Some Memories and such from “Moose” –
I was recently talking to 2 ex-Korean linguists who’d also once served in the 6929th (J.D. Wagner and Dave Ames) and I was researching this site for the lyrics of the 6929th Battle Hymn that we used to sing in my day (1964) (thanks for providing them!). Our commander that year was a Major Otto Henchen. Otto became legendary when his uniform – with medals, ribbons, oak leaves, name tag, etc. – were placed on permanent display in the National Cryptologic Museum on the NSA grounds on Ft. Meade – so that visitors could see what a real cryptologic officer’s uniform looked like. So sad that they picked Otto’s for this dubious honor. The only time I ever talked to Otto personally was when he was chewing me out for not challenging an Airman 2nd who laughed at me just after I’d been gigged during an outside inspection (near Otto’s window) – for wearing an unsightly raincoat. I (a SSgt) explained to Otto (who was barely visible through a screened window) that the airman was a friend of mine and meant no disrespect. Otto informed me that SSgts were not supposed to have any airmen friends (no lie!)! I also remember that Otto thought his troops were spending too much off-duty time in the Vee, so he had created in the area between the orderly room and the NCO club a little park with some benches, flowers and shrubs. Otto was sure that the troops would adopt this new area as their main hangout and thus frequent the Vee less. That didn’t happen. What did happen: the troops exiting the club would use that area to unload some of the beverages they’d imbibed in the club – ergo, all efforts to grow flowers and shrubs in that area failed miserably. But enough of Otto!
Like most who served in Osan, I enjoyed my tour thoroughly. They called it a ‘remote’ tour – so we all were entitled to 2 R&Rs back to Japan during our 13 month tour (which I took advantage of) – but I was single, so duty in Korea was no hardship tour for me. The 13 months I spent in Korea were some of the most memorable months of my life. In fact I flew back to Korea to attend the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and to visit Osan again. The country had made enormous progress in the quarter century since I’d served there.
“Moose” Amos, Ditty Bop