Public Information

We landed at Inchon July 22, 1953 and I sat around Yong Dong Po until July 29. Each of those seven days saw one or more of our number called out and given orders to report to a particular artillery battalion to serve as a forward observer.

I was in no hurry to go to the front but I was beginning to wonder if the Army had forgotten me. Finally, on the 29th, a major came and instructed me to get in his jeep with my gear. Explanations are seldom given and second lieutenants don’t ask.

The next thing I knew, we were at Eighth Army Headquarters in Seoul, some 20 miles from Inchon. The major took me in to a bird colonel (full colonel) who asked me if I wanted to work in a public information office.

“I’ve never done that type of work, sir.” I replied.

“I didn’t ask you that. Do you want the job!” he said.

“Yes, sir,” was my reply and the next day I went to work in the public information office, Eighth Army Headquarters.

Even though it was office work we were on duty seven days a week, just like troops in the field. Our offices were on the campus of what had been Seoul University and we were housed there also. Later, the headquarters were moved to a larger site at the edge of the city (a metropolis of some 5 million) and near the 121 Evacuation Hospital, a unit mentioned on the latter day television series M*A*S*H*.

About the only thing I remember about our university location was the arrival of “Bedcheck Charlie” almost nightly. Around midnight a light plane from North Korea would slip under radar surveillance and drop a 500-pound bomb on the compound. It seldom hit anything and to my knowledge never hurt anybody. I suppose it was a message from the “gooks,” a derogatory term for the enemy, that they could get at us any time they wanted.

I never saw the colonel again who assigned me to the job except by chance when he was either arriving or leaving work. In addition to the major who had brought me, we had one captain, a couple of first lieutenants, several second lieutenants and a host of enlisted men.

The enlisted men did most of the work. I never did find out what the higher grade officers did exactly. My job was mainly to edit copy coming from the battalions for what the Army called the Home Town News Center. My official title was “Chief of News Branch, Information Section, 8th Army Headquarters.” I didn’t really remember that title (even if I did know it at the time) until I got looking through my army papers and found a commendation from my commanding officer listing it. That commendation, saying I had done an outstanding job, came from the self-same colonel with whom I never had any more contact.

Information about GIs, their promotions, medals, or commendations was written by grunts at the company level, processed at battalion, and then sent to us.

We cleaned it up and sent it to the hometown newspapers designated by the soldier. I assume my file showed I had a journalism degree and that’s why I got the job at army headquarters. Those in the lower units particularly those on the front lines, obviously had more important work to do than writing news copy and it could not have been a high priority.

Despite my understanding of this, I still had the authority to re-write and even reject copy from the units. It was the only time in my Army career when I could tell a major at battalion level what to do. I did that on several occasions when the copy sent was so bad that editing was of little value. In those instances I required a complete re-submission.