USMAAG THAILAND 1951

LTC John Stose

It was November 1950, at Camp Breckinridge, KY. The new Finance Office and the newly reopened post were functioning on schedule. I was handed DA orders transferring me (Sgt. John Stose) from Fort Meade to Thailand. I was not at Ft Meade and I was not Sgt, but SFC. Regardless I decided to comply.

Next came a trip to Owensboro, KY to apply for a passport then on to the Pentagon for orientation, purchase of civilian summer clothing and next to Westover AFB. After a stop in England, we (SFC Lancing Cook, recently of Atlanta Gen Depot and me) landed at Frankfurt and learned that the rest of the trip would be via SAS since MATS was not available. Oh, gee.  A layover in Munich (during the annual beer fest) then on to Beirut, Basra, Karachi, Delhi and finally Bangkok. At the Karachi airport, Lancing pulled out his camera and was taking a picture of me standing next to a sign in English which said "NO CAMERAS". A Pakistan guard nearby caught our attention when he chambered a round and pointed to the sign. Alas, no photo.

It was a steamy evening in Bangkok, brightened by the neon lights adorning every cab and pedicab. From Don Muang Airport to Bangkok was a short trip. The Suryanondr Hotel awaited us and we were welcomed by the MAAG enlisted staff that lived there. The first words we heard were, "Don’t drink the water". One of the USAF Sgts. had sent a bottle to Manila for testing and the report was that Manila's sewers were cleaner. Gee, we could only drink beer and Bireleys.

The next morning we reported to the MAAG compound  midway between a Thai Navy Radio Center and the US Embassy. The American Ambassador had directed that we all wear civilian clothing at all times. He was William "Wild Bill" Donavan.  I hoped to meet him but he was on medical leave in CONUS and never returned.

CWO Fred Walklett briefed us on the routine and informed me that MAAG had no Finance Office and that we were paid by an AF Class B Agent at the Air Attaché’s Office and MAAG personnel were not permitted within the embassy grounds. Welcome to Thailand!

Ch MAAG was BG John Tupper Cole who started in the horse cavalry and had, most recently, been CG, MDW.  There were about 20 MAAG personnel at the time. The MAAG was new and just getting started. There was nothing for me to do. An AF Major, Detachment CO, solved that by appointing me police sergeant for the MAAG compound.   We had 4 or 5 Thai Army enlisted attendants helping around the compound and they were very good at it. This made less for me to do. They could handle a little English so I did not learn much Thai.  The days were boring and I was getting fidgety. At least the evenings helped. There were a few chess players in MAAG and we gathered after dinner at several tables around the hotel lobby.

One evening we were joined by a Thai gentleman and his son. Fluent in English. He was a Thai Senator, the third ranking chess player in Thailand. Last name Aphaiwong. He asked to be called "Hopalong".  We did it. He and I played many matches before I beat him. The fact that he spotted me a Queen and a Rook did not dim my pride. One day he invited me to his home for dinner and showed off his art collection. He explained the difference between impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. Something about a line or no line between different colors. And we talked.  He tested me by advising that the Thai intelligentsia view westerners as primitive people who were living in caves when Thais were living in castles. I pointed out the considerable progress we had made. He was all smiles. When I left Thailand months later, he gave me a beautiful framed bamboo screen painting of a Temple. It still hangs in my home office.

Other chess players joined our group. A few from the Russian Embassy, very good chess players, gave us some insight into their views of Americans. They were very unhappy when one of us beat one of them. It happened less than half of the time. When we were not playing chess, we would gather at the bar and tell our stories. CPO Pete Moll kept us riveted with his tales of the Yangtze River patrol. Other times we had sing-alongs, led by a fine tenor, Louis Van Altineh from Scheverning, Netherlands. He was a radio operator for ECA. Always smiling. Except when MSG Warren McNabb lead a few choruses of "The highland Dutch, the lowland Dutch, the middle land Dutch and the Rottendam Dutch."

The boring days soon took their toll and I requested a transfer to any unit in or about the Republic of Korea.  I thought I would be more useful there. Ch MAAG stopped my request at his desk and I was told that we would soon get our local currency account and I was to be assigned to the Air Attaché Office to work with the B Agent there. Whenever the local currency account was established, it was to be my baby. 

My first day at the attaché office started with the appearance of a familiar face. Col Charles Shelton, USA, Military Attaché. I recognized him from earlier days at Ft Meade when he commanded the 3rd Cavalry. We struck it off very well. The B Agent gave me a desk against a far wall and I started doing travel, payroll and whatever came up. The first end of month came up and I watched the B Agent counting US currency into a desk tray that he carried into the Air Attaché for verification. But stacks of Thai currency not ever verified were in the safe.  I asked about the omission of counting of the Thai currency and was told that the B Agent didn’t have time to convert every payment using the proper exchange rate, so he paid out @ 20 Baht to the dollar regardless of the higher or lower rates at which he acquired the currency.  He did not want to listen to any suggestion about reporting gains or losses on exchange.  I made up my mind right then that my local currency account would never be operated with cash.  Checks only.  (Many years later, I ran into a MAAG buddy at Eilson AFB and he told me that the B Agent had been court-martialed for mishandling cash. No further details.)

On one of my visits to the MAAG compound I noticed a Thai Army Major talking to our transportation LTC who pointed in my direction. The Major extended his hand and said, "Johnny. call me Chow Chow".  He was the liaison officer handling the setup of the local currency account and had a lot of questions about my procedures.  I explained that MAAG had no Army Regs. governing the account so I would use my own system. It was "no problem." He guffawed when he heard me say that so I used the phrase "no problem" to lead every answer to his every "What if?".  His real name was not Chow Chow. It was Chatichai Chunhavan. His father, Phin Chunhavan, was CINC, Royal Thai Army. Chow Chow told me he was a graduate of West Point and of the Armor School.  Later, I learned it was the Thai West Point and the Thai Armor School.  We had a great relationship and quite a few beers together over the rest of my tour there.

Then, near the end of May, CH MAAG issued promotion orders and I became a MSG!  And so did Lancing Cook. With the civilian attire required of us and the lack of military clothing supplies, I did not get to wear the stripes until I returned to CONUS some 7 months later.

And then, that curious day, 29 June 1951. During a presentation ceremony marking the gift of the dredge, "Manhattan" to the Thai government, a Thai Navy gunboat pulled alongside the Manhattan. The tarps on the gunboat were suddenly lifted and a group of armed sailors boarded the Manhattan, took the Prime Minister Pibul Songramm into custody, back aboard their vessel and away they went. A military coup was in progress.

That afternoon, as we sat around the hotel, listening to gunfire some distance away, we learned of the coup. We were told to don uniforms and to stay inside the hotel.  The gunfire increased and planes strafed but there was no sound of bombs or artillery. Then came an influx of American civilians seeking the protection of MAAG. Three young nurses out of American University, St Louis, joined us. They were part of a US program assisting Thai medical operations. They had been living on the economy in comfortable quarters but the shooting gave them reason to move. When the gunfire erupted closer to us, they gasped, "What was that?" A Chinese lady, a permanent guest at the hotel, was amazed that anyone could live to adulthood and not recognize gunfire. The lady, Amy Wu, later identified herself as the widow of the 1937 Mayor of Shanghai. She had experienced a lot of gunfire. Her late husband's name was Chauncey (Tsian Tsi). 

At 11 PM a small group of us walked to the offices of the Bangkok Tribune, an English language newspaper  to escort Christine Diemer, The Editor.  The paper was owned by Phibul Songram, Prime Minister, and Christine believed that she was on a hit list because of her relationship with the PM.  She had been a reporter in 3 wars and had spent two weeks at Bastogne with a couple of battalions of the 101st Airborne. She put her last edition to bed, resigned and returned to the hotel with us.

Sack time at midnight and up at 6 AM, in uniform, waiting for whatever was about to happen. The attaché crypto man, AF SSgt Leo Boucher, stayed on duty all night. In the morning Christine called UP downtown to get the latest news and announced "The War In Korea Is Over". We thought that was great! But it wasn’t really over.  At 10:45 CWO Walters came in and asked for five men to relieve the MAAG CQ.  We left in a small truck. (At this point, I will skip the next 30 hours with all the banging, booming, strafing etc. at MAAG. I wrote a five page detailed chronology 50 years ago but it won’t fit on this web site. Things were scary at MAAG but there were no reports of individual involuntary incontinence.)

The coup was over on 1 July and we got back to normal. We had missed a party hosted by Major Chow Chow but a few us went to an embassy picnic and found it relaxing.

One month there was a crisis at the air attaché office. Our monthly shipment of cash from Clarke AFB had ended up in Rangoon. After paying the attaché group there remained only about $2000 to pay MAAG.  I called Col Bill Whelihan, Chief Army Section and explained that I could only pay partials. He accepted that. One of the officers let me know real quick that HE wanted full pay. No ifs or buts. With his flight pay, he would have seriously dented my cash. Another call to Col Whelihan and I got that cleared up. The errant cash was delivered in a few days and we made everyone happy. Regular paydays were in two parts. Pay MAAG in the morning then the troops scattered around town paying bar tabs and at noon they lined up for phase two at my desk for partials to get them thru the rest of the month. No problem.

I was approached by Madame Amy Wu, head of the Bangkok Office of UNICEF-SEA., a lady of distinction. She explained that, as a widow, she was at a loss for an escort to the many functions she attended at embassies and other mandatory social functions. She would consider it a favor if I would agree to be her escort from time to time. I could not refuse. I had to rush out to buy a white dinner jacket. I envied the AF group who had received a full year (summer and winter) civilian clothing allowance. Amy took me to parties, receptions etc that were beyond my imagination. At the British Embassy, I was served my first ever martini. It was still in my hand about half full when we left. Yuck. On other occasions I was introduced to champagne, caviar and other so called goodies. I was proud and delighted to be in her company. Then on my last full day in Bangkok, Amy took me aside and confessed.  She had had a close relationship with the Kuomintang, and with the Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek.  She feared that she was under threat from the Chicoms and hoped that the presence of a US military escort would offer her some protection.  I was a bit shocked but was forgiving and we parted as friends.

A major social event marked my dwindling days there. One of the American nurses, Jean, married AF SSGT Joe Edgin.  It was a small wedding, very nice a reception at the hotel. Joe had lined up some PX priced wines and beers etc to be served by the hotel staff. Nice time was had by all. Then Joe got a bill for corkage. This tariff applied to drinks brought into the hotel blew his budget.  We spent Christmas Day at the home of the newlyweds, sprawled around on grass mats in their yard, enjoying the 90 degree weather.

There were a couple of farewell parties the night before I left. One at a downtown dinner club which was interrupted by a group of MAAG troops looking for me. They had planned a surprise party at the hotel and no one had told me. They herded us back to the hotel and the party went on finally. 

In January 1952, I was summoned by Col Whelihan to the MAAG compound. He handed me a letter of commendation which emphasized my contribution to MAAG welfare and morale "without policy guidance".  I didn’t know what policy guidance was.  All I did was set up and control a checking account. Then he presented a gift from General Phin Chunhavan. A nielloware (like silver) cigarette case, inscribed on the back with a nice note of thanks from General Phin Chunhavan, CinC Royal Thai Army. It bore a cursive signature. It was addressed to John E. Stose. That clued me in that Chow Chow had set it up. He always called me Johnnie.

The next day I rendered my last salute to all of the wonderful people at MAAG and boarded KLM for the flight back to CONUS.  MATS did not service Bangkok so the local currency account was tapped for the trip. CHAI YOH!!

Footnote: In 1988, the Washington Post reported that Chatichai Chunhavan, my beer buddy Major Chow Chow, was the new Prime Minister of Thailand. He had a relatively short tour. In 1991 he was ousted by a military coup.