Chuck Bryant

It's not the same as it was back then.

It's very separate.

Back then, the Joint Security Area was, you know, it was jointly patrolled.

Like, you know, North Koreans and South Korean soldiers and American soldiers were patrolled.

patrolling the area at the same time.

There was face-to-face contact.

They would try to intimidate one another.

They would curse at one another, maybe spit at one another.

The Americans would play hopscotch on the bridge.

The North Koreans would drive a truck really fast toward them and slam on the brakes.

They would sneak up and bang on their checkpoint barracks at night and stuff like that.

It was...

Crazy to think that these kind of shenanigans were going on without any further, you know, sort of war breaking out.

They all kind of seemingly took it in stride.

Well, that's what that's what their orders were.

The U.N.

command troops and the Americans in particular had specific orders.

To like if you had to defend yourself physically because you were getting beat up.

OK, but you did not shoot.

You had to be shot at to draw your sidearm.