Word: px
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Where U.S. troops encamp overseas for any length of time, two things often occur: coveted, cut-rate PX goods appear in the local black market, and the American boys find their way into the hearts of the local girls. South Korea, with its 50,000 G.I.s, is no exception: some $90,000 in U.S. goods vanishes monthly into Korea's flourishing black market, and in Korea no fewer than 575 Korean girls are wives of U.S. servicemen...
...service-directed accompanied tour of 24 months." This was hard enough to understand even for people brought up in English. But Korean wives, most of whom are married to G.I.s serving standard, 13-month tours, soon got the idea: henceforth they were to be excluded from use of the PX. An Eighth Army spokesman was tactless enough to put the point intelligibly: "Some dependents have been abusing PX privileges through black-marketing"-and with that, the Korean wives were up in arms...
Nagging Wives. "Sure, we sometimes sell PX goods on the black market," admitted one. "But doesn't everybody?" Another Korean wife voiced what most of them believed was really behind it all: "The truth is that the American wives dislike us very much. They are race-conscious, and complain they have to stand alongside us for service at PX counters . . . Those who are married to high officers nagged away at their husbands to have something done about...
...wives were quick to retort. Said one heatedly: "Some of those Korean marriages are just sordid commercial arrangements. Many G.I.s who marry Korean girls never attempt to have their wives follow them when they leave Korea. The marriage was just a black-market partnership in the first place." A PX official backed up part of her complaint: "I have seen a Korean wife walk out laden with packages-and be back within an hour to buy more...
...next two years, forget that the Oxford tour ends with a do-or-die final examination. Officially on active duty, military Rhodesmen draw full lieutenant's pay as well as the $2,100 annual Rhodes stipend. Attached to the U.S. embassy in London, they get cut-rate PX privileges. They can dress in well-groomed contrast to their colleagues; they can buy cars and hi-fi sets, live in tonier style than all but the richest bloods of wealthy Christ Church College. "You chaps," said an envious Briton, "are the heirs to Edwardian Oxford...