Brendan Donley

At around age 18, my great uncle spent just under two years with the U.S. military in South Korea, just after the armistice, and for many years since has told stories from his time there: the journey from small-town Michigan to Seattle, the weeks-long shipment across the Pacific to Busan, then the months and months of rebuilding efforts, assembly of oil pipelines for fueling, and half-understood conversations across wide language barriers.

He stayed and worked for a time in Susaek, then the start of the countryside and now a busy commuter stop on the edge of metropolis.

Here are some of his pictures, which tell but just some small amount of the story.

And a screenshot from “A Flower in Hell” (지옥화), a Korean film from 1958:

Check out the feature story in the Korea Herald: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

More photos like this here (from Captain John Randolph Coupland III, US Army, 1952)

And an album of photos from 60’s and 70’s South Korea

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