25 Years Ago Part II
Start off with one correction. I was 22 when I touched the ground in Japan. Apologies to all for the error.
Yep mama-san did not waste a minute to call me. Now I had seen a few Korean women in my almost five years of service, but they were all married. So I had stayed away from them. Though I had heard a lot of war stories. Let me stipulate when I refer to war story this has nothing to really do with fighting an enemy, but much more to do with carousing.
Most GIs (slang for American soldier) that are overseas and go to the bars frequented by GIs are not meeting sweet college girls. Some of these girls are looking to catch a flight on a Freedom Bird to Golden Mountain. Others are curious and just want to meet an American. Most are poor, maybe an orphaned child kicked out of the orphanage without any job skills, while another is the daughter of a farmer or fisherman with no sons and her father cannot afford to feed her. These girls somehow make it to the ville (slang term for the town outside an American base) and a mama san would take them in. The girl would be given pretty clothes, a bed, a chest of drawers, four walls and a debt she could not hope to pay with most jobs in the ville. These girls had to become whores to pay the rent, buy food, and hopefully knock off some of their debt.
And this just is not limited to Korea. It happened in Viet Nam, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. I have heard the bawdy tales of the old soldiers that had been to the ville in all of these countries. These stories related how beautiful Asian girls were and that the only limits was your money and imagination. The word was out that the girls were good and they did not care what you looked like. An arrogant assertion at best, because when you have a debt, mama san does not let her girls be choosey.
So here I stood in downtown Seoul with a real live mama san on the phone. Naïve, jet lagged and horny I pondered my words. Life was so much easier when I joined the US Army at 18, a virgin and dedicated to Christ. Hell that’s what motivated me to join the Army. I wanted to kill Communists for Christ (this was the Cold War, Ronald Reagan was sworn into office during this month). But that boy had slipped, his virginity willingly stripped away at Crazy Sexy in the Frankfurt red light district after surviving two years of temptation.
Now I stood phone in hand and somebody knocked on the door. I told mama san I had to go and hung up. Went to the door and my mates were outside ready to go eat dinner. I spoke to them about my phone call and I became the source of jokes for the ride down the elevator.
One thing I have to do is commend both of these men. Because they were good husbands. There is an imminent threat of war in Korea, thus soldiers rarely brought their families to Korea. Exceptions were made for Korean wives. Many married men went to the bars as much as the single guys and for the same reason. It was hard to respect them. Not that I was any better. But the Sarge and the Spec5 were good guys and maintained their fidelity throughout the job. I think they got their kicks from all of the stupid things I did. And I did a lot of stupid things. You’ll here more of these as the story continues in Part III.
