Captains Gregarious

The pecking order of officers always intrigued me. We second lieutenants were just barely on speaking terms with first lieutenants. We actually had more association with enlisted men within that protocol. Captains were much more friendly. They probably didn’t feel threatened. Majors and lieutenant colonels were a different story. One had very little association with them.

Full colonels are known to be the loneliest men in the army. Their position precludes them from mingling with lesser officers and they cannot presume to associate with generals. Field latrines demonstrated these various levels. When a unit sets up in a given area, one of the first jobs is to dig holes for latrines and mark them. The “johns” are designated: one for enlisted men, one for officers and one away by itself for colonels. Generals are never that far forward for very long so facilities for them are not provided.

As noted before, captains tended to be more gregarious and I became friends with one in the air arm of 8th Army Headquarters. On slow days he would stop by our office and invite me to go flying with him.

The terrain around Seoul was rather hilly, almost mountainous. In order to avoid being spotted by the enemy, it was necessary to fly low to the ground and around the small mountain peaks. Pockets of air abounded in these areas and sudden drops of the plane were not unusual. It was my first experience in small aircraft but the captain took it easy on me and I enjoyed our outings a lot.

My other air experience came in helicopters. After the armistice was signed and the demilitarized zone (DMZ) was established, the Allies watched the North Koreans, and they watched us, from high areas on each side.

We had a full battalion on a mesa in a strategic location for this purpose. It was nearly inaccessible except by mules or helicopter. Needed items, such as perishable foods, et cetera were brought in by chopper. Discarded cartons, trash et cetera, where time was not a factor, were carried down the back side of the mountain by mule train.

The resulting intelligence had to drive the North Koreans crazy since they saw all that material being brought in by helicopter and nothing going out. Consequently, they probably thought the unit was at least army size.

I was assigned to do a story on the supplying of the battalion and I thought a camera shot from above would show the idea best. Sgt. Cordeiro wasn’t available so I grabbed a Speed Graphic, intending to take my own pictures, which I did. I convinced the air arm to provide a helicopter and I hung perilously from a hatch at the bottom and took a number of shots. I took the film to the Signal Corps for developing and went back for the pictures the next day.

The sergeant in charge asked me what I had been shooting and when I told him, he said that explained why I had absolutely nothing on my film. It seems the prop wash on the helicopter blew the bellows on the camera, preventing the image from making it to the surface of the film. So much for my brilliant idea of illustrating a story.