Uijongbu: A Soldier’s Life in Korea

By Oliver A Houck

Uijongbu unfolds in the wake of the Korean War, in a town left ravaged and rebuilding just beginning got recover. At the U.S. Army Base in Uijongbu, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, an unplanned economy emerges, intertwining the lives of American GIs and young Korean women. This delicate and complex connection fuels both romance and disaster, creating a tapestry of relationships that are as hopeful as they are heartbreaking.

Through a series of stories that vary from humorous to heartrending, the author captures the resilience, warmth, and humanity of the Korean people. The novel paints an intimate portrait of a time and place marked by love, loss, and cultural connection. Uijongbu is a haunting reminder of war’s lasting impact, and a poignant testament to the indomitable human spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781685625405

Oliver A Houck

Oliver Houck is the David Boies Chair in Public Interest law at Tulane Law School. He is a graduate of Harvard College (1960) and Georgetown Law Center (l967), with three intervening years in the US Army, predominantly Korea. He served as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office in Washington DC until l971, when he became counsel to the National Wildlife Federation and part of the first wave of environmental law. His books include Downstream Toward Home, Down on the Batture, Waking up the Dream State, Taking Back Eden, and The Most Dangerous Branch (the Supreme Court and environmental law). He has also published a memoir of his service as a federal prosecutor called The Court of General Sessions. Uijongbu, also a memoir, is his latest work.

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Dedication

To Lisa

Copyright Information ©

Oliver A Houck 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Houck, Oliver A

Uijongbu

ISBN 9781685625399 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781685625405 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023916175

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Acknowledgment

I would like to acknowledge some of the GI’s I worked with, especially Charles Brodhead and Bill Corbett, some of the Koreans I knew, especially Min-tal-won, and the end my commanding officer, Colonel Frank Reynolds, who told me that it was time to go back home.

Prologue

The only thing I knew about Korea was a war song called ‘Dear John’ I heard while cleaning out the dog pens at Dr Shahale’s Animal Clinic in Westfield, New Jersey. It was all over the radio at the time, and John’s fiancée was writing to him somewhere in Korea to say that she was marrying his brother, Tom, rather suddenly, as in tomorrow. But my love for you has gone, there’s no use in going on, dreadful sorry, Dear John. A monologue by John followed revealing that he was just off the battlefield, got the letter, opened it, and read it aloud. A very sad song.

Reinforcing my impression that Korea was not a destination vacation, Life Magazine ran a Korean War feature with a full, face-on photo of a marine, retreating under fire with his unit from the Chosen Reservoir. It was the depth of winter, the most bitter in a century, and the face, all-American with freckles, contained eyes that were locked into a thousand-mile stare. One frozen hand was trying to pry a frozen bean from a frozen can. A very cold picture.

The next time I heard about Korea it was because I was being sent there. I had been given a range of choices. Did I want to stay in the States or go overseas? (I wrote: The States). If overseas, the European or Asian theatre? (I wrote: European) and if Asian, what country? (I wrote: Japan). So, I was sent to Korea, and to my surprise became an instant hero. The Korean War was over, and America had just saved South Korea. We were called Mi-Kuks (people from the beautiful country).

On arrival, I was not posted in Seoul, but rather to a small counter-intelligence unit at Camp Red Cloud in Uijongbu, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Our job was to ferret out who would be most vulnerable to North Korean pressure. The answer was one that had not occurred to me. South Korean women who were living with American G.Is.

Kelly

The head girl of Uijongbu community was Kim Mi-Chong and was called Kelly. She lived with Freddie Evans, Club Sargent of the First Cavalry Division at Red Cloud, a life more in comfort than sin.

Kelly was no longer young, but her skin was still smooth, and she had acquired and held onto a fair measure of security. She owned her own room in town with a bed and numerous fringe necessities of boudoir life – chest of drawers, mirror, small refrigerator, transistor radio, and a painting of Jesus Christ – all suspiciously similar to articles sold at the PX on base. She joined her sergeant nightly at the Pappasan Club where she sat with his friends at the head table, nursing one drink through the entire evening and circulating often around the dance floor to the lady’s room to the kitchen corridors where she would talk with the other girls and keep track of what was going on.

Kelly flirted with no man and expected no one to flirt with her. The game was too serious. She was putting three sisters through school, rearing a baby in another part of town, and supporting a parent and a grandparent who slept outside when Evans spent the night. Evans had seen them around, these two elders of indistinguishable age, in fact, he had tripped over them a number of times coming out of the house in the early morning, but he did not know who they were. Kelly never talked about her relatives.

Sergeant Freddie Evans had a big face with cheeks that never grew up and eyes that had seen too much liquor after many years of service in charge of the Non-Commissioned Officer Club. He enjoyed talking, western music, rolling dice for beer, and listening to any story which he could punctuate with enthusiastic cries of, Oh, my ass! My ass! He was co-habiting quietly with Kelly until one day he met a very pretty girl in the Post Exchange, and he fell in love.

She was Miss Song. She was working at the cosmetics counter where she received about six proposals a day