Vintage Military - Part 65

 Korean Front, 1951

In 1951, LIFE photographer Michael Rougier was documenting the Korean War.  These photos, from a photo shoot called "Korean Front," show some U.S. soldiers getting a little R&R by going swimming amid the devastation of the war.

Of course there was no need for modesty – the soldiers lived, showered and slept together.

Here's something you wouldn't have seen in World War II.  In 1948, President Truman signed an executive order integrating the U.S. armed forces, and the Korean War was the first conflict where African-Americans served in integrated units.

Some of the men had gotten floats to play with ...

if they could stay on them without falling off.

The soldier at right is not joining in the swimming fun.  Perhaps he's there to safeguard the others.  After all, it's a war zone.

I don't know if he's washing the Jeep or himself.

These two guys are posed to conceal frontal exposure.  Photo subjects were told that LIFE would never publish frontal nudity, and it never did.  Frontal shots were cropped or went unpublished.  Rear nudity was occasionally published.

But in this shot, something was not quite concealed as intended.

None of today's photos were published in LIFE magazine, but whether published or not, 4 million photos taken by LIFE photographers were saved, and they are now available in an online archive at https://artsandculture.google.com/search/entity?p=life-photo-collection

Vintage Muscle Men showed the photo above recently, which inspired me to do this post.  Thanks, Jerry!