Money?

[Jim Olson <olsonjam@uwec.edu>]

We were in a rear area (987th AFA) in July of 1951 just south of the 
Hwachon Dam.

I was machine gun sergeant at the time having replaced a man who had 
rotated home as a reservist.

One of my jobs was to set up a perimeter defense for the unit (self 
propelled 105mm) and scout surrounding hills for signs of 
infiltration, a job I was not well trianed for but had some ideas 
having gone out on patrols with 7th Div and Marine partols as a 
forward observer.

We were on the banks of the Pukhan river with no bridges or fords 
nearby so we swam across pushing our gear and clothes ahead on air 
mattresses.

After a three hour hike up into the hills and valleys across the 
river the three of us "took" a village.

Actually it was abandoned so not hard to take. I imagine the residents had
fled south.

Most of the huts were empty showing no signs of occupancy by 
infiltrators or anyone else- no trip wires or booby traps. Although 
we weren't particularly well trained to look for them we did the best 
we could and nobody was hurt.

But one hut  did have some paper money and a worn out cast net for 
fishing in the river.


I'm assuming the money was North Korean but I am not sure.

Can anyone identify it?

Is it North Kortean or Chinese?

The people who left it obvously didn't feel any further need for it.

I have temporarily  put a jpg of the front of a bill out at

 
http://members.aol.com/fab987th/money.jpg

I never did get the hang of using the cast net so didn't catch any 
fish, but we did have a Korean mess hand who could dive in and catch 
them by hand (under rocks I guess) as well as use the cast net.

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