walked away on about 60 legs. I'm not sure how they got over the river but at that time of year it was not too deep.
Back to Photo Index Page