Comments on: A Profile of Korea’s “TDC Ville”

By: DJ

DJ — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:16:05 +0000

Hey Steve, Did you ever see one of there cattle get hit? I hear that is a pricy proposition, worse than hitting their shack housed.

By: Thomas Lee

Thomas Lee — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:46:13 +0000

Nah Drex, he’s spot on.

By: drex

drex — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:46:53 +0000

Sgt. Rock, you’re probably full of shit and an asshole either way. I’m beginning to understand why the Koreans hate us.

By: DJ

DJ — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:52:45 +0000

Hey, I find this site interesting reading. I was in TDC in 1969. I don’t remember a lot of the particulars of TDC cause I wasn’t there very much. It wasn’t much in 69, very sleezy and GIs didn’t do much wrong. A lot of very cheap prostitution and cheap beer, I think the beer was called OB. I wont ramble but I am enjoying the reading. Keep it up.

By: JFisher

JFisher — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:17:30 +0000

Douglas#326: I think you are totally wrong making an analogy
of soldiers rather being overseas in Iraq/Afgan or Korea than
in “garrison” in the States. Korea was safe, interesting, could wear civvies, shop, tour, get laid, booze, take a USO tour to places people only dreamed of going, four beautiful seasons. Iraq/Afgan, none of the above. 24/7 of shit, in combat mode, in combat garb, heat that brings you to your knees, sand blowing up all your orifices. I was in Vietnam 66-67′. We had it much easier there. When not in the boonies (even then occasionally) we could get some “boom-boom” from those little darlings. Could go on R&R, meet your wife in Hawaii.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:22:21 +0000

@Steve: you’re absolutely right about the Korea countdown. I remember in 1993 they would actually offer soldiers a calendar to blacken out the days passed in country, during in-processing at the Turtle Farm. But duty in Korea was always more interesting than any stateside garrison duty. I think that the soldiers deploying/deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan find the same thing – it’s better to be in the fight/ in the game rather than in garrison.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:48:51 +0000

JFisher: I only did a 4 year enlistment and got out in December 1988 with no regrets. I was not cut out for a career in the army. As far as marriage goes that’s another thing that I’m not cut out for, and I have no regrets about that either.

By: JFisher

JFisher — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:02:53 +0000

Steve: Did you stay in the Army? If not, any regrets about getting out? Did you consider marrying a Korean?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:30:18 +0000

I was stationed at Camp Casey in 1985. It was my first posting as a buck private. I was in C company, 1/72 armor. Our company motto was “Charlie Don’t Surf”. I was young and didn’t know shit. Some of my memories. OB beer and yakimandu pot stickers. At first I didn’t like kimchi but later I grew to like it. There was a small restaurant on the main drag in the ville that had the best barbecue chicken and softest bread I ever ate, I loved that place. I don’t remember the names of most of the clubs but there was one called Studio 54 and another one by the old railroad tracks called New House. I remember the Korean cigarettes… cheap and terrible! I had a platoon sergeant who was a drunk and used to force us to use our liquor rations to buy him booze. He looked like Fat Albert. I remember toiling in the motor pool. Our tanks were always fully uploaded with live rounds, which we had to unload by hand anytime we did any electrical work on the tanks. The firing pins were locked in the armory and only issued out during alerts. Guess they thought one of us might go berzerk and take one of the tanks on a rampage downrange. There used to be a korean lady who was sort of the loan shark for our whole battalion, she would come on post every month to collect from GI’s that borrowed from her. Can’t remember what we called her. I got in trouble less than a week after arriving at Camp Casey, I was waiting at a bus stop near the PX and the division commander’s jeep went by and nobody stood at attention or saluted so some captain jumped out and ran up to us and took down all our names yelling and screaming why we didn’t salute the general… I got put on some shit detail for that. Another time I got in trouble for hitting a car with my tank during a field exercise… we used to have to snake our tanks through all those skinny little village roads with like one inch of clearance on either side… barely grazed this car with one of the rear sprockets… owner followed us back to Camp Casey and I had to go with my tank commander down the the provost marshalls office. I remember our big Team Spirit exercise in winter of 1985… damn that was cold. I remember the Katusa ROK army soldiers we had embedded in our units…. the one we had on my tank crew his name was “Kwak”. I got a kick out of that name. I vaguely remember going on a day long field trip to Seoul by myself… took a bus… went up in that big tower on the hill in the middle of the city… saw some cultural shows in a big theatre… ate some really tasty food… came back really late… not too much I can remember about it after 26 years. It was a crazy year of my life. I came back stateside and finished my tour at Fort Riley, Kansas. Like every other young soldier over there I counted down the days to my flight out, couldn’t wait to get back to the USA but if I had known how bad stateside duty sucks in comparison… I would have tried to stay in Korea!

By: Tom Langley

Tom Langley — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:35:46 +0000

Pepper #321, I wonder what idiot GI ended up marrying the butthole blower. That story was f’ing hilarious! If I would have met her I would have taken her bet after eating about a gallon of kimchi.