Buck Matthews
The Big Damp
Tents at K-46, the home base of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing after June 1952. From January 1951-May 1952, it had served as an Advanced Operations Base for the Truckbusters From Dogpatch.
Living (tent) Quarters for the 18th Wing at K-46, South Korea in 1952.
I'm not sure I ever knew the name of the river that ran through the valley where K-46 was located.
It was for most of the year just a wide, lazy, gravelly stream that afforded a pretty decent air mattress ride when we could get away with it.
I remember that on really hot days when we were off duty, we'd sometimes head up the MSR to a spot where we could swim and imagine ourselves back home at the beach.
The brass cracked down on that eventually--perhaps because of the impracticality of having their comm and crypto ops caught by the bad guys.
The river had its day, too.
On Saturday night, July 26, 1952, it started to rain and didn't stop until the following Thursday morning.
In the first three days of the storm, it rained 15 inches, after which we lost track.
According to one of my letters home, the river rose and forced the evacuation of the far side of the base--after five tents and a thousand barrels of aviation fuel had been swept away.
The flood put everybody on call for sandbag detail to prevent the river from crossing the runway and knocking out HQ and communications. Looking back now, I can't imagine how we would ever have been able to build a wall long enough to keep the river off the runway.
Fortunately, we didn't have to. But I do remember pulling four hours of guard duty on the strip one night during the storm and hearing that river going by just a few yards away and wishing I had that air mattress with me.
© Copyright 2008 Buck Matthews. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes without permission in writing from the author. Used with permission by BelleAire Press as a tribute to those American servicemen and women who served during the Korean War.