As seventeen-year-old Dick Sladovnik auditioned for the U.S. Army’s band and enlisted in the Korean War, he had no idea of what was waiting for him. The musical education he received astounded him and provided an escape from the ugliness of war. The friendships he made enabled Dick to survive eighteen months in “the land of the morning calm,” or as the guys preferred to call it, “the land of the big stink.”

The trouble Dick and his friends created kept things interesting, as did the parades, the USO tour, the ceremonies, and their tumultuous rivalry with the honor guard. But an unexpected incident would forever change Dick and send him home from Korea more cynical and disturbed than he ever thought possible.


Follow Dick’s true story, filled with antics, adventures, jazz, and hardship in Gigs, Guns, and Guilt: A Musician’s Tour of the Korean War.