Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: War and Candy: The Infamous Tootsie Roll Air Drop

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CLASSIC: War and Candy: The Infamous Tootsie Roll Air Drop · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we return to you, uh treats in hand,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: just like our good friends at Sweetwater with a classic
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: episode I.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Love war and Candy. Yeah, oh wait, no, I smell it,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I smell water, I smell sex, can smell sex. Yeah,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: that's right, that was the ref got was that Marcy's
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: playground or just marcie playground? I don't think it's possessive. Yeah, yeah,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: you might be right. You might be right.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a banger, though, but we are kind
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of talking about candy, and I think in this classic episode,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the infamous Toutsy roll air Drop, we also air some
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of our opinions about scrumptious treats.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Is this the one where y'all gang up on me
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: over Almond Joy? No, that's the one we did recently. Okay, well,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I stand by it. All Enjoy is you're still on
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the almonds. I'm on the Almond Joy Baby, Mounds can
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: take it or leave Almonds Joy, give me all you got.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Shung Wing this stand up cop that I absolutely love.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: He has a Netflix special wherein he has an extended
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: rant about Almond Joy and Mounds, and I think that's
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a person who will speak to you on a spiritual level.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Allmond Joy's got nuts, mounds don't. But during
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: First Marine Division seemed absolutely doomed. There were no nuts
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, And a lot of times in the modern day,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: especially people in the West, we forget just how close
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the Korean War came to a total victory for North
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Korean forces before the before the temporary peace was achieved,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the peace that exists today. The war has not officially ended.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So we're going to travel back there with you folks. Surrounded, outnumbered,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: out gunned, running low on every imaginable supply, the US
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Marines call for it air drop of AMMO, a life
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: saving reup, and instead of getting AMMO for guns, they
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: get what we could call AMMO for Halloween. They get
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Totsy rolls.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Man, AMMO for the gaps between your teeth and your molars. Yeah, Tootsio,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you probably load those things up into some sort of blunderbus,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: you know, shoot them at people. Those things were seriously dense,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: But it turns out they were good for quite a
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: bit more than maybe was anticipated. And this serendipitous there
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: we say, fortuitous air drop mix up kind of had
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a silver lining.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: To it, exactly yes, and oh gosh, I look back
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on this one fondly. I can't believe this was all
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the way back in twenty eighteen, but it holds up.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: No spoilers, folks, Let's roll the tape. Oh, can we
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: totsy roll the tape? Let's totsy roll the tape. Yeah,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: ridiculous histories of reduction of iHeartRadio. A young hasio fellow,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. Welcome to the show. That is my poorly
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: pronounced attempt at saying hello in Korean, or one version of.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Hello, Hello to you, Ben. My name is.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Nolan, Hello to you Nol, My name is Ben.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look at that. It checks out, And of course we're.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Joining as always with our super producer, Casey Pegram.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You know, Ben, there's one thing we did not learn
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: how to say in Korean. Well, there's a lot of
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: things we didn't learn how to say in Korean, but
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: one of them it's tutsi role. And I wouldn't be
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: surprised if maybe there was one of those phonetic pronunciations.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Your girl friend showed me the other night we were
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: hanging out a thing that she took back from your
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: trip to Korea that had a phonetic pronunciation of the
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: word lighter. And it was just three characters, and it
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: was Laja tour, I believe, which is nonsense in Korean,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: nonsense in Korean. So I'm wondering if maybe there's a
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: similar thing for tutsiro.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: So why are we saying hello in Korean today?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I didn't do my homework. Can you
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: help me out?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Surely? Well we were talking about, you know, the topic
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: is related to Korea and a particular conflict that took
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: place in Korea that I was woefully under educated about.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And I know Ben that you probably were more educated
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: about this particular situation than me. So why don't you
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: give us maybe your background and why this might be
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the case.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Right, Noel, you and I before we went into this episode,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I think we both knew a little bit about the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: conflict called the Korean War here in the States.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just mainly from watching reruns of Mash.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Is Mash Korean War. I really I am not a
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: mash Burt.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: People always think it's about Vietnam because it was on
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: during Vietnam, but it is in fact about the Korean War,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: even though it was kind of quote unquote also about Vietnam.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Casey on the case. So thanks for teaching me about Mash, Guys,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I hear. It's a great show. I've just never seen it.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Did you ever watch it?
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I didn't watch it a time, but I watched
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it enough to learn a little bit about the Korean
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: War and also to know that the theme song of
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Mash actually has lyrics in the movie, and it's a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: very sad song.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Yes, suicide is painless. It's a wonderful song. It's beautiful,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: but it's sad. Yeah, beautiful is probably a better word there.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: So the Korean War, which is also called the Liberation
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: War in some places, was waged between nineteen fifty to
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: nineteen fifty three June nineteen fifty to July nineteen fifty three,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: a war between what we now call the DPRK or
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: North Korea and the ROK or South Korea. And it
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: was a proxy war because there was support on the
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: North Korean side from Russia and there was support on
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: the South Korean side from the US.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: It's because it was basically the Imperial spoils of the
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Second World War where Japan lost their territory, which was Korea,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: and so the US and Russia kind of had to
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: split it up between themselves. So the US reluctantly were
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: sort of in charge of South Korea and Russia Communist
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Russia was in charge of North Korea, and so it
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: created this divide between communism and democracy.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Right, Yes, this is a very much a Cold War
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: esque conflict.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I think it's considered the first step that led to
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the Cold War, right.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in some ways it is because this was
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: still this is what we would call a hot war,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: because there were actually weapons of war being waged. But
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it very much was a symptom of this ideological conflt
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that would later determine so much of geopolitics for decades.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And we could get I don't know if we should
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: get too far in the weeds on that one, because
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: this is kind of the backdrop for our story, but
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I guess we should point out this war, in a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: very real way, never actually ended. And if you go
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to Korea today, you will if you visit the capital city, Soul,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: you are very close to the de Militarized Zone or DMZ.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Didn't you do that thing, Ben, Yes, yeah, I did.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I went recently to the Republic of Korea and then
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: visited the DMZ, which.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Is a weird place.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: It was a weird place, but it's a physical, tangible
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: reminder that this war, although it may sound like it
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: was ancient in the nineteen fifties and stuff, it still
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: affects the people on the peninsula and in the larger region.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I guess we didn't really fully get into what the
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: conflict was. We talked about how the US and Russia
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: inherited the Koreek Korea from Japan, but the Russian backed
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I guess you could say North Korea actually invaded South Korea.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: And that's what kicked off this big ideological battle because
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the US as opposed to, you know, practicing appeasement or
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: something like that, because this wasn't really they didn't really
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: even want South Korea. It was just something they were
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: kind of like saddled with because of, you know, the
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: outcome of World War two, and they looked at this
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: as not just an invasion into something that they responsible for.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: They looked at it as the potential match that would
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: light the world on fire with communists.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So this Cold War conflict results in Korea being
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: split into two separate states on the peninsula. But the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: problem is both of those governments consider themselves the sole
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: legitimate government of the entire place, so they look at
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the other government not as an equal separate state. They
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: look at it as this regime that should be toppled
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And that was with under Kim Il Sung right.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Right, Kim Il Sung, the first Supreme Leader of North
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Korea from its establishment in nineteen forty eight. The conflict
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: when it occurs becomes a war of attrition. At first,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: North Korea is whipping the South Korean forces like all
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the way down to Busson and Soul. Over the course
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of the conflict changes hands multiple times. Eventually, when the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: fighting actually ends and they sign an armiscice, they make
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: this DMZ line along the thirtieth parallel, but they never
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: signed a peace treaty. So even today as we record this,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: technically the two nations are still at war, even after
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the fall of the USSR.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And ben What was it like to visit to be
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: in that DMZ zone. Didn't you have to watch some
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: kind of propaganda video. Yeah, that also explos how it
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: was an amazing bird sanctuary.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the only part of the tour I was
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: not like I didn't have the option of skipping. So
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you see a couple of different places. You see an
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: observatory tower, you see the train station that could ship
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: people or transport people directly to the capital of North Korea.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: And you go down a very steep tunnel, an invasion tunnel.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: There are three or four that are discovered, but there
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: are multiple other ones suspected to exist.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: And you see how the.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Tunnel was constructed through the DMZ and it's not a
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: comfortable walk, but estimates say they could carry thirty thousand
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: plus people through there to invade Seoul. But the one
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: part of the tour you cannot skip is at least
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: our tour guide tell us you couldn't is after you
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: get out of the tunnel, Chicken is a very very
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: steep walk. You have to watch about an eight to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: ten minute propaganda film from the South Korean side, the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: rok side, about how great the DMZ is for migratory
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: birds and biodiversity, which is actually that's true, and you
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: know it's got the whole nine of every propaganda movie
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you can imagine. You can see that, like the hands
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: from opposite sides of the screen clasping each other, like
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: that meme that's so popular nowadays. And it's strange because
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I was expecting propaganda from the North Korean side. I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: was surprised how much exists on the South Korean side.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: There's still very much a conflict. And today's episode takes
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: us back to when that was a hot war, not
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: just an armistice. So Noel, our story today concerns those
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: two things we mentioned. We talked a little bit about Korea,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: but we teased at the top of the show Tutsi rolls,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and this is something where I wanted to check on
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: our mutual americanisms. I feel like for all three of us, Casey,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you and myself, tutsi roles seem like a very well
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: known thing.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Are they a US famous candy or a world famous candy?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: You know that's a good question, Ben, I don't know. Well,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: just to be.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Safe, we can give the quick and dirty. Tutsi rolls
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: were invented by a guy named Leo Hirshfield, who sold
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: them out of a Brooklyn candy shop before he sold
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the idea to a group called Stern and Solberg.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And that could actually be an episode unto itself, because
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: there's a really intense, kind of tragic ending to that story.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: And there is a lot of hot debate as to
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: whether he invented the candy and then sold it to them,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: or if it was the other way around. He also
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: invented or he had several patents for different candy making equipment,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: but he also this is probably my favorite name of
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: any product ever. Yeah, he invented a type of gelatine
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: that was pre jello called Bromangelon.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Bromangelon, which I think would be great on a T
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: shirt and a great nickname for one of those not
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: just nicknames like Brusve.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Bromangelin I'm gonna use that. But anyway, a
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: point being, if you don't know what it's zero is,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: where have you been. They're not that good. They get
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: stuck in your teeth. I'm not a huge fan, but
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: they are very tightly wrapped in these little you know,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: with the ends and the little bow ends on the side.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: You can also get them in like a stick form.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You know. They're much larger, and they're kind of the
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: candy that you got at Halloween that you would rather
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: have gotten something else.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: For me, they were acceptable, They were passable Halloween candies.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Anything was better than that orange and black wax paper taffy.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Do you guys remember that Casey is nodding. He is
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: so tired of that.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gross.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: It's like the last stuff you eat, and you do
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: eat it, but it's the last thing you eat and
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: you feel gross afterwards.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: And that's been Casey on the case part too. We're
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: doing them in installments now, which is important because when
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: you take them all together, it creates a whole picture.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And we're going to syndicate these onto other shows. We're
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just not going to tell the other shows. Casey will
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: pop in and hopefully it'll make sense. But Tutsi rolls,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: which you know which I think you're right, are a
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: story all their own. Tutsi rules were also valuable, not
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: just as Halloween candy, but as World War Two rations
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: because just like you said, you know how, they're individually wrapped,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: they have a very high temperature tolerance. It's pretty much
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: like chocolate wax almost, and they were seen by Uncle
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Sam as a source of quick energy because they also
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: would remain edible for a long period of time.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: When you say energy, we're just basically talking like sugar, right, Yeah,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: just full of sugars. There's no other nutritional value in
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: tutsi rolls.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: No, No, they're not part of a balanced diet. But yeah,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: it was a burst of energy kind of thing. And
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: there are stories you would find about how tutsi rolls
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: helped soldiers, like how there was actually some fire behind
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the smoke. One story is of a pilot whose plane
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: was shot down over the Sahara Desert and survived for
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: three days just on tutsi rolls. But today's story is
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: much less anecdotal, much more provable, and it's about a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: group of Marines who were in a particular battle in
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the Korean War.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that battle was called the Battle of Chosin Reservoir Chosin,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: which is also called chang Jen. This was one of
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: the first campaigns of the Korean War. It was called
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and they got involved because
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: they felt like American troops coming in to North Korea
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: was in some way encroaching on their territory. And I
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: was a little foggy as to why that was, because
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: it didn't seem like they necessarily had an axe to
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: grind in this particular war, and yet they made their
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: troops available to help the North Koreans. Yeah.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: So Chinese sources refer to this battle as the eastern
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: part of the Second Phase Offensive. They entered the conflict
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to infiltrate, as you said, part of North Korea. We
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: know that they were under the command of Song Shi Lun,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: who had been ordered by Mao Zedong to destroy the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: United Nations forces. We have to keep in mind that
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: at the time this was the United Nations was a
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: part of this conflict. There were I think thirty thousand
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: United Nations troops here and about one hundred and twenty
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: thousand Chinese troops who were essentially attempting to eradicate the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: United Nations. But no, there's an article you found that
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: goes into a little bit more detail about this.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, it's true. It's from a site called Inquiries
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Journal dot com. It's an article written by Bang Ming
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Tzu for the Journal of Interstate Affairs and it was
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: reposted on this increased Journal site, and it basically says
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the historians believe that the Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: was really making preparations in Taiwan to unify China because
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: it had been fractured, its economy was in shambles because
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: of World War Two, and most scholars agree that the
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: reason they got involved in this North Korean conflict was
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: because they looked at the potential of an American invasion
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: of their country as being on the table. If they
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: successfully invaded North Korea and did this, you know, were
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: able to stem the tide of communism as it were.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the communist capitalist confrontation. To a lot of the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: leadership of China at the time, this was seen as inevitable,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and China and the US were seen as natural enemies
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: by the leadership of China at that time and probably
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: by more than a few senior officials in the US.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So this battle was looking terrible for the US side.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: First off, they are drastically outnumbered. Secondly, the area that
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: they're in, chang Jin, or Chosen as it's often called,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: was just brutal. It was terrible. The temperature was around
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: negative thirty fahrenheit yikes. Yeah, And because they were outnumbered,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: surrounded by one hundred and twenty thousand Chinese troops, as
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: we said, which seemed like a death sentence and the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: US Forces.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Oh we should say who they were specifically. Yeah, they
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: were the first Marine Division of the US X Corps. Yeah.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: So they put out this request for mortar shells to
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: be delivered via air drop because again, they can't get
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: them through land sources. They're surrounded. But the problem was
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the problem was they didn't want to go on an
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: easily interceptible line of communication and request mortar shells because
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: then the enemy forced would know.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So they had to use a code word, yeah, which
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: we've been harping on at the beginning of this episode,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: and he might have been wondering why, and it was
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: tootsi rolls. It was tootsiras toutsi rolls was the code
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: word for these particular types of mortar shows. But unfortunately,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: the person that intercepted that request, he didn't have his
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: like handy dandy code book translator with him or something.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: And you think that'd be one that people would know though,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Right, mortar show requests would have been not uncommon, right,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I guess not.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'm confused as to why this guy was so confused.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: But confused he was because he did, in fact call
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: in an air drop.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, He panicked because he was like, I don't know
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: what they're asking for exactly, but they said it was urgent,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: like life or death. So he calls in this air drop,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: But what exactly drops from the air there?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Noel, Yeah, And it's not clear exactly how many were talking,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: but it was a must have been a quite large
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: shipment packed I'm picturing it like parachuted down, packed in
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: like wooden crates of actual facts, tutsi.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Roles, palettes, multiple palettes, yeah, exactly, and the troops, instead
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of completely losing all hope, they said, well, we let's,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know, let's see what we can do with these,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: which just sounds such like such a terrible situation. You're
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: surrounded by more than one hundred thousand people who want
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you dead. Yeah, you request some sort of ammunition, and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you get palettes of Halloween.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Can you know? When I first started looking into the story,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: and it reminded me a lot of the episode we
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: did about the US naval men who threw potatoes at
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: the Japanese submarine. Yeah, yeah, submariners by the way, Mariner,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: thanks everybody, thanks, right, And yet there is a superhero
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: named the sub mariner. So yeah, you know, I don't know.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I think that's where we were both coming from.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: I think that's exactly where coming You never.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Understood why that guy has wings on his feet.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: He does? Yeah, is he kind of the precursor to Aquaman.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I can't remember who came first, but I would say
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the main differences are that nay more the submarine or
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: sub mariner can fly, So I guess that's why he
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: has the wings on his feet, and Aquaman can speak
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: with the creatures.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Of the deep. He's like the Doctor Doolittle of the sea.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good way to put it.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: So I'm picturing them just like chucking these these tutsi
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: rolls at the enemy, the Marines, not the submarin. No, No,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: that'd be strange. Both would be pretty strange. But no,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: that's not what they did. They decided to get a
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: little bit more crafty with it. They had a hard
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: time because of the sub zero temperatures cooking their food
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: and eating their food up, and so they were actually
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: able to, like your story earlier about the pilot who
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: subsisted on tutsi rolls for a long time, they were
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: able to use their bodies to get these tutsi rolls
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to warm up to a more pliable, you know, edible,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: edible state, and then eat them. And they would also
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: you know, they could do that in their mouth or what.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure why they used their bodies.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Do you put it in your armpits? You can still
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: do stuff, probably too, Yeah, well, war as hell, war
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: as hell.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Not only that, though, they were able to do some
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: other pretty clever stuff with them too.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's absolutely right. So not only would this
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: stuff become pliable when it was warm through body heat
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: or in someone's mouth, but it would quickly freeze when
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it left that warm environment. And so they found these
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: marines found that they were able to get a tutsi
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: roll pliable and then use it as a type of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: makeshift weld. They were able to patch bullet holes in vehicles,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: They were able to patch hoses other equipment. Now this
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: is over a period of two weeks. This battle the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Chosen Reservoir and the fifteen thousand men the Division of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Marines did not leave unscathed and where Kia killed in action,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: six thousand were wounded, and thousands had you know, terrible, terrible,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: terrible frostbite and they were living on Tutsi rolls because
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I believe all the other food was just frozen solid, correct,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: that's right. So you have to wonder if it's a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: function of the extreme temperature that allowed a Tutsi role
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: to be so useful there, because ordinarily, like if we
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: were if we were in a less frigid environment and
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: we tried to patch a hose with a Tutsi role
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: that we had chewed on, like, that wouldn't work, right, clearly.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Not, I would think.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Not.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, So all that's pretty rough, But there's good news
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: because they did persevere and they were able to stave
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: off the enemy forces, and despite those casualties and those injuries,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: they ultimately survived. A group of them known henceforth as
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: the Chosen Few. Get it, c Hosi n oh I
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: didn't even catch that pen you got, I didn't know.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I didn't. Uh. Yes, So they did.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They did manage to survive, and not only to survive,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: but to emerge victorious, and they returned to the US
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: lauded as heroes. And you know what, the Tutsi Rule
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Company had to love this.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd think, so, I'm sure do you think they
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: capitalized on it in their marketing materials.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't find anything indicating that that would be a
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: missed opportunity, though for sure maybe they felt it was
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: too exploitative. Well, it's sort of like the potato story
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: where the Idaho Potato Growers Association or whatever totally made
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: a plaque about it the main potatoes. Excuse me, the
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: main potatoes.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, well, maybe they thought it made their candy
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: look bad. There's also that.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: That's true that it was like the last possible thing
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: you would want to eat. And it's literally, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: you are dying in the frozen waists and you use
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: their product to plug bullet holes keep them in their armpits.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And yeah, just to I just said, I think that's
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: it because it's kind of like with a you know
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: how a lot of soda due to the bicarbonate and
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: it can dissolve things. It's like if someone used Coca
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: cola to dissolve something in the midst of war. I'm
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: sure Coca cola wouldn't be like, hey, drink this thing
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that can You know, people.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Used to like clear the corrosion on their battery terminals,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: right right, No, No, not a good look.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: So it is a good look for these guys when
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: they return. Although the Tutsi roll Company does not, for
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: one reason or another, capitalize on this story. In the US,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: people were impressed these folks have used what side note
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: here was Frank Sinatra's favorite candy?
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't he like buried with a bunch of them?
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Do you think it was a palette? Yeah? I don't know.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I remember we were reading that in a great article
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: on Tutsi Rolls by Jeff Wells. Jeff mentions that Old
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Blue Eyes himself was buried Tutsi Rolls cigarettes a lighter
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: at a bottle of Jack Daniels. But we digress to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: get back on the rails. These guys returned to the US,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: As we said, they are lauded as heroes, and they
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: were I don't know, nowadays largely forgotten. This is somewhat
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: of an obscure story, but people still remember it.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Well, in twenty eleven in South Bend, Indiana, they actually
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: did a recreation of this event at the Southwest Michigan
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Regional Airport, which is in Benton Harbor, So I guess
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: that's near South Bend. This was reported in the South
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Bend Tribune, and a guy named Don alsbro is, the
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: president of a veterans group called Lest We Forget, was
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: in charge of this event and they organized an air
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: drop where thousands of Tutsi rolls were dropped on the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: airport to commemorate that day during the Korean War. And
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Alsborough himself was part of this team, the unit, and
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: he was actually handed a medal by President Eisenhower himself.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: And he says in this article that Eisenhower told him
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: you must have a body of steel. So you know.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Steel, it's like in terms of durability, it's just under
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Tutsi roles, I believe.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And this guy is the real deal in terms
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: of heroism. He had already been injured by a grenade
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: and then while one of their machine gun squad leaders
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: was getting treatment, medical treatment, another enemy grenade got lobbed
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: at them, and this guy smothered it with his own body.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Oh one of those, yeah, yeah, and he survived. And
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: that's where you must have a body of steel comment
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: came from.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And so we conclude our tale, the strange story of
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Tutsi roles in the Korean War. It seems as if
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: we're generating kind of a theme here a running series
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: on food in war, But I'm fine with that. You know,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I think this is an interesting topic. We hope you
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: think it's an interesting topic too. Let us know if
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: you'd like to hear an episode about the surprisingly somber
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: origin story of Tutsi roles. But the show's not over yet.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: We were talking earlier off air, and you know what,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: we're over due for NOL a little listener mail.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Our first letter comes from Kelsey and it has to
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: do with farts, which is one of our favorite topics
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: of all time. So it says, Hey, Ben and Noel
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: and Casey. As a longtime listener of the show, I
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: felt I had to reach out to you after the
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: episode on rolland and professional Farting. I do historical re
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: enacting and have a tendency to listen to podcasts while
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: working in sewing dresses. While you were having Casey translate
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Roland's names from French, it reminded me of one of
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: the biggest mysteries and historical costuming. Help me with this,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Casey the peton Laire, The peton Laire, Casey on the
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Case third installment mid Listener Man segment within a segment. So,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: the petentlaire is a traditional French court dress worn in
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: the eighteenth century. It is essentially a large gown with
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: a fitted bodice that is jack at length and is
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: the shortened version of the robe a la frances casey lajo.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: You've got closer casey on the case.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: That's never gonna happen for me. However, no one seems
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: to know where the name comes from, as petent lais
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: roughly translates to fart in the air. I can only
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: imagine the name came from a very embarrassing moment in
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: court and the name stuck. Anyways, I'm a huge fan
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: of the show and thought you might enjoy some more
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: flatulence related history. Kind regards, Kelsey.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for writing in, Kelsey. We love a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: good historical mystery and this is something that maybe we
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: can also refer to our colleagues on our peer podcast Dressed.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we're overdue to have them as guests.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we could definitely bring them on for a segment.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Maybe we could do one on fact any stuff. So also,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate any good fart joke. I was close
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: years back when I was doing brain stuff things for
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: audio and video. I was terribly close to becoming the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: fart Guy, and I was very hesitant to talk about
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: farts at first.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Leaving the fart.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Guy, I was doing a lot of fart science fart material.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going blue. You need to be like
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: mister Methane, remember him.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think mister Methane's got his own lane. I
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: think we should let him be him. I don't want
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to take that away unless there's but you know what,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: if there's a Sergeant Sulfur out there somewhere, you can
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: write to us. We'll give you some aritime we'll record
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: you separately. We have another letter from someone who's been
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: writing to us pretty frequently, and that is a Umi,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: who lives in Japan, I believe, and is an English teacher.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Umi says, hello, gentlemen, after an episode where you both
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: pronounced port manteau or port man two in the way
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that you were called out on before, I made a
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Twitter poll out of curiosity, because as I am an
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: English teacher, I'm incredibly aware that a lot of words
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: have multiple acceptable pronunciations. Also, your podcast was not the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: only one in which I heard this pronunciation. Here are
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: my results. So Umi has posted this on Twitter, and
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: there's one Portman two spelled two and then Portmanteau spelled
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: t ow And did you just see.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: This null de oh? I did, yeah, And first I
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: was at my heart set on us being vindicated.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: So the two, the Portman two got fourteen percent of
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the votes and Portmanteau got eighty six percent. Now, she continues,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: she had seventy two people vote. She says, seventy two
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: votes is not a huge sample size, but if I
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: remember correctly from high school statistics class, it's enough of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: one to say that you are not inherently wrong. Pronounce
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: an import man too, So you can go either way.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Have an excellent day regards Ayumi. And this got me thinking,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: you guys, we should do more polls. But you know,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: we can go onto our Facebook group it's true, and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: do do polls to our heart's content.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: I think we should. And the name of that Facebook
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: group is the Ridiculous Historians, where you can join, become
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: a member, and get in on all the polling fun
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: the future polling. There isn't any there yet, not that
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: we know it. Soon. You can also send us email
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: where we are ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot Com and you
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: can you know, do the regular Facebook page if you want,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: which is just ridiculous history on Facebook. I think we're
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: on Twitter's ridiculous history as well. And Instagram and all
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: the stuff.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: All the hits, all the good ones, all the good ones,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and some of the weird ones. We'd also, of course
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: like to thank our super producer, Casey Pegram and our
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: research associates Christopher Hasiotis and needs, Jeff Goat.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Oh and let's lest we forget Alex Williams, who can
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: post our theme. No.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Uh, I'm not completely sure how to say goodbye and Korean,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: but I think you I think the same casual hello
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: is the same casual goodbye.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: So on Youngs. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.