CHAPTER 7 - Bob Veazey's Memoirs - Page 2
customs of Japan, warned about sexual diseases,
and told to stay in touch with the transport office for
word of further travel. We were billeted in large tents
with wooden sides and floors. I had been in the same
clothes for almost three days, and the first thing I
wanted was a shower. Told that the shower was in
metal building just down the street, I gathered up my
"dop" kit and a towel and headed out. Entering the
building I saw a row of showers; no stalls. I took off my
clothes, laid them on a bench, and turned on the hot water--heaven!! Then--in walked a Japanese woman who
proceeded to disrobe (bowing to me and mumbling something I didn't understand) and proceeded to lather up!!
Welcome to Japan!!! I quickly rinsed off, dried with the towel, dressed and fled!!
The procedures were the same as at Camp Stoneman: be there to check in for travel orders. If no orders, same
routine--go to the club, play cards or read, and just relax. We had to surrender all of our U.S. money in exchange
for military "script", however, I held out the silver dollar Len Whann gave me. A couple of us met a Captain who
had been in the RAF as well as the USAF, and he had been in Japan before. He acted as tour guide and we
took a train into Tokyo where he showed us the sights and briefed us on haggling for things to be bought. We
saw the emperor's palace, the famous Imperial Hotel, and the building where General Mac Arthur ruled until
President Truman fired him. After a few days my orders came through, and I was put on a train to southern
Japan. On the way we passed through Hiroshima, but really couldn't see any atomic bomb damage. We stayed
overnight at Iwakuni Air Base, home to a Royal Air Force unit. The next day I got on a C-46 for a flight to K-1 Air
Base on the southern tip of Korea. There were sandbagged foxholes and gun emplacements scattered around
the runway area, and it appeared that we had really reached the war zone. After a short stop, the C-46
proceeded to K-13, Suwon Air Base.
The single runway at K-13 was over 10,000 feet long and paved with asphalt. The
taxiways were pierced steel planking (PSP), which was very bumpy to taxi on. The
base was very large, with the 51 st Wing, flying F-86s, on the west side of the runway
and the 8th Wing, flying F-80s, occupying the east side. The control tower for the base
was located on the 8th Wing side of the base. I noticed that the F-86s all had a black
checkerboard design on the vertical stabilizer, and that the F-80s had stripes on their
vertical stabilizers, which ran from the lower leading edge and sweeping up to the top.
I found out that each of the squadrons of the 8th had a different stab color. The 35th
Squadron had blue stab stripes, the 80th yellow, and the 36th red. The squadrons each
also had an insignia, which the pilots wore on their jackets and on ball caps of the