Korean War Drinking Game

A Marine photographer from the Korean War reflects on his experiences, including a game of beer baseball:

In the spring of 1953 his outfit was sent to the rear to get some rest. Their company commander came up with the idea of putting two teams together for a baseball game – with a sudsy twist.
“They brought these cases of beer and stacked them at every base, including home plate,” Forbes recalled. “If you got a hit and got to first base, you had to chug a can of beer before you could go to second, and another from second to third, and third to home.”
After a few hits from the bats and cans, “it was pretty wild. Guys were running around, bumping into one another, falling down and laughing like mad,” he added. “To this day I don’t know which team finally won that game, and I don’t really care.
“I guess the idea behind the whole thing was psychological. It got us relaxed so we could forget for a while the war going on around us,” he said. “For many of us, it worked.
“I know that for a short peaceful time that day, playing a wild and carefree game from more normal times . . . I lost the mingled feelings of fear and horror we had to live with daily.”

As he said in the article, the Korean War really was a forgotten war.  But war is war, and the escape from it in an organized drinking game stuck with the man for over 60 years.