Do Any of You Have Stories of ROK Soldiers In Vietnam?

Served with soldiers of the ROK Army at the MACV Recondo School located in Nha Trang in 1969. They were good soldiers and tough in everyway. I have seen the Korean officers slap their enlisted soldiers if they got out of line. I also served with them again in Korea while commanding HHC, 2nd Infantry Division in 1978. Discipline was strict.

Thanks for these stories. As a Korean American any time a Vietnam War vet finds out that I'm of Korean descent they always remark on how "badass" the ROKs were. There are many ROK in Vietnam stories and I always give greater credence to the stories that have just one degree of separation vs. the more hearsay ones.

It's always different for me hearing these stories because these are my fathers and uncles generation we are talking about and I very seldomly saw them this vicious. Actually, in family life most Korean men can be downright gentle and dotting. However, they are always pretty strict disciplinarians. Take it from me, someone who's seen the backhand from my father more times then he would care to admit!

Some background on the ROK armed forces that help you understand why they were effective in Vietnam. The ROKs had fought this kind of war before. Just after WWII North Korea tried to take over the South by trying to establish a Korean version of the VietCong. However, many of the officers in the South Korean army were former officers in the Japanese army and learned Japanese methods of counter-insurgency, where were pretty fierce and brutal. The ROK army prior to the Korean War were extremely effective in counter-insurgency and the North Koreans knew they could not destabilize the South with guerrilla and partisan fighters alone. So, that's why they invaded with tanks in 1950. Now, the ROK forces from 1946 to 1950 were not trained or equipped to fight a regular force supported by tanks and air cover so they ran away.

Anyways, after the armistice in 1953, the North Koreans again tried to destabilize the South using mountain partisans, but like in 1948, that failed also because the South Koreans were still very good at counter-insurgency warfare. That knowledge was transferred to the ROK army and marine units sent to Vietnam. South Korea sent its best troops (and officers) to Vietnam, 300,000 all told on a rotational basis, which is a significant part of the male population of a country of South Korea's size. There were, however, no more than 50,000 combat troops in Vietnam at any one time though. South Korea's reputation against a standing, regular and well equipped army like the North Korea People's Army or the Chinese Army was poor. The term "bug out fever" was coined in the Korean War and usually attributed to large bodies of South Korean troops who broke in the face of the enemy. So, the South Koreans had a chip on their shoulder to outperform expectations in Vietnam, which they clearly did.

Also, the ROKs in Vietnam fought hard because they felt as if they owed a debt of gratitude to America for saving their country. I am not sure if all enlisted men believed this, but the officers certainly did and they felt it a matter of personal honor to acquit themselves well by being good allies and by making their Areas of Responsibility (AOA) the most pacified in all of South Vietnam.

MAG 16 provided helicopter support to the ROK Marines on a regular basis. Yes, they were a very efficient and unforgiving combat unit that gave, nor expected quarter in combat.
I saw a graphic example of their disciplinary standards during one mission that went wrong. The weather was such that we could not climb to altitude and we were cruising along at about 20 feet when someone got lucky and sprayed the us with an AK. The shots laced the entire length of the aircraft, hitting my gunner in the leg and severing several fuel and hydraulic lines, causing us to lose an engine. My crew chief called out that the gunner was hit and I elected to nurse the bird long enough to get us to the hospital on the south end of the Marble Mountain facility. By the time I put her on the pad, there was a lot of smoke in the cabin and fuel and hydraulic fluid pouring from the overhead lines. All the Koreans ran out of the cabin and the corpsman and remaining gunner carried my wounded man out, turning him over to the hospital personnel. I shut down the aircraft and jumped out to go check on my Marine. As I went from the bird into the hospital, I noticed the ROKs in a formation with their squad leader moving from man to man beating the stuff out of each man. Their sin was they had abandoned the aircraft before he told them to move.
Side lights, I was one of the few pilots to have their aircraft towed through the gate at Marble rather than flying home. I was reunited with my gunner years later back at New River, N.C. when I was signing for a bird and he recognized me. He asked if I remembered him and when I didn't, he put his leg up on the line desk and showed me his healed wound. Of course I recognized him then and we had a nice reunion.