Re: Generic Term

["Bob Dove" <swan@haysco.net>]

   It was horrible for the Korean kids. Often they would be piled on top of
the belongings of their family, in a two-wheeled ox carts, as refugees fled
south to escape the fighting. But it was in the winter they suffered most.
   Sometimes they would come up on the hill while we were eating our C
Rations. They would stand in the snow, in thin,  shabby, cloth coats,
watching us eat. Snot would usually be dripping from their little noses.
Some of them were barefoot in the snow.
   I tried to save a can or two of rations to swap with the non-smokers in
the company for their cigarette rations. If I had these spare rations when
the kids came, I would dig them out of my pack and give it to them. If I
didn't have any, I would give it to them half of what I was eating. Most of
the other guys did the same.
   When I was being taken back to an evacuation hospital there was a little
boy sitting across from me in the ambulance. He was maybe five or six years
old. Some medic had loaded him into the ambulance.
   He was holding a mangled hand with his undamaged one. He must have been
stoned on morphine, because he didn't whimper as the truck jolted down the
snow-covered road.
   I don't know why someone hadn't bandaged his hand. All I know is he sat
there staring at me, while chewing the gum someone had given him. As the
blood from his injured little hand dripped on the floor.

Bob Dove



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Evanhoe" <evanhoe@arbuckleonline.com>
To: <KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: Generic Term


> Jack,
>
>  >>At 12:30 AM 5/2/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >Korean War List:
> >            My understanding is that "guk" is a generic Korean term for
> > man. Korean man=Hanguk; American man=Meiguk or Miguk.
> >Literally, Man of the Han and/or Man of the Rice country{America].
> >Naturally, American GIs adopted what the English-speaking Koreans were
> >saying & it became "gook", which rubs our friend John2 wrong. Sorry bout
> >that, John2. Best regards, J. Baker<<
>
> Not quite accurate:  "Guk", or "Kuk" is "country."  But"Gook" was in the
GI
> vocabulary during World War Two and earlier.  First recorded use of "Gook"
> I've seen was in a novel about the Huk Rebellion in the Philippines
written
> in the early 1900's. (I don't remember the novel's name or author.)
>
> Ed
>
>
> Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523-0916
> Author: DARKMOON: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War
> Life Member: Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
> Web site:  http://www.korean-war.com
>


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