Charlie Sweet - Where's Aunt Ethel?

Return to Story Index
The Army of Occupation in South Korea, My Experience By Charles Sweet September 2012 The story begins on the island of Okinawa in early September 1945. Many soldiers were going home. They had 50 points. I had 65, and I wasn't going anywhere. I decided to go see the General, Major John R. Hodge who was head of the 24th Corps and led the corps to victory in the Battle of Okinawa. I saw the adjutant first and got by him. The General asked me what's your M.O.S.? I said "what is an MOS? I never heard of it." He said your military occupation number. He looked it up, and he said "you're a German Prisoner of War Interrogator." He always called me "college boy" because I volunteered to read letters for soldiers, who could not read or write, mainly from the southern part of the United States. If they asked me, I'd write a response to the letter for them. The general said he'd have to find a place for me to go. I said, "There's a German prisoner of war camp in Seattle, and I know because I was through there once." He said, "I'll find a place for you to go." On September 18, 1945, I was on a Navy ship going to South Korea, the port of Inchon. I don't remember how many days we were on the ship, but it was the typhoon season and the sailors were on deck, and heaving their meals over the side, throwing up. I thought this is really bad when sailors can't handle it. We got to the port of Inchon in 3 or 4 days. When we landed at Inchon, which was about 70 miles west of Seoul, there were jeeps waiting to take us to the capital of Korea which was in Seoul. On the way to the capital, Japanese rifles were always parked by the road in pyramid style, like 10 or 12 rifles. At parks joining that, were Japanese soldiers waiting for someone to take them into custody. I told the driver every time he slowed down, to not slow down, just keep going, because we had no weapons ourselves. We couldn't do anything about it, and we needed to get to Seoul. My first assignment in Seoul was liaison between the Army and Korean Bureau of Investigation, like our FBI. Their offices were in the capitol, and they had many civilian employees. My first job was to keep track of the prisoners that were there at any point until the next day. If they were in court, or passed on, we made note of that. There as a public enemy #1 in this country, and he was arrested in Seoul and put in jail. He wasn't there the next morning, so I asked Daniel Choi who was the bureau chief what happened. He said, "I learned in your country." He said the prisoner had paid his way out. Daniel had been a police detective in the Chicago area prior to the war starting. So he had a background of bribery. I can still hear him saying, "I learn in your country." The other job I had was when employees left the office, male and female. I was supposed to pat them down. I disobeyed the order. I never patted down a female. I just asked them a couple of questions, did they have any toilet paper or light bulbs. If they said "no" I let them go, but most of the men I patted down, no matter what they said. Eventually I got fired. I had that job about two weeks. But I never patted down any women. It was a civilian order, not an Army order. So that didn't bother me, because I felt I was a good solider. I never disobeyed an officer or a command. Since this was a civilian order, it didn't bother me any. I was assigned as liaison and I had to cover the diplomatic pouch from Seoul to Tokyo every other day. I'd go one day and stay one night, and come back the next day. We went on 747's. Usually there was cargo in the center, but not always. But we sat along strapped into seats along the edge of the plane, which was exciting in itself. But the officers, the pilots of the plane, they would throw empty whiskey bottles out the door, on the runway, so see if we would try to get out of our seats. That lasted a couple weeks. The next week, I had not much to do. I played ping pong all week because the commander of the unit, from Mississippi, wanted to play ping pong. He picked me as his partner because he could beat me once in a while. It was a very fast game. The tops of the tables were marble. Once in a while I let him beat me, but I played ping pong for the whole week. Then he couldn't play anymore. He had to perform his duties as colonel of the unit. I wondered why I always had different roommates. They would only last for a while. I couldn't understand where they went, home or the hospital or wherever. About a mile north, there was a hotel which the Army had taken over as a clinic and some hospital rooms. One day I walked down the boulevard. If you walked down during the day, you had to be careful walking back at night. I always walked during the day, and walked on the edge of the boulevard to the Hunter Hotel to see if any of my buddies were there. Three of them were there. They weren't buddies, but they had been roommates for a couple of nights. They were all there with some form of venereal disease. I think it was before penicillin got to Korea, because it was a miserable place to visit. They were all in one room and they were screaming and hollering with pain. It reminded me of Daniel Choi, who always said "me got nice sister." I finally said, I bet she is full of venereal diseases, and he didn't talk to me after that. Apparently they had tested the women, and 50% of them had some form of venereal disease. That was enough for me. I didn't need that. About 50 years later, or less, I went back to Seoul Korea and I didn't recognize any place I had been except the capital building. It had gone from an old type city to a modern city. It had modern streets and lighting. I just didn't' recognize any place. None of the buildings were there. The capital was still there as such. I was always amazed at how different it looked. Jeff, our son who is a flight attendant was going to Seoul Korea. I had been there in 1946 and the end of 1945, and I wanted to buy a jacket in Korea, a black leather jacket. I had a picture of it from a magazine which showed the cost of $575. So we went from Detroit on Northwest Airlines. He was flying it as a flight attendant. We went through San Francisco to Seoul and got there in the afternoon. Instead of going directly to the hotel in Korea, we went to the shopping area which is someplace in Seoul, on the employee bus, because everyone wanted to go to the shopping area first. We had to all pay additional money so the driver could get us there. When we got there, we found the place Jeff had looked at before. We went in, and we told the guy what we wanted. He says, I got a picture in the same magazine. We tried different ones on, and I found a black one I liked. It had to be altered because the sleeves were too long. We struck a price for $175 US dollars. Jeff when we got through says, is there a Northwest Airlines discount? The guy said no. He said you can't pick it up until tomorrow morning. We came back in the morning by some sort of taxi. I also picked up a traveling case which was a good price, and paid the $175 for the jacket. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast. It was a nice breakfast right in the hotel. Jeff had a crew management seminar to go to in the hotel lobby, which is set up for it. Then we went by the bus back to the airport. In the meantime, I was sitting on the bus waiting for Jeff and other crew members, and a Korean guy came in the bus. Jeff must have talked to him that I had been in the service there. He gave me a Baby Ruth candy bar which was very good. And I thanked him. At the airport, I got separated from Jeff because I had to go to the ticket counter. They had a separate ticket counter for pass holders. I was about 20th in line. When I got up there, I told them what kind of pass I had and so forth. He said your chances of getting on are almost nil. I said I'll try it anyway so he gave me the information I needed. I waited for about an hour or so. There was plane leaving for Seattle about 20 minutes before and that had all kinds of room. So I got a first class seat, and they really took good care of me. When I got to Seattle, they booked me on a flight to Minneapolis, and then to Madison at another time. I was home shortly after noon on the next day. Jeff didn't know where I was, and so I told Jean that she should call Jeff on his cell phone, that I was already home and that I didn't have to go to Detroit and get a ride back from Detroit to Madison. And that worked out very well. The flight was good and I got a jacket at a reasonable price that fit me. I still have the jacket and I didn't wear it last winter much, but I hope to wear it this winter all the time. That's the end of my story. Return to Story Index
© Charles W. Sweet 2013

Collage of Charlie's Life - Click to return to Story Index

The Army of Occupation in South Korea, My Experience

By Charles Sweet
September 2012

The story begins on the island of Okinawa in early September 1945. Many soldiers were going home. They had 50 points. I had 65, and I wasn't going anywhere. I decided to go see the General, Major John R. Hodge who was head of the 24th Corps and led the corps to victory in the Battle of Okinawa. I saw the adjutant first and got by him. The General asked me what's your M.O.S.? I said "what is an MOS? I never heard of it." He said your military occupation number. He looked it up, and he said "you're a German Prisoner of War Interrogator."

He always called me "college boy" because I volunteered to read letters for soldiers, who could not read or write, mainly from the southern part of the United States. If they asked me, I'd write a response to the letter for them. The general said he'd have to find a place for me to go. I said, "There's a German prisoner of war camp in Seattle, and I know because I was through there once." He said, "I'll find a place for you to go." On September 18, 1945, I was on a Navy ship going to South Korea, the port of Inchon.

I don't remember how many days we were on the ship, but it was the typhoon season and the sailors were on deck, and heaving their meals over the side, throwing up. I thought this is really bad when sailors can't handle it. We got to the port of Inchon in 3 or 4 days.

When we landed at Inchon, which was about 70 miles west of Seoul, there were jeeps waiting to take us to the capital of Korea which was in Seoul. On the way to the capital, Japanese rifles were always parked by the road in pyramid style, like 10 or 12 rifles. At parks joining that, were Japanese soldiers waiting for someone to take them into custody. I told the driver every time he slowed down, to not slow down, just keep going, because we had no weapons ourselves. We couldn't do anything about it, and we needed to get to Seoul.

My first assignment in Seoul was liaison between the Army and Korean Bureau of Investigation, like our FBI. Their offices were in the capitol, and they had many civilian employees. My first job was to keep track of the prisoners that were there at any point until the next day. If they were in court, or passed on, we made note of that. There as a public enemy #1 in this country, and he was arrested in Seoul and put in jail. He wasn't there the next morning, so I asked Daniel Choi who was the bureau chief what happened. He said, "I learned in your country." He said the prisoner had paid his way out. Daniel had been a police detective in the Chicago area prior to the war starting. So he had a background of bribery. I can still hear him saying, "I learn in your country."

The other job I had was when employees left the office, male and female. I was supposed to pat them down. I disobeyed the order. I never patted down a female. I just asked them a couple of questions, did they have any toilet paper or light bulbs. If they said "no" I let them go, but most of the men I patted down, no matter what they said. Eventually I got fired. I had that job about two weeks. But I never patted down any women. It was a civilian order, not an Army order. So that didn't bother me, because I felt I was a good solider. I never disobeyed an officer or a command. Since this was a civilian order, it didn't bother me any.

I was assigned as liaison and I had to cover the diplomatic pouch from Seoul to Tokyo every other day. I'd go one day and stay one night, and come back the next day. We went on 747's. Usually there was cargo in the center, but not always. But we sat along strapped into seats along the edge of the plane, which was exciting in itself. But the officers, the pilots of the plane, they would throw empty whiskey bottles out the door, on the runway, so see if we would try to get out of our seats. That lasted a couple weeks.

The next week, I had not much to do. I played ping pong all week because the commander of the unit, from Mississippi, wanted to play ping pong. He picked me as his partner because he could beat me once in a while. It was a very fast game. The tops of the tables were marble. Once in a while I let him beat me, but I played ping pong for the whole week. Then he couldn't play anymore. He had to perform his duties as colonel of the unit.

I wondered why I always had different roommates. They would only last for a while. I couldn't understand where they went, home or the hospital or wherever. About a mile north, there was a hotel which the Army had taken over as a clinic and some hospital rooms. One day I walked down the boulevard. If you walked down during the day, you had to be careful walking back at night. I always walked during the day, and walked on the edge of the boulevard to the Hunter Hotel to see if any of my buddies were there. Three of them were there. They weren't buddies, but they had been roommates for a couple of nights. They were all there with some form of venereal disease. I think it was before penicillin got to Korea, because it was a miserable place to visit. They were all in one room and they were screaming and hollering with pain. It reminded me of Daniel Choi, who always said "me got nice sister." I finally said, I bet she is full of venereal diseases, and he didn't talk to me after that. Apparently they had tested the women, and 50% of them had some form of venereal disease. That was enough for me. I didn't need that.

About 50 years later, or less, I went back to Seoul Korea and I didn't recognize any place I had been except the capital building. It had gone from an old type city to a modern city. It had modern streets and lighting. I just didn't' recognize any place. None of the buildings were there. The capital was still there as such. I was always amazed at how different it looked.

Jeff, our son who is a flight attendant was going to Seoul Korea. I had been there in 1946 and the end of 1945, and I wanted to buy a jacket in Korea, a black leather jacket. I had a picture of it from a magazine which showed the cost of $575. So we went from Detroit on Northwest Airlines. He was flying it as a flight attendant. We went through San Francisco to Seoul and got there in the afternoon. Instead of going directly to the hotel in Korea, we went to the shopping area which is someplace in Seoul, on the employee bus, because everyone wanted to go to the shopping area first. We had to all pay additional money so the driver could get us there. When we got there, we found the place Jeff had looked at before. We went in, and we told the guy what we wanted. He says, I got a picture in the same magazine. We tried different ones on, and I found a black one I liked. It had to be altered because the sleeves were too long.

We struck a price for $175 US dollars. Jeff when we got through says, is there a Northwest Airlines discount? The guy said no. He said you can't pick it up until tomorrow morning. We came back in the morning by some sort of taxi. I also picked up a traveling case which was a good price, and paid the $175 for the jacket. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast. It was a nice breakfast right in the hotel. Jeff had a crew management seminar to go to in the hotel lobby, which is set up for it. Then we went by the bus back to the airport. In the meantime, I was sitting on the bus waiting for Jeff and other crew members, and a Korean guy came in the bus. Jeff must have talked to him that I had been in the service there. He gave me a Baby Ruth candy bar which was very good. And I thanked him.

At the airport, I got separated from Jeff because I had to go to the ticket counter. They had a separate ticket counter for pass holders. I was about 20th in line. When I got up there, I told them what kind of pass I had and so forth. He said your chances of getting on are almost nil. I said I'll try it anyway so he gave me the information I needed. I waited for about an hour or so. There was plane leaving for Seattle about 20 minutes before and that had all kinds of room. So I got a first class seat, and they really took good care of me. When I got to Seattle, they booked me on a flight to Minneapolis, and then to Madison at another time. I was home shortly after noon on the next day. Jeff didn't know where I was, and so I told Jean that she should call Jeff on his cell phone, that I was already home and that I didn't have to go to Detroit and get a ride back from Detroit to Madison. And that worked out very well. The flight was good and I got a jacket at a reasonable price that fit me.

I still have the jacket and I didn't wear it last winter much, but I hope to wear it this winter all the time.

That's the end of my story.

Return to Story Index