A Change of Viewpoint

As a newly-promoted Army Sergeant I had no idea there had been an assassination and coup in South Korea in1979, nor that unrest was widespread due to anger at the illegal military dictatorship. I served in the 520th Maintenance Company, 194th Maintenance Battalion, at Camp Humphreys Air Base, Pyongt'aek, 40 miles south of Seoul.

In May of that year, I have later learned, the college students of Gwangju, 130 miles south of Pyongt'aek,
led an at-first-nonviolent uprising against the dictatorship. The beating to death of some of the
rebels led them to arm themselves and drew the whole city and other cities nearby into the struggle. The
people were eventually brutally suppressed by Korean Special Forces and other Korean troops.

�Ellen Barfield

Eleventh Hour Stories