Danny, Don\u2019t Play With Him<\/p>\n
Uijonbu, Korea July, 1952<\/p>\n
Charley Kauneckis was the volunteer point man on every patrol or raid for Company L, 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd platoon. Prior to this, he was a paratrooper for the 187 Regimental Combat Team that made two jumps in Korea, then they were distributed to the combat infantry divisions.<\/p>\n
Charley was a 6′ 2″ lanky, man who had as many biases as letters in his name. If it burned or exploded, he knew everything about it. If there was a way of getting a court martial, he knew everything about it. My mother would have said,<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny, don\u2019t play with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Charley discovered I was Jewish and from New York, he said,<\/p>\n
\u201cOh. A New York Irishman! From now on you\u2019re Reilly.\u201d<\/p>\n
From that time on, our men called me, “Reilly”.<\/p>\n
Company L was sent to reserve awaiting replacements for those who had rotated, the men we lost due to wounds or casualties. In reserve, and under Charley’s persuasion, I became the platoon runner. The platoon runner during a patrol or raid is the contact between the point man (Charley) and whoever is leading the squad or platoon.<\/p>\n
We had arrived to a flat and sandy area. Our company was busy setting up tents for the platoons and the mess hall when Sgt. Jeffries assigned Charley and me to hammer posts into the ground, and then connect a wire fence to them. In the evening, I was called upon to read an order to the company warning any man found outside the fence (which Charley and I built) would face a court martial.<\/p>\n
After dinner, Charley sidled up to me. His breath, pure malt, as he said,<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see that village there, about a mile from us? There are mooses<\/em> (young girls) anxious to see us. We\u2019ll go there after dark.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you nuts? The approach is as flat as a football field. I just read to the company that anyone found outside the fence we built will get a court martial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t get caught, Reilly. Join me. The most obvious way is the least suspected way.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever motivated me to join him is a mystery to this day (64 years later).<\/p>\n Upon the onset of darkness, Charley and I left on this harebrained adventure. With a can of beer in his hand, and who knows how much in his blood, we advanced quietly towards the village.<\/p>\n Out of the darkness, three men approached. I fell flat and hugged the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cGet down Charley! Get down!\u201d<\/p>\n Charley was sitting up and singing an alcoholic version of a Korean folk song, Arriang.<\/em><\/p>\n Warily, the three men moved towards us. They were the Officer of the Day and two corporals.<\/p>\n \u201cGet up and return slowly camp,\u201d said the officer. \u201cYou know you\u2019re not supposed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n As we were walking towards camp, Charley spun around then threw his beer can in the direction of the men and yelled,<\/p>\n \u201cLook out, a grenade!\u201d<\/p>\n They fell to the ground. Charley, standing over them, burst out laughing. Angered by his embarrassment and Charley\u2019s insubordinate behavior, the officer said,<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to let you guys go, but this is too much. Lead me to your company commander\u2019s tent.”<\/p>\n I turned to the officer,<\/p>\n \u201cWould you consider that we were on the front line for\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Charley interjected.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t beg Reilly, don\u2019t beg. I can\u2019t stand a beggar.\u201d<\/p>\n We went to Capt. Smith’s tent, but he wasn’t there. Getting our names from our dog tags, the officer left a note to the captain.<\/p>\n In a week, Charley and I were called to Colonel Welch\u2019s tent for the court martial.<\/p>\n His clerk was at a typewriter, but the colonel wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here for our court martial. Where is the colonel,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be here soon. He is exhausted from a bad case of the *Whistling GIs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhistling GIs? What\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSon,\u201d he said. \u201cDid you ever shit so fast your asshole whistled? That\u2019s the Whistling GIs.\u201d<\/p>\n I put that one in my memory bank.<\/p>\n We were fined one month\u2019s pay and were not allowed to change our allotment; a minor penalty for our major crime.<\/p>\n Charley passed away on December 5, 1998. I felt obligated to deliver a eulogy to this man who enlivened my life under the stress of combat. My wife and I drove from North Carolina to Poquoson, Virginia to attend his funeral. Neither his wife, nor his family knew anything about Charley’s life in the army.<\/p>\n Rest in peace Charley. You never let me.<\/p>\n *\u00a0In the army, The GIs is a case of bad diarrhea.<\/p>\n Adapted from, Cold Ground\u2019s Been My Bed: A Korean War Memoir<\/em> by Daniel Wolfe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Danny, Don\u2019t Play With Him Uijonbu, Korea July, 1952 Charley Kauneckis was the volunteer point man on every patrol or raid for Company L, 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd platoon. Prior to this, he was a paratrooper for the 187 Regimental Combat Team that made two jumps in Korea, then they were distributed to the combat… Continue reading Don’t Play With Him<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[310,308,138,293,311],"class_list":["post-3257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-court-martial","tag-mooses-young-ladies","tag-point-man","tag-runner","tag-whistling-gis","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3257"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3420,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions\/3420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}