The photos and their captions on this page were supplied by Chuck O'Connell and were taken during the 1960-62 period. Thank you Chuck for contributing to the 177th page.
Here is a picture of me (PFC Cornelius Joseph O'Connell) taken at the 177th in 1960.
This is myself and my best friend Ken Regan. Ken is also a Bostonian and we didn't know each other until we met at the 508th EM club while waiting assignment. Obviously we both were sent to 177th. Ken is father of 3 and lives in Framingham MA where he is the night editor of the Middlesex News.
Judy was a waitress at the lower 4 club. She and I were yobo's for about 2 weeks. I felt like I was married: she wanted more money and the sex was like half dried plaster. The girl in the booth seated farthest from the camera was called Dum-Dum. She only had one eye and couldn't speak. She could only make noises like a sheep. Moods were expressed by variations in decibel levels of said sheep sounds. Only at moment of climax would sound change from sheep like to something akin to calf braying. Boy could she make up for vocal inadequacies in other, more blissful ways.
This was taken in Jan 1962. It is one of new barracks that replaced the Quonset Huts. I never got to see them completed as I left soon after. The new complex was away from the main post and surrounded the ops area.
This is a picture taken in the so-called "Day Room" quonset
at the old 177th on March 17th 1961.I had bagpipes with me and was the musical entertainment for this beer bust. The nose pincher is Terry Mick of Denver Co. The pinchee is Warren Teague of Indianapolis IN. The reveller in the party hat is (?) McDonough of OR, and he is talking to Mother Bonwell of Illinois or Indiana. This party saw the destruction of my bagpipes when I beat them to death over a kerosene stove because I couldn't get them to tune up right. I later found out why they couldn't tune. Some prankster wanted to see if they would blow bubbles and poured beer down the drones.
I gave the remnants of my pipes to our houseboy, Mr Lim. He repaired them and when I left Korea in March of 1962 he could play "the Minstrel Boy" in a fair fashion. This Party may have been the best one of the 177th. If any fellow 177th guys from that era show themselves I'll take a poll. The choices are this one; Synghman Rhee's Farm in summer of '61; or the one and only time the officers were foolish enough to throw a party for the company at their quarters, circa spring '61.
Here's a spot that not too many may remember,
but it was really a good little library.This place is where a particular epiphany happen to me... my life-long (from then anyway) love for classical music. Sometime in mid-Jan of '61, when my money ran out and the newness of being overseas was wearing off, I went one evening to this library rather than to the vill or to the club. No mon(ey) no fun as the say. Anyhow, homesick and lonely I searvhed for anything I could find concerning Boston, my home town.
In the recordings I came upon an album by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops entitled "Classical Music for Those who Hate Classical Music". Since I hated classical (my musical love at the time was doo-wop rock and roll), and it had the word Boston on the cover I played it. And have never looked back since. Whenever I hear Bach's "Little Fugue in G minor" I get whisked across 10,000 miles to that cold January night in K-6 Korea and to the moment of my musical enlightenment.
Here is the movie theatre at K6. The main PX is to the left.
This is the Bijou of the Benjo. Aptly called because they usually featured shitty films. Memorable event though was when the Sidney Poitier film "Raisin in the Sun" played there. The movie about a black family's travials in buying a house of their own sparked many a debate over race among the guys. North vs South usually, but Westerners were heard from too. No fisticuffs, but damn near.
Speaking of fisitcuffs, the K-6 gymnasium was located behind the theatre. I had a few sparring matches there. Loved to box---usually. Exceptions were when I'd get my Boston Beanie rattled.
And last, but not least, is my photo of the Lower 4 Club.
This picture was taken with the camera focus set to show the sign the way I so often remember seeing it following an evening of drinking in the club.