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More like tragic - but it really did happen. And American combat
officers had no choice in the matter. U.S. forces needed fillers, and the
agreed solution was ROK troops. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of
them so South Korean civilians were essentially impressed, given a few days
(sometimes) of a sort of orientation and assigned to American units. This
began in August, 1950. Obviously, the ROK fillers generally
lacked English language skills, and had no uniforms or weapons. In
fact, most had never touched a rifle. Because 7 ID had been stripped to
supply fillers for other units it received the most ROKs and felt the most
effects.
That particular phase of the experiment
was generally disastrous and for a while it looked as if no more ROKs
would be assigned to American units, but manpower requirements never let
the program be abolished. There were ROKs assigned to American units into
at least the mid 1960s. However, by the middle of the war most
of them were receiving at least some training that could legitimately
be recognized as basic military training, and their quality improved.
This sounds rather ridiculous. The ROK Marines were pretty good troops, but
the ROK soldiers (or the ones that were assigned to us) really weren't all that
great. I can't believe that any combat officer would go along with arming
untrained, reluctant civilians as a means to augment his forces. Sounds like one
of those "drying a poodle in the microwave" tales to me.
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