Taegu K-2

The flights to our new station at K-2 (Taegu) consumed one day and within several days more the squadron was in full operation. While we unpacked and positioned our main equipment, hundreds of cans of exposed aerial film began to backlog in our holding area. A temporary lab for the emergency-classed films received rush priority. This temporary structure set up by a small work party that arrived several days ahead of the main transport of squadron personnel from Fukuoka, Japan.

The Compound Gate - K 2

Our lab moved from the K-2 base to the middle of Taegu and into a large and deserted former school building called Kyung Buk Middle School. Without delay, we created living quarters, set up pumps and electrical generators and secured the camp. From the start, we worked twelve-hour shifts and longer hours when emergencies occurred. The weather worsened in October and everyone sensed a hard winter ahead.

The North Koreans reached the outskirts of Taegu and all around our lab remnants of several broken armies clogged our streets. Major Brewer ordered First Sergeant James Balint to open the armory and issue each of us 30 caliber carbines--but no ammunition. I remember Corporal Jim Welk let out a laugh when he received his weapon. A born comedian, Jim mimicked gunfire with pops and bangs followed by the words, "That will scare 'em."

It was unwise to issue arms without ammo since we were exactly eight miles from the dug-in forces of the North Korean Army. Armored vehicles of our 8th Army had just that day come through from the battlefront and they looked totally beaten. Every soldier riding them had bandages and the vehicles looked ready for the junk pile. We stood along the walkways with our empty carbines feeling silly as the parade of real soldiers filed down the road.

Several weeks went by before our film processing managed to keep up with the demands of war. Each day, however, the sky turned from gray to black and winds whipped up a severe cold from the North. Our oil-fueled stoves in the personnel tents stayed hot day and night. When we finished our long lab shifts we trudged to the tents where we ate and fell asleep without conversation.

PIO Sal Garaffa and Morris

Tageu - K-2

By November 1950, the war had the UN still clinging to the edge of the Pusan Perimeter. Our forces had not yet taken charge of the ground war and only then did the sky come under UN control. Our RF-80 and RB-26 recon aircraft were not doing what we had hoped and many of them returned with scars and damaged parts.

In late December 1950, new military units began to show up in Taegu as part of the United Nations forces. As they arrived, we who were free of shifts visited their camps. The Turkish Army was the first in our area being housed up the street from Kyung Buk Middle School.

I saw them drive by our front gate and got permission to watch them off-load and to take pictures. They appeared husky with their heavy clothes, mustaches, deep voices and knives. I noticed they smiled and sang a lot, even danced together around their night fires. No matter what they did, they never lost a certain fearsome appearance. I was happy they were nearby--and on our side.

Morris and Turk Soldiers

Turks w/Stacked Arms

One cold night in late December 1950, an unknown number of North Korean soldiers made their way past the Turkish compound and into ours at the school. Somehow they managed to avoid contact with our South Korean Army sentries and entered our mess hall. Once inside, they killed several of the night personnel and made off with a quantity of food supplies. The attack took place without me hearing a single shot or noise even though my tent sat 50 yards away. I noticed, too, that Jim slept through it with his empty carbine stowed beside his cot.

A week later, about Christmas day, 363rd's lab burned to the ground. No one will ever know what caused the fire even though there was speculation it, too, suffered at the hands of North Korean soldiers. I feel we had stoked our oil drum stoves one time too many and the heat inside the lab ignited somewhere upstairs. In less than one hour the 363rd Photo Recon Technical Lab ceased to exist.