PVT Martin E Conlon
US 51 213 731
Co. D 34th INF. REGT. APO. 24
c/o P.M. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.
Sept 17, 1953
Munsan Ni1, Korea.
Dear Dot & Bill:
I hope that this letter finds everyone well as everything is just fine here. As you can see by this letter I have moved to another location, but by the time you receive it I will have moved again. I guess that I will spend the rest of my time in the Army over here in Korea.
Right now we are handling Chinese and North Korean Anti-Red prisoners of war. What a difference in these prisoners over the others we just finished moving. You can talk to these fellows and they will pose for pictures, do anything you ask them to, and are very quiet and neat. I have about 3 rolls of films that I took of these guys and I hope that they come out OK.
We work from nine A.M. to one P.M. and from nine P.M. to one A.M. It isn’t too bad, but after a while the time really drags on. We don’t have to do any walking, but that is almost worse better than standing in one place all the time. So far the food has been pretty good and we can always get seconds if we want them.
We live in 12 man squad tents, the same as before, but this time some of us put some wood under our bunks to keep the equipment cleaner and keep out some of the cold. The days are generally warm, but at night they sometimes get extremely cold. We have an air mattress, cot, and two all wool blankets, some of the fellows use their sleeping bags. We have a movie every night, even though they are old ones, they do break the monotony of things. The MP’s that are located here have a shower point here and we can use it for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. It sure feels good to take a shower and put on clean clothes. They also get a beer ration up there and they share that with us too. The drinking water here isn’t too good.
Today I was put in for Pfc and I think that I will make it O.K. That will mean an increase in pay and bring my base pay up to $109 including over seas pay.
As I said before, we are going to move out between the 20th and the 24th of this month. We are going to a place called WONJU located in the mountains of central Korea. I guess that our job will be guarding tungsten mines that are located there. They ordered winter equipment for us and they have a ball game scheduled planned for the 28th of November, so I guess we will be here for a while. They told us that will in squad tents again, but this time I hope that they put floors in them. We may even have electric lights if everything goes alright. Well, there isn’t much more news for now, so I guess that I will close. I will write again soon when we get to the other area. Give my regards to everyone.
Love
Eddie
Notes
1. Munsan Ni was a vital crossroads that saw a lot of action, including Operation Tomahawk which was a parachute drop behind enemy lines. Here’s a photo taken there.
