A personal account of the pandemic of 1968.
For me Covad-19 is reminiscent of the “Hong Kong Flu” pandemic of 1968. Back then I was was serving as an infantryman with the 23d Infantry Regiment of the 2d Infantry Division. My job was leading patrols into the Demilitarized Zone, each of which which lasted 3 days and nights - patrolling the sector I was assigned with during the day and setting up ambushes in it each night. At the end of a patrol I had that afternoon and evening off and was assigned with a new patrol the next day. That was my regular routine back then which was during the time now referred to as the “Second Korean War.”
Being Catholic I had signed-up to take a“religious retreat” with a catholic organization. Not that I am overly religious but the retreat promised to be more of a cultural exchange than a religious retreat and I was looking forward to it. As luck would have it I came down with the flu on the first morning of my last patrol before the retreat. At the time I didn't know that it was the flu or the Hong Kong flu - which no one had never heard of back then - but I knew that I was sick enough to go on sick call and be excused from duty for a couple of days - just enough, I thought, to prevent me from making the retreat and after which I would be back out on patrol. So I decided to tough it out and make the retreat as planned. This was in very lat November or early December of 1968 and Korea is a very cold climate – cold enough that the Imjim River, which was just south south of where the DMZ officially began, froze solid to the extent that you could drive a 50 ton tank across it. No fires were permitted in the DMZ so you heated your C-rations with heat tabs and set-up ambushes at night in the snow.
Needless to say I was sicker when I came off that patrol than when I started it but I wanted make the retreat and responded by adding layers of jackets and coats to the extent that a 50 caliber round wouldn't have penetrated all of it. And I made it – fully enjoying the culture that I was exposed to. South Korea at that time was in a remarkable state of transformation. In downtown Seoul, for example, you could see Koreans dressed in their traditional clothing, carrying an A frame or leading a team of oxen, as well as those dressed in modern western business suits driving modern automobiles. It truly was a “miracle economy” and I'm glad that I had the chance to experience it.
But the flu had really taken it out of me by then and I found myself in a bus station in Seoul without the energy to catch as bus back to Changpari to hook up with my unit stationed North of Libby bridge. I called the MP's and they sent a cab which took me to a military hospital in Seoul where I remained for a week. I don't recall much of my stay in the hospital – just slept a lot. I do remember a doctor one day telling me that if my temperature doesn't start to come down I would have to start standing in the shower. Well the thought of standing in a cold shower did it for me and my temperature did come down. Shortly thereafter my first sergeant called me and said that my request for early out for Christmas had been approved and if I could get out of the hospital and clear company I could go home. The doctors were against it but I convinced them to give me a physical clearance and I went home in time for Christmas.
I didn't know it at the time but I had the Hong Kong Flu and probably infected everyone on retreat for which I here and now belatedly apologize for.
