MacArthur

[Jim Olson <olsonjam@uwec.edu>]

I made a mistake in mentioning MacArthur in my last post about Stars 
and Stripes as I had no personal information except hearsay to offer 
(a lot of that going around about the war).

In the future I'll stick to my own experiences- to things I heard and saw.

I have been doing some background reading about the war from various 
perspectives to check my own memories. And much of that is 
controversial as well.

I have the letters I wrote back to my wife and a number of color slides
I took to aid in that as well.

I have been reading my letters and find that there are some things I 
told her and some that I didn't- some memories that are quite vivid 
and others that
aren't.

One of my letters talks of a jeep accident (nobody hurt) where a jeep 
carrying ice-cream overturned and GI's came out with mess kits to 
gather it up and savor it.

But I can't recall the incident from memory.

I also described to her a lecture on Buddah I heard in a Red Cross 
canteen in   Pusan but I can't recall that either but it must have 
been true since the letter was written on Red Cross stationery.

I don't recall the lecture but remember the canteen- and someone 
there singing the song of Pusan University.

"Oh Pusan U- the Univesity that's grand- The best in all the land- Oh 
Pusan you." and on and on with the last lines coming at appropriate 
times.


And I forgot all about Buddah- so much for culture.


I don't think I lied to her about anything.

I did soft pedal some of the action incidents so she wouldn't worry.

Memory is a difficult thing to get a firm grip on.


JimO
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA
olsonjam@uwec.edu