Jeffrey Miller

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting and Intense

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2013

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Having visited the JSA (Joint Security Area) and Panmunjom numerous times as a feature writer for The Korea Times from 2000-2003, I have always wondered what it must have been like for the men serving up along the DMZ, what former U.S. President Bill Clinton called, "the scariest place on earth."

Now, Mark Heathco in his riveting and intense memoir of patrolling the DMZ, Call Sign Purple Three: Patrolling the US Sector of the Korean DMZ, tells readers what was like having to patrol the area known as "no man's land" between the two Koreas.

We follow Heathco and his team as they prepare for a day mission and night ambush along the US sector of the Korean DMZ. From equipment checks to learning call signs and codes, we are with Heathco and his team every step of the way. Although this might seem just a routine patrol along the DMZ, Heathco reminds readers that there is nothing routine about these patrols that "at any time while on patrol inside the DMZ, you could be shot dead, and there is not a damn thing you can do about it."

Although there are no U.S. patrols now, Heathco reminds readers that at one time these patrols were a part of the U.S. commitment providing peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and since the end of the Korean War, starting as early as 1965 with numerous DMZ incidents, this peace and stability has been threatened numerous times.

"This is what the tour in Korea is about: the DMZ mission," writes Heathco, "A lot of soldiers say they're on the Z, but very few can say they patrolled inside the Z, where you could lose your life in a matter of seconds."

For anyone who has ever been curious about the US commitment for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula or what it is like serving along the Korean DMZ, this book is a must read.

Jeffrey Miller,
Author of War Remains, A Korean War Novel