Early this morning, I was watching live BBC coverage of South Korean president Moon and Kim Jung Un meeting in Panmunjom (UN Joint Security Area (JSA) — on the border between N & S Korea, a small area split in half).
I flashed back to being there while playing a USO show for about 40 of America's best and brightest servicemen when I was not long out of high school. I have worked with many superstars in music, but nothing has given me a greater feeling of doing something good through music than the bright smiles of U.S. servicemen and women who haven’t seen another American in months. Especially in the small outposts we performed at for the most part. All of them manned by outstanding individuals.
South Korea was under martial law (with midnight curfew .. more on that below). There were countless machine gun outposts and sandbags filling the streets of Seoul because North and South Korea were on the brink of war following the axe murders by North Korean soldiers of two U.S. serviceman who were cutting down a tree that was blocking the view of the old Freedom Bridge (PIC BELOW) - the old 150' bridge North Koreans charged across to commit the murders of Capt. Arthur Bonifas and 1LT Mark Barrett, for whom the The Joint Security Area's advance camp (Camp Kitty Hawk) was later renamed "Camp Bonifas" in honor of the slain company commander. The Barrett Readiness Facility, located inside the JSA and housing the battalion's north mission platoon, was named for the slain Barrett. Several other soldiers were beaten during the attack.
After we dropped off our PA and instruments in the tiny mess hall, we were driven to an overlook near the old Freedom Bridge aka “Bridge Of No Return” where the photo below was taken.
Two U.S. soldiers were murdered and others beaten by N Korean soldiers who charged across the bridge and attacked them with their own axes as the U.S. soldiers, led by Capt Bonifas, were cutting down a tree blocking the view. We were watched every second by NK soldiers there from their checkpoint on the north end of the bridge as well. The bridge is no longer in use and overgrown now.
Bridge of No Return — Panmunjom (below, right).
After that, we went to the building with the awning in the pic below. It’s the only place where you can actually walk into North Korea without being shot because the 38th Parallel (the border) runs right through the middle of the building, dissecting all three of the blue single story buildings in half. They'd warned us to stay away from doors and windows so we wouldn't be pulled out into North Korea, which had happened a few times in the weeks and months before our arrival. There were NK soldiers standing inside the door on their side and watching from the outside through the windows. I nodded (from 4’ away) to the large NK soldier standing guard over the door on their side, but he didn’t respond except to glare at me.
The psychological gamesmanship played by both sides was evident. The border ran down the middle of a long table set perpendicularly across the room. For instance, we were told about how the South would get new mini flag stands with 2 tiers. The North would put up flag stands with 3 tiers the next day. We’d use larger water glasses, they’d get slightly larger ones than those, and so on.
The buildings you see in the pic are painted a deeper shade of blue now, but the title pic is what they looked like then. Little has changed in that area of the JSA except for the paint color and removal of a tall observation gazebo atop a spiral staircase from where this photo was taken back then. The rest of the JSA has been modernized on the southern side, with more buildings, wider roads, etc. Through binoculars they provided us, we could see North Korean soldiers taking pictures of us and filming us from the windows in the larger white building in the background, on the North Korean side.
If you see a news story today with video of Moon and Kim holding hands, walking back and forth across the demarcation line between North and South when they first met today, it happened between the middle and right blue buildings. You can see the lighter line halfway down the walkway between buildings. That’s the border. One inch over that and a major international incident occurs. Including being shot by NK soldiers.
The 50 or so U.S. personnel were so glad to have a USO show. And they were as nice as they come. Incredible guys working under extreme circumstances.
It is certainly one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
The midnight curfew caught my buddy and I out one night in Seoul. We were in the club/shopping district — Itaewan — waiting for our drummer to hook back up with us so we could grab a cab back to our U.S. military R&R hotel, The Naija Hotel. At 11:50, we heard cabs peeling rubber to make it home. Getting caught out after midnight meant a beating and prison for South Koreans.
With no cabs available, we started to walk the 2 miles back to our hotel but didn’t get far. At the stroke of midnight, hundreds of SK soldiers poured out of storefronts in unison on our side of the street like something out of “Night Of The Living Dead.” They bummed cigarettes and were nice as could be. But when we reached the first checkpoint, our walk ended.
The SK commander of that checkpoint had stocking feet propped up on his desk, wearing wraparound sunglasses, smoking Silva Thins as he listened to American soul music, all the while taking nips from a bottle of Johnny Walker. He called around, but no one could come pick us up. For the rest of the night, we watched mobile missile launchers, tanks, and armored troop carriers and military trucks pour past the checkpoint. They were definitely on a war footing due to the state of affairs caused by the murder of our servicemen up on Panmunjom. Seoul is practically close enough to ride a bicycle to border.
I wish for peace on the Korean Peninsula, but the Kim family's ruthlessness towards their own people over the decades wouldn't leave me trusting them as far as I or anyone could throw Kim Jung Un. Which wouldn’t be more than inches.
It seems China is behind this sudden peace initiative from the North Koreans . The last thing China wants is a war on their border with hundreds of thousands of North Koreans pouring across the border to avoid the conflict. Trump will take credit if something happens, but it’s Xi Jinping who should get the credit if denuclearization happens. As jjohnjj noted in the comments, China’s efforts may be more designed to get U.S. military forces out of the region than anything. We’ll see what transpires.
You’ll recognize where they met for the first time today from the photo at the top of the diary. It’s the lightly shaded perpendicular line between the two blue buildings at the center of the diary photo from ‘76. Looks like the North Koreans haven’t changed a thing, while the Southern section beyond the Armistice Building (blue with the awning) has changed a lot with much wider roads and newer, more plentiful buildings.
Interesting fact: One of the South Korean soldiers who participated in Operation Paul Bunyan (the Defcon 3 U.S.-South Korean military response to the axe murders and concurrent completion of the tree trimming), Moon Jae-in, was elected President of South Korea in 2017.
Read the riveting first person account of Operation Paul Bunyan at the bottom of the comments below by BlackBandFedora