As to other elements of the 63d Inf Regt, he stated, "Chonju seemed to be different matter, they didn't complain as much, (they were smaller in numbers) and seemed to be content to be left alone. They had the most beautiful compound for a camp that I saw in Korea, outside of Seoul." In Russell E. McLogan's Boy Soldier -- Coming of Age During World War II a Shinto Shrine in Iri (Iksan) is mentioned. This was where Al Vidal first reported. According to Al, "It was really fixed up pretty good, it also had showers and toilets added to one side. On the other side was the telephone switchboard. ... It was smaller than Kunsan, but not too bad. We got haircuts there and also they had a fairly good photgraphyu shop. Everything was off limits, like the saki houses and food. The people were very friendly and we never had any trouble." He continued, "Chonju was a bigger town, about like Kunsan but cleaner. The camp as I remember it was very nice and sat terrace-like on the side of a hill. I had occasion to go there twice, once on a 6x6 as a sort of guard and once whin I made my first communion." However, the one thing that Al hated about Korea was the rats. "I had a fear of mice and rats back in the states and when I got to Korea, there they were all over the palce! ... You know there was a company at Hillenmeyer that was to eradicate stuff like that but they never came to Iri."

Al also commented on the "colored" bakers in Iri (now Iksan). "Also the regimental bakery was located in Iri. It was operated by abut 10 "colored" guys at that time. They were located in a building that looked out of place in Korea, as it was plastered or stuccoed. It also was painted white, which is unusual for the area. They had a Sgt over them and were pretty good guys, the ones that I met, although they might have been angry over the segregation at that time. But, they lived by themselves and pretty much had free reign over their comings and goings." It should be noted that Camp Hillenmeyer was also segregated with the "colored" troops performing laundry services and living apart from the white troops. Though President Truman had signed the executive order for desegregation of the military in 1946, it was never fully enacted until President Kennedy's time.

In Russell E. McLogan's book Boy Soldier -- Coming of Age During World War II (p.336) states, "There was a Quartermaster Corps baking company nearby that supplied bread to the regiment through Service Company. In our segregated Army, the baking company consisted of all-black soldiers. They were always having equipment breakdowns and there would then be no white bread for the white troops. (Rather symbolic, isn't it?) The local mess sergeants would then make biscuits. They didn't taste very good and we soon grew tired of eating them morning, noon and night." He went on, "Sergeant Jones was the liaison between the supply office and the baking company. He was always reporting back to Staff Sergeant Smith how undisciplined the black bakers were. I remember hearing him tell that when he made a personal inspection to find out why there was again no bread being baked, he found their first sergeant still in his bunk in the middle of the afternoon. He stayed in bed with talking to the supply sergeant. In bed with him was a Korean woman. After spelling out, very politely, his usual litany of how the equipment didn't work properly and what he was doing to get it going again, the black baker said, "You gentlemen will just have to excuse me now, I have some fuckin' to do?"

He continued, "Jones also made the mistake of referring to the black soldiers as "those goddam nigger bakers" in a phone conversation with some irate company mess sergeant who had called to complain about the lack of bread. Our phone system was rather primitive and he was overheard by one of the black soldiers. They promptly went on strike for a week and Sergeant Jones had to make several abject apologies to their officer, one of which I heard when he called the Regimental supply office." This was a statement of the times when whites lived in a white world and had no idea of how the "colored" world lived.

Map of Kunsan, Chollabuk-to (1945-46) (CLICK ON MAP TO ENLARGE)

Closeup of Kunsan City, Map of Kunsan, Chollabuk-to (1945-46)

Al Vidal stated, "About the time the draftees left for the US, we received orders to pack up for Kunsan. This was about March 47. The move to Kunsan and the KCC building was made and it turned out pretty good." Al stated that "the KCC was known as the Korean Chamber of Commerce when we were there." However, it should be noted that the usage of term "KCC" for multiple buildings is very possible. "KCC" really stood for "Korean Commerce Committee" (NOT Korean Chamber of Commerce) was actually a cooperative that handled the shipment of rice to Japan and import of materials into Kunsan. They would have offices, warehouses, and quasi-government buildings (i.e., banks) under their control. The Service Co., 63d Infantry Regiment moved into the building sometime in spring or summer of 1947. By the time the unit moved in, the building had been repaired. Windows and steam heat had been installed. The sanitary facilities were 50 gallon drums in a building outside and it was pretty comfortable. This building has been identified as the annex building of the Kunsan Women's Hall. This building was also used by the 14th/21st Trans Port Co. between 1952-1955 as their He continued, "Back on the first floor behind from where you took the picture was the mess hall and cooks area." This is what became the Officers Mess in the Korean War. Today this is an area that has been partitioned off into small rooms on both sides of a central hall. headquarters building.

In addition to Al's unit, there were other small units that were around town. Fred Ottoboni stated that these were units "that I never heard of, such as an engineer survey unit. We were so restricted out there at Hillenmeyer, that I did not see much or know much." Al continued, "One of the other units around at that time was the 3362nd Base Engineer Survey Company. I remember the name because of their great PX they had. You could get unlimited beer supplies once a month from them, and myself and one other guy, the big guy from Indianapolis were the big drinkers in the company used to get 10 to 15 cases of beer between us for the month, whereas in Iri and the early days in Kunsan the beer was rationed to two cans a week. They also had some good connections in Seoul because when they arrived in Kunsan our food improved dramatically. Plenty of steaks and other stuff which we never had before. What they were doing in the area I never found out. According to my recollection, they were in an area northwest of the KCC, about a half mile or so."

Front of the HQ building. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)	Right of front entry. New addition. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)
Left of front entry. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)	Front entry interior. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)
South entry. Note prefab addition to roof flat top roof area. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)	East side of building looking towards south end. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)
Roof facing river. Note prefab addition. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)	Looking from the roof towards the river. (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)

Al wrote, "Coming in from the outside and to the left is a door where the Service Company bunked. To the left and down the hall were other sleeping quarters for a bunch of guys that were not attached to Service Co. ... (They were on the side facing the front.) On the left side there was first an entrance to a shower room which was about twenty feet long and about eight feet wide. Also on the left side were I believe two small rooms for the First Sergeant and one other NCO. To the side also facing the front were the steps leading up one floor." The interior today is basically the same as he describes it. He continued, "Back on the first floor behind from where you took the picture was the mess hall and cooks area." This is one-story addition at the south end and is what became the Officers Mess in the Korean War. Today this is an area that has been partitioned off into small rooms on both sides of a central hall.

He went on to describe the second floor. " The greater part of this floor was taken up by a large auditorium like room where we had movies. I believe also part of the floor was taken up by other rooms which were for one or two officers. To the center or along the wall were the steps leading up to the roof." The interior has been partitioned off into smaller rooms so there is no large area anymore. The stairs leading to the roof are still there. As to the exterior, Al commented, "The sidewalks and curbs are sure the same, although they look a little narrow in relation to the old pictures." This would be correct as the curb stones appear to have been moved in to meet the current widening of the streets. The granite curbstones are still there though as well as the "step up" that is shown in Al's pictures taken on the northeast side of the building on the corner of the street.

Al commented on the area around his headquarters. "I think now that I was in the Korean section as the buildings around were pretty dumpy (that's a polite word) Korea at that time was in very bad shape. The people ate what food the cooks threw away and also they were eating dogs, when I saw to hat, and we were in the mess hall eating, we looked out the window, I could hardly believe it. I had no idea that they were starving. The Koreans who worked for us got plenty of food, one way or the other. Maybe they stole some. Also we had plenty of cigarettes and they went for them in a big way."

Al wrote about the picture below, "The picture is on the southwest side of the KCC building, just around from the main entrance. ... As you can see from my pic there was a window, as matter of fact there were three windows as I recall. Directly facing the view from the picture, there were houses running south and east. To the west there were only broken down buildings and warehouses of some kind, not in very good shape. Directly across from the KCC there were some warehouses which were lower than the roof of KCC. We used to use the roof as place to drink beer on Saturday afternoons, which we usually had off." The warehouses directly across from his headquarters building are all gone now. However at the end of the block to the left are some old Japanese warehouses that were converted into a discount mart and are in use today -- though renovated and upgraded.

Al Vidal with Korean Friends

He added, "I'm in the middle and the guy on my right I forget his Korean name but we knew him as Shorty. He was one of the best workers we had and very sociable. He called me "typewriter" as I did all the typing for the Supply. The small kid is Tony, which is the name the guys gave him back at Iri. He moved all over the regiment but I guess he got better treatment at Service Co. He's the one that I mentioned got killed by a train." He later wrote about Tony, "He was at Iri when I arrived. He was taken in by the guys sometime earlier. He was born in Taejon from what I remember. He ate, slept and did everything with us, even did some drinking and he was quite a hustler. Demanded the chow be improved and even stood inspection, which the Service Co. commmander, a Captain put up with. He skipped to other detachments in the area from what I remember. Chonju, Kunsan but I don't think he was accepted at Hillenmeyer. Not too long after we took the pictures he took off and we heard that he was killed by a train. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure, but I can't remember him being around after that. He was quite a character and he could really cuss up a storm."

Old Warehouses near Customs House
Though most old wharf structures have been
demolished, some old warehouses survive. (2000)
(Click on image to enlarge)

The Supply warehouses that Al Vidal's company had no longer exists. The warehouses were next to the wharf near the pontoon bridges. This area very near to the harbor Centennial Park has been cleared and is now a large parking lot area. He mentioned the Kumgang (river) operations at the time. He said, "The area looking north east I take to be the river. We often sat outside of the warehouses and looked up and down the river, but I don't recall any ferry that was operating. Going inland, the river sort of made a slow left turn to the east and there was a tungsten mine up there. We occasionally saw dead bodies floating past the warehouse which caused a sensation as most of us had never seen a dead body, at least I hadn't."

Al went on, "In Kunsan we had some warehouses down along the waterfront aand the first commissary for the dependents was established there. I knew the fellow who ran it, a Pfc name O'Gara from Massachusetts. The first dependent from the US to come to Hillenmeyer was a young pretty girl of about 21 who was married to a Lt. something or other. It was a shame the way the other officers swarmed around her, and her husband couldn't do anything about it.

The area was filled with poorly-constructed cement warehouses that were built with a peaked roof. "The warehouses were fairly worn down and not much activity around them, I took them for rice storage areas as there was a hell of a lot of rats running around all the time. You could see them even in the daytime from the roof of the KCC, which we frequently used as a beer hall and shot a lot of bull up there, weather permitting. I presumed that the warehouses were built by the Japanese. The Americans didn't build them, as they would have built them much better. The ones where Regimental supply was located were much better." Though most of these warehouses have been destroyed, a few still exist today near the wharf area.

Al also commented on playing baseball with the Koreans at the Boys Primary school grounds. The school grounds are still in the same location. "We also played baseball against the Koreans in Kunsan who were like the Japanese who evidently taught them the game." He commented later, "From what I remember, the playground did not have a fence around it. Home plate was west, anybody in the field looked into the sun in the afternoon. It seems that from home plate looking out, the school was from right field to center field approximately. The street that ran along the first base side went someway in the vicinity of downtown Kunsan. The homes around it were of a superior quality and it might be that they were not level with the street. In other words they might have had a retaining wall close to the sidewalks(if there were sidewalks) The river was to the third base direction and about like 4 or 5 blocks back toward the KCC. At least it seems to me that's the distance and direction of where the warehouse was in regards the ball field. One other thing, there seemed to be an awful lot of old Korean men in that area, you know that ones that wore the funny hats and dressed all in white. I hit one of them on the head one day as he was crossing across right field. It didn't seem to bother him at all."

He mentioned the Harbor Master at the time. He said, "Incidentally, at that time the person who had control of the river and the ships that came in to unload was a corporal. I never saw an officer or Korean ship pilot at any time. Can you imagine that? He was kind of a mystery man, and we all envied him as he had an apartment somewhere with some gal."

He went on, "As far as I know, there were only two Japanese left in Kunsan, a brother and sister of about 30 years old. They were friendly and kind of a mystery why they were still there. The girl was pretty and had a fantasy about Hollywood. About 4 of us were invited one night up to their house, we took along some beer but nothing ever developed if you know what I mean. One of the Sgts at KCC started taking her out and she was a steady visitor when we had movies. When I told her I was from California, her eyes lit up like a Christmas turkey."

Bill Clear in front of warehouses near KCC (1947) (Click on image to enlarge)

Warehouses: Converted to a Discount Mart (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)

He wrote later, "I have one other on of myself sitting on a wharf that moves on hinges on the tide. The bridges that are there still, which I have seen on your site, seem to be the same ones that were there in 47. Also one of them has a sign which has some characters written on it. It seems I read somewhere on your site that it was mentioned about a "no smoking" sign. Could this be it?" These dock bridges are certainly the same ones that exist today. These pontoon docks were constructed in the 1930s when the Japanese extended the whole wharf area further into the river and built the pontoon docks with railroad tracks to handle the cargo transfers. Al is in refering to the Travis Hughlett's photos of the 21st Trans Port Co. at Kunsan Harbor from 1953-1955.

Pontoon Dock (1954) (Click on image to enlarge)

Pontoon Dock (2000) (Click on image to enlarge)

• Go to Japanese Aviation Training Base (1938-1945)
  
• Go to Occupation Forces: 6th Infantry Division, 63d Infantry Regiment, 3d Battalion; A Soldier's Story (1945-1947)
  
• Go to Occupation Forces: 63d Service Company, Kunsan Harbor
  
• Go to Occupation Forces: Officer's Tour (1946-1947); Korean Constabulary (1949-1951)
  
• Go to Cholla Province Korean War History (1950-1951): North Korean Invasion and Military Actions in Cholla area
  
• Go to Cholla Province Korean War History (1951-1952): Invasion of Inchon and Retaking of Kunsan AB
  

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