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Hall of Famer [22127]
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Applejack
Feb 19, 2018, 7:56 PM
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In the early part of my story about Terrible Tom. I mentioned that Team "D" joined us, Team "C", at the unfinished apartment building in Pyongyang, North Korea about mid-November, 1950. One of the members of Team "D" had rescued several bushels of apples. We ate apples and we ate apples but the supply seemed to grow rather than diminish. Someone suggested we make some applejack. That sounded like a good suggestion but we had no container, stopper or tubing. Out went the word for the scroungers to find the necessary items. It was a successful excursion and we had a five gallon small neck glass jug, a solid stopper and some rubber tubing, It was now time to go to work.
First, we washed the apples because we were not going to peel them. Several of us gathered around the containers of apples and the jug, got out our trusty Army pocket knife and went to work. We sliced the apples and pushed the slices through the small neck of the jug. When we had the jug filled, someone suggested we try to break down the apples even more. A section of steel rod was found and one end bent just enough so we could get it through the neck of the jug. Next, we got a drill, inserted one end of the rod in the drill and went to work on the apples.
No one really knew what we were to do, only guess work. We went to the mess tent and they gave us some sugar which we addred to our now, mushy apples. We drilled a hole in the stopper, inserted one end of the rubber tubing in the stopper and the other end in a can of water. Our mixtutre started working almost immediately as the water in the can going "glug, glug, glug", a sure sign it was working.
Sometime later when we received news that the Chinese were approaching our position, we knew we would probably be leaving the area and would have to devise some means for protecting the jug during some rough traveling. We found some old lumber and fashioned a crate. We also found some old rags and put them on the inside of the crate to provide some cushioning. The jug was placed on one of the trucks and the men who would be riding in that truck were warned to guard that jug by all means, even if it meant their life.
After leaving Pyongyang and arriving in Pusan, I suppose we were busy involved in more important things and forgot about the jug until Nrew Years Eve. Someone asked, "where is our jug of applejack"? One of the guys said he knew whwere it was and went to retrieve it. When he brought it back to the tent, that was some of the nastiest looking stuff one could lay their eyes on. It looked like soneone had dumped about a gallon of Georgia red clay in that jug. One of the guys said he was willing to try it. We got some gauze out of a first aid kit and placed it over his canteen cup. Th jug was tilted slightly so he could get several good swallows in his cup. Everyone had their eyes on our official taster. He took a small sip and then a bigger sip. A huge smile covered his face when he announced, "fellows, we've got some good stuff here". Out came the canteen cups and we had a nice New Year's Eve celebration.
There was a small Korean store near our compound and a couple of guys decided to go down to the store to see if they could find some local food items to add to our party. When they rerurned all thay had was a sack of dried squid. The best way to describe dried squid was it was as tough as shoe leather and smelled like mature manure.
The next morning, the three of us WW2 vets packed up and off we went to the 38th Prallel.
(A longer version of this story appeared in the Nov.-Dec. 2014 Issue of "GRAYBEARDS", the official publication of the Korean War Veterans Association)
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Legend [16158]
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rumor has it, crack killed him***
Feb 19, 2018, 8:33 PM
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CU Medallion [57190]
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Hall of Famer [22127]
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Re: Seemed familiar
Feb 20, 2018, 1:44 PM
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I forgot about my posting this story earlier. The initial post in this thread was written from memory. It's not as long or detailed as the post that is cited but the essential elements are there.
I'm now try to maintain a list of stories I post to avoid repetition. If you get tired of these old stories, let me know and I'll look for a huge abandoned warehouse and put them in cold storage.
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