Never heard that before. However, I can tell you exactly where I was that night. I was a Sgt. in the Marines, first night on maneuvers just shy of the DMZ in South Korea.
I had landed in Seoul about 4:00 pm. I was then herded into a trucked heading up north. On the way out of Seoul our truck driver failed to adequately stop at a check point. From the back of the truck I heard the Korean yelling and the two Koreans in pit next to the check point pull back the slide on the .50. I then heard that sucker slide home and thought I was dead. Our translator was going nuts, yelling in English, then Korean, then English again, jumping up and down waving his hands. I thought oh shit, 30 minutes in Korea and I'm getting shot at a check point. The translator got it straightened out and we continued on our way. As we left town and entered a more rural setting I noticed tanks dug into the side of the hills with camo over them. A bit later we stopped at a little store on the side of the road. Nothing else just a store and a plaque in MOFN (middle of fucking nowhere). I bought some Korean soft drink and some kind of sweet bread. I then went over to read the plaque. Don't remember exactly what it said. I do remember it said something about the 38th parallel. Until that moment I hadn't realized how far north we were going. I don't no much about Korean history or the Korean War but the 38th parallel stuck out. Got to my new unit after dark; was shown where to put my gear and went for some chow. Everyone else had been there for a while. I was meeting up with my new unit. I had just been transferred from Camp Pendleton in sunny California to Okinawa. I was in Okinawa for a week or so before they shipped me to Korea to meet up with my new unit. Most of my unit was out in town. Because I was new in country I was quarantined for 3 days. They didn't want us passing funk to the girls passing us funk. Somewhere about 10:00 or so I pulled out my sleeping bag and crawled in. An hour or so later I heard what I thought was gun shots. Crap it was gun shots. I've been in country for 6 hours and some dipshit is opting to start up the Korean War again. Damn! I'm alone in a big ass tent, my unit is out in town partying. I haven't even been issued a rifle yet and their starting a damn war. WTF... As I go running out to find out what the hell is going on someone tells me shots are fired ever night. It's no big deal. Story goes that if the South Koreans catch or kill a North Korean they get a get out of the Korean military pass, much like a monopoly get out of jail free card. They also get $20,000 or some obscene amount considering their economy at the time. I doubt any of this was true but it was the rumor at that time. I guess it was just about the time the adrenaline was wearing off and I was getting back to sleep that our Soviet Friend saved the world from itself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:216193 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
