It was one of those damp foggy mornings in the field in Korea at the end of a night operation in the fall of 78. I was the BN S-3 for the 1st 23rd Inf and had been out with the Recon Platoon folks putting them thru their paces getting ready for our upcoming deployment to the DMZ. We decided to return to the BN Trains and get some breakfast and knock out the critique while we ate chow. I was pretty beat and decided the only thing I wanted was coffee. I walked over to the mess tent, found one of those old brown mess hall coffee cups and next to the mermite container of coffee was one of those large brown bowls filled with what I thought was sugar. So I heaped a couple of teaspoons of "sugar" into my cup, ladeled out some coffee, and took a big gulp. Damnned if the sugar wasn't salt. The poor cook knew it was salt because he had just put it out there by mistake, stood in horrified silence and then yelled over, " Wait, that's salt, I screwed up!". Well you know, a guy with a SF patch on his right sleeve and the other associated badges else where has just got to maintain the honor of the SF family. With what I hope was not a forced smile, I said, "Yes, I know, but we have been out humping the yamas all night and we need to get our salt level back up." Funny thing though, after that episode never heard anyone else snivel about the training being too hard.
Jack Moroney
