I was caught in the last draft call, late 72. Korea, 73-74. Nike Hercules site. This was during the oil embargo, and we had heat for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Winter clothes arrived in the spring after winter. Many of us wore GI wool blankets like ponchos. The Army called it a hardship tour.
I paid a local woman to make a jacket out of one of the green wool GI blankets. I gave her the blanket, probably about $5 and a picture. She gave me back a fully functional lined wool jacket that is still usable today. God only know where she scrounged up the lining.
Pay was about 15% of what I was making when I was drafted. Well under $100 a month. I think it was $80 and went up to $88 before I got out. I had been on my own for years, and had the bills and responsibilities to show for it. All but $5 was spoken for, and I invested the $5 buying and selling on the black market to stay afloat. I could get $10 for a fifth I paid $1 for, and green backs were worth 20 times their value in Korean money (won). It was dangerous trading green backs because you were dealing with the criminal element, and if something went wrong and you lived, the penalties were severe. We were not paid in money, but rather in Military Payment Certificates good at the company store (post exchange). US dollars were prohibited.
I bought eggs from a local farmer, ramen on the open market, mixed them with the dog food and chowed down. I ate my first puppy in Korea. Well not the whole puppy, we shared it.
Thanksgiving dinner was cold instant mashed potatoes dropped off at a guard shack. Nothing else. The cooks were selling the food on the black market. If you were willing to take a 2 hour ride on dirt roads in the back of an open truck you could get a decent meal. It was life in the batteries that was really bad. And it was usually that way because battery commander was not doing his job. The officers and NCO's were fed and treated much better, and they did not care about the peons.