The ROKMC

**Colby** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 1:00pm

Wounded Ronin,

I knew an old guy in OKC, that was a Korean War vet that had a small jar full of gold teeth from dead North Korean and Chinese soldiers.

My godfather had a stack of cloth Chinese stars he took off dead chicom hats. Later, he was a Green beanie with the montagnards in Vietnam. He told me a story once about how they put a few VC heads on spikes, and the bad guys supposedly left the area alone for a while. You can rest assured that that sort of behavior would not be tolerated in today's media-saturated environment.

**Wounded Ronin** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 1:12pm

To be fair, though, it's not that it wouldn't be tolereated because we're all weenies. The reason it wouldn't be tolerated would be because in this day and age it would be providing the enemies of the US with ammunition and propaganda in the global information war.

Interesting stories, though. I appreciate you sharing them.

**Carpe Noctem** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 3:53pm

Yeah, you really don't want to be known for putting heads on pikes when you know they'll be putting that **** on YouTube that evening.

**D Dempsey** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 6:18pm

Not only that but if your known for doing horrible things to the people you capture it is going to cause the people your fighting to fight that much harder.

**SFGOON** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 9:39pm

Originally Posted by GuiltySpark

There is a reason why we feed prisoners, give them medical care and treat them respectfully.

Yeah, 'cuz we're big, hurkin vaginas!

**nightowl** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 9:57pm

Originally Posted by misoldier

I will give you a little history on them. During the Vietnam War ROK Marines were much more feared by the Viet Cong than US Marines and Soldiers. When ROKMC would capture enemy VC they would castrate and decapitate them and then place the heads on sticks outside their camps. Captured female VC had lit flairs shoved up their privates.

Sound more like total douchebags whose actions would motivate more people to join the VC against a barbaric foe (not that the VC were nice to their prisoners by any means). Putting heads on sticks is a nice touch though.

Originally Posted by ToUnderstand

is there alot of hostility to U.S. military personel over there?

From what I have heard from my korean friends, some 'incidents' like DUI, making noise, and some cases of rape have soured opinions. Military presence in Korea is slowly being scaled back anyhow, as all they serve as is cannon fodder/a failsafe way to enter America into war (They killed US troops!) should N. Korea ever invade. Not to mention that Korea has a strong army at this point.

**D Dempsey** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 11:01pm

Originally Posted by nightowl

From what I have heard from my korean friends, some 'incidents' like DUI, making noise, and some cases of rape have soured opinions.

Except for a few rare incidences open hostility is pretty rare. I saw a few protests, but never one that became hostile. Usually as long as you're polite and friendly you won't have any problems.

**nightowl** · Posted On: 5/07/2008 11:38pm

Originally Posted by D Dempsey

Except for a few rare incidences open hostility is pretty rare. I saw a few protests, but never one that became hostile. Usually as long as you're polite and friendly you won't have any problems.

For sure- many have not met an actual American- there are plenty of good guys out there. However even if just 2% of the people there are troublemakers, it creates problems...drunk marines in Okinawa make some areas after dark a bit rough, and I'm sure in korea certain forienger centric areas get seedy and probably not all that safe if you are a female and alone. Anytime you get a bunch of guys together in one spot like that you are going to have problems.

As long as you can be a nice guy though, you can be a good ambassador and give people a balanced veiw. It's a shame that the lowlifes are the ones that make the news.

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 5/08/2008 1:19am

I did a research paper on ROK military presense in Vietnam. My resources included declassified though unreleased dept. of defense papers of R.o. Korea /US as well as current library resources. Let me post my findings here.. but right now I have steak grilling that I have to tend to!

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 5/08/2008 1:28am

Originally Posted by misoldier

ROKMC were also much more proficient killers than their US counterparts. One squad of 13 ROKMC killed over 400 VC during one conflict. In fact many of those 400 VC were killed during hand to hand combat when the ROKMC squad had run out of ammunition.

This report was a bit exaggurated. I forgot what the exact numbers were, but it was still pretty crazy. IIRC it was more like a partial platoon versus part of a regiment. But IIRC the hand to hand combat part was verified.

If you can read Korean, then you should go check out some veteran's websites. It is very interesting; a much much different view of how the troops (both ROKAR and ROKMC) dealt with the war.

I wanted to do a compilation of ROK veteran interviews and publish a book before too many of them died, but my educational plans changed...