What was your experience on the DMZ like?

I remember in 1982 or 83 when we had a unit get caught in a minefield. Seems that after a monsoon a minefield laid by the ROK Marines shifted about a hundred meters by a mud flow.

They walked in pretty deep before someone saw one half buried. Thank goodness no one got hurt that day.

i served wi th b co 122 nd signal cp casey 87-88 i learned to love what i have here in idaho from that experience

Go to page 50 of this magazine. An article on the DMZ from a tanker's perspective - 1987 to 1988:

http://www.kwva.org/graybeards/gb_06/gb_0612/gb_0612_final.pdf

worked the border from pammunjom (spell check)to the chorwan valley in the mid 80s for almost 36 months

I was on the DMZ OCT-DEC '86. Cold, eerie, fun as hell for a young, hard-charging 11B20!

quote:

Originally posted by stevenford:
I was on the DMZ OCT-DEC '86. Cold, eerie, fun as hell for a young, hard-charging 11B20!

Hey, me too! What a coincidence!

Tomahawk!

Except for the cold I liked it, 17 years old and wanted to be a Soldier all my life at that time so it was just like I pictured it ! Pro Patria doughboy

THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO OPFOR6
I WAS AN ARTILLERY SURVEYOR IN AN 8" SELF PROPELLED UNIT...2/76ARTY,I CORPS. IN 1968
DURNING WHAT THEY CALLED OPERATION HIPSHOT
AS A MEMBER OF A SURVEYING TEAM WE WOULD GO 15 MIN AHEAD OF THE BATTALION CONVOY, TO AN AREA SOME OFFICER PICKED OUT, AND PROCEED TO DO SUN SHOTS AN TRIANGULATION WITH OUR SURVEYING GEAR, TO PROVIDE AN AZIMUTH(GUN BUNNIES KNOW WHAT I MEAN) FOR THE GUNS TO SET UP ON.ALTHOUGH I WAS A SPEC 4 AT THE TIME, I DID ONE OF THE LOWEST JOBS ON THE TEAM,THAT OF FORWARD TAPEMAN,(GUYS YOU GOT TO REMEMBER THIS WAS BEFORE THE DAYS OF GPS)
AFTER THE TAPE WAS PULLED A DISTANCE I WOULD DROP A PLUMB BOB MARKING A POINT ON THE GROUND,AS I WAS GETTING READY TO DROP THE 4OZ BRASS PLUMB BOB I NOTICED 3 METAL WIRES STICKING UP FROM THE GROUND WHERE THE PLUMB BOB WAS TO FALL.
NEEDLESS TO SAY I DID NOT DROP THE WEIGHT REALIZING WE WERE IN WHAT WAS ONCE A MINE FIELD THAT SOME HOW THIS ONE HAD BEEN MISSED WHEN IT WAS CLEARED YEARS BEFORE,LEFT OVER AND FORGOTTEN FROM THE KOREAN WAR.
GINGERLY WALKING BACK I TOLD THE SARGENT WHO CHECKED IT OUT AN AGREED IT WAS A MINE,BOUNCING BETTY TYPE.TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT THE BATTALION CO CALLED FOR AN EOD MAN .SHORTLY THEREAFTER A CHOPPER LANDED, THE EOD GUY GOT OUT AND BLEW THE MINE IN PLACE,GOT BACK IN THE CHOPPER AND LEFT.
WE FINISHED OUR WORK, THE GUNS SET UP, AND A NITE FIRE MISSION WAS DONE ON SOME TARGET AREA KNOWN ONLY TO THE FDC AND THE HIGHER UPS.MY REWARD FOR FINDING THE MINE WAS TAKING THE FIRST WATCH ON GUARD DUTY THAT NITE.

I_CORP_2BN_76TH_ARTY-KOREA_007.jpg (119 Kb, 7 downloads) ARTY SURVEY TEAM 2/76,I CORPS

Which side of the DMZ?

80s...

I served with ACo 1/23rd 3rd Brigade 2nd Inf Div from April 1966 to Dec.1966 and after my release from the 44th Surg.Hosp. was with BCo 2/38th 2nd Inf Div (BLUE LANCER VALLEY an Nullo-ri)
At first it was a very strange and I thought ugly place that nobody in their right mind would want any of it much less fight over it. In time the people started looking better etc. On 2Nov66 what should have been my patrol was massacred with 1 survivor and things really started changing for all of us. We were always short-handed and Joe seemed to be kept very well informed of what was going on at the base camps and HHC even where many of night new arrivals names and rank etc would come across on those damn loudspeakers and mine came across 1 night as well as others and then I realized we could not really trust the KATUSA's roaming with us an the hooch boys that came in during daytime but left before sundown to get back across the river. We had more than 1 firefight but they were "incidents" and decided, I guess at Brigade or Div. level how they would be written up and reported. There was no morning calm in the land we were on. We spent many a rain soaked, wind blown nights on ambush patrol just wondering when they were coming and would I see them first. I had a couple goals - 1 was to get over to that speaker and blow it and the people in it off of the map and 2 rip up as many NK's and DPRK's as possible. Kinda got a little done but not what I should have. I should have just stayed. Dave Rizer (SGT) ACo 1/23 3rd Brigade 2nd Inf Div IMJIN SCOUT KEEP UP THE FIRE!