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While I was CO of the 7th Ord Sec (EOD), 83rd Ord Bn (AMMO), ROK, in 1968 we got a phone call that a dud projectile of some type had been located on Wolmi-do.

I had read the book "This Kind of War" about the Korean War and knew basically what to expect. There are actually two islands, Wolmi-do and So Walmi-do located there. Sure enough the dud round was an Armor Piercing 5"/38 from one of those destroyers. The problem with the AP round is they have BDDD (Base Detonating Declerating Descriminating) fuzes. The way this fuze works is it partially arms when it is fired, it arms when it hits something, and fires when it hits something else. This is good for an AP round because it insures penetration into its target therefore getting the second hit on the way back out causing the shell to explode inside.

The fuze also has a cocked firing pen. We knew it had been fired and that it had hit the island which basically meant we had an armed 5" projectile just waiting for the second motion to detonate.

The problem with that is you can't get to the fuze and have to blow it in place. However, there was no place to blow it since that area was completely built up since the war. We just hoped for the best, myself and an E6 named Kolar decided to just put it in the back of the truck, put a lot of sand bags around it and transport it to my demo area south of Soeul. We just told jokes and kept our fingers crossed on the trip.

This was one of the times you earned the hazzardous duty pay. It is also one of the many reasons, why 35 years later I still jump at unexpected noices or bright flashes.

The local Koreans were very glad to see the Americans come. In the 60's there were numerous memorials all over the place in that area to the Americans. Some put up by just a few people in a neighborhood. When the North Koreans came into Soeul the first time, they were able to obtain the records of all the Korean civil service people that worked for the Korean government. They rounded all these people and their realitives up and shot them.

Korea was a hell hold.

Whoa. Glad that truck had decent shocks. Thanks for sharing the footnote. And thank you for your service.

Morning EOD.

There's a reason it's called "Hazardous Duty " pay. Thanks for sharing.

"This Kind of War", good book on the Korean War.

Thanks for sharing this with us today and good morning.