581st Co. in South Korea (1951

Taejon is Liberated?

This is the city of Taejon. It is what a city often looks like when armies fight over real estate. We had traveled by boat from Hamhung to Pusan where we unloaded and headed north. We stopped at Taejon for the night. Some friends and I found a wine shop in town that was still in operation. We spent the night around the charcoal stove the shop owner had and drank warmed wine for most of the night. It was good to relax for a while and feel a little safer. While we were there a fire started in the warehouse the army was using for a post office and thousands of Christmas packages went up in the fire. I never knew what I might have lost.

For Christmas I sent my little brother Loren a couple of packages of army hersey bars (48 bars to a box). They are special chocolate that doesn't melt as easy and they were readily available whenever you wanted any. I had nothing else to send. I never heard from him but I'm sure he enjoyed them. In 2002 I asked Loren about them. He said he enjoyed them but Mom kept them so he wouldn't eat them all at one time. But he said he would sneak some from time to time. One nice thing they did in Korea. You did not have to have any postage on letters or packages. You just had to write "FREE" on the letter or package.