Military?

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Originally Posted by Gecko Den

I'll be in Korea beginning of next year. I'm one of the lead engineers for the KDX- III "Sejong the Great" class destroyer program. Looking forward to seeing Korea, It is one of the few places over there that I didn't get to see while I was in the NAVY.

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righteous. Sejong dae Wang, I've been learning about that man since I was a wee lil thing. Im actually gonna be stationed in Osan next year as well. I can't wait, I've been to Korea hella times, but I haven't LIVED there since I was too young to remember. Now I get to go and spend time with my relatives, like real time.

All I can say is hella servicemembers go to Korea and waste their time by drinking, partying, and staying right around post/base. I'd highly recommend getting out, taking trips to Daegu, Pusan, Kanghwado, all kinds of history on the peninsula bruh. Jejudo is beautiful too, I love it there.

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Originally Posted by Jae iLL

righteous. Sejong dae Wang, I've been learning about that man since I was a wee lil thing. Im actually gonna be stationed in Osan next year as well. I can't wait, I've been to Korea hella times, but I haven't LIVED there since I was too young to remember. Now I get to go and spend time with my relatives, like real time.

All I can say is hella servicemembers go to Korea and waste their time by drinking, partying, and staying right around post/base. I'd highly recommend getting out, taking trips to Daegu, Pusan, Kanghwado, all kinds of history on the peninsula bruh. Jejudo is beautiful too, I love it there.

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I did all my drinking in foreign lands when I was younger. I'll only be in Korea for a month so when not working I plan on taking in some of the local culture and seeing the sights. I'll be in Ulsan, not sure what there is to see around there but I'll do some research before I fly over!

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Originally Posted by Jae iLL

All I can say is hella servicemembers go to Korea and waste their time by drinking, partying, and staying right around post/base.

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Guilty as charged. I was on the penisula for a year from '00 to '01 and up until my last 3 or 4 months I hadn't even been to Seoul. :rolleye2:

Eventually one of the Korean sergeants in my squad found out that I was about to PCS and had never really been down south, so he took me and a couple of the other guys down to Seoul, and it was probably the best time I had since I had been there. I went like 100 more times in those last 2 months, and I felt like a jackass for not going sooner.

The problem is, or was for me, that since Korea is a hardship tour, you can't bring your family, and I was missing a lot of important stuff back home. I wasn't there to see my 1st kid born, I wasn't there when a friend of mine died in an accident, etc etc. Everyone's story is different, but the bottom line is most people who get there and are not single end up sitting in their rooms drinking for the first couple months, and it takes a while to snap out of it and realize where they are and what they are passing up. I was walking downrange with a kid in my unit one day and he said "man, I never ever thought that one day I'd be walking down a street in South Korea, this is pretty cool." and it wasn't until then that I figured it out.

Also remember, for the Army guys stationed anywhere but Youngsan (sp), we had a curfew and couldn't go too far because we had to be back in the gates by midnight, and since we couldn't bring cars, we either had to catch a bus or walk everywhere. A lot of the guys farther up north are scared to leave the base w/o someone who knows whats going on cause they don't wanna get stuck outside the gates after midnight, and it just seems easier to hit the Soju and call it an evening =P.

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Originally Posted by Jae iLL

I'd highly recommend getting out, taking trips to Daegu, Pusan, Kanghwado, all kinds of history on the peninsula bruh. Jejudo is beautiful too, I love it there.

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Agreed, especially Jejudo, such a beautiful place. I was in Korea (Yongsan) from Dec of 81 to June of 83 in the 8th Army. I worked part time in Itaewon at a night club called the Eagles Club as a D.J./bouncer. I lived off base in Itaewon with an Army buddy of mine and his wifes Korean family. I traveled all over and would love to go back some day to see how it has changed. The subway system was just being built when I left back for the States. The downtown stores and food shops were to die for. Give me some Yukkaejang and Kimchi and I was a happy man.

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Originally Posted by Kom@tose

Guilty as charged. I was on the penisula for a year from '00 to '01 and up until my last 3 or 4 months I hadn't even been to Seoul. :rolleye2:

Eventually one of the Korean sergeants in my squad found out that I was about to PCS and had never really been down south, so he took me and a couple of the other guys down to Seoul, and it was probably the best time I had since I had been there. I went like 100 more times in those last 2 months, and I felt like a jackass for not going sooner.

The problem is, or was for me, that since Korea is a hardship tour, you can't bring your family, and I was missing a lot of important stuff back home. I wasn't there to see my 1st kid born, I wasn't there when a friend of mine died in an accident, etc etc. Everyone's story is different, but the bottom line is most people who get there and are not single end up sitting in their rooms drinking for the first couple months, and it takes a while to snap out of it and realize where they are and what they are passing up. I was walking downrange with a kid in my unit one day and he said "man, I never ever thought that one day I'd be walking down a street in South Korea, this is pretty cool." and it wasn't until then that I figured it out.

Also remember, for the Army guys stationed anywhere but Youngsan (sp), we had a curfew and couldn't go too far because we had to be back in the gates by midnight, and since we couldn't bring cars, we either had to catch a bus or walk everywhere. A lot of the guys farther up north are scared to leave the base w/o someone who knows whats going on cause they don't wanna get stuck outside the gates after midnight, and it just seems easier to hit the Soju and call it an evening =P.

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True, I have an unaccompanied tour coming up. Although, command sponsorship is an option that they've recently allowed Airman to take advantage of. I don't know about the Army. That curfew does suck a lil bit, but Im planning on taking advantage of weekend passes, and whenever I don't have to be on base I'm not planning on hanging around military bases regardless. I have family in Koyang Kun to stay with.
My recommendation was more for like whenever Gecko Den has a weekend pass or something of that nature. Try to take full advantage of those and visit some places.

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Agreed, especially Jejudo, such a beautiful place. I was in Korea (Yongsan) from Dec of 81 to June of 83 in the 8th Army. I worked part time in Itaewon at a night club called the Eagles Club as a D.J./bouncer. I lived off base in Itaewon with an Army buddy of mine and his wifes Korean family. I traveled all over and would love to go back some day to see how it has changed. The subway system was just being built when I left back for the States. The downtown stores and food shops were to die for. Give me some Yukkaejang and Kimchi and I was a happy man.

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I can tell you it has changed hella since the 80s. The area my family is from has changed a lot in the last 10 years even. Back in 83 Won Dang was a little farming area, and my family had no indoor plumbing, no refridgerators etc. Now they have two refridgerators, a toilet ( no bath or shower yet), and a motorcycle. The subways are crazy, they get hella packed during the day. The lil carts on the side streets still sell the best foods tho.. some soondae in the lil tarp covered restaurant with some johkbal? Ahh.. I cant wait to go back

You guys are bringing back way to many memories... Some of them good, some not so good.


I was US Army from 1978 to 84. My dad was Army durring the Korean War. My Uncles were all Marines in Vietnam.

I started as an Attack Helicopter Mech. AH-1Y(ECAS) super stealth rotor and blades. Although my first duty assignment was with the US 8th Army, 201st Avation Bn in Tague (Jan. 79) as a Huey (UH-1H) crewchief. That lasted only a few months, then I was reasigned because there was a shortage on the DMZ for AH mechs. I went to Pyongyang and was asigned to a room with two KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to the United States Army). A very interesting living/learning experience.

I left Korea to come to the US stationed at Fort Carson (4th inf mech) where after a few months on the flight line I decided that I wanted something different for my life. I asked for a transfer to the 1st of the 10th Calvary (Buffalo Soldiers) where I became a Calvary Scout and a Team Leader of a squad of elite soldiers in a Blues platoon (a 24/7/365 ready alert team) -- in 1980 there were 7 (1 in Korea, 2 in Germany, and 4 in the US) that I knew of. This really burned me out as we were constantly training for any situation that the military might be needed. I never saw any action -- except for a few live fire excercises. I reenlisted to be a Laboratory Technician and while in school at Fort Sam Houston, Texas my team went to Grenada (I did all that training and missed out on the whole purpose of the team.)

As a lab tech, I graduated very high in my class and was sent to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to work on NBC studies (can't talk about any of this).

After 6 years, I left the Army to became a compute dweeb. (I did do some consulting with the Navy because I still had my Top Secret clearence). But now I am just a regular guy with a regular job. Some times I really miss my days with a 40 pound ruck and an M16A2.

[RANT]

To respond to Jae iLL's comments -- you have to know who your friends are. I was constantly getting into trouble for defending the local men and women who were house boys and laundry maids. One night I got beat up so bad that I was sent to the hospital. But the Koreans were the only ones who visited me there. On vacation in country, my KATUSA roommates showed me their home, it was a 14' x 16' one room concrete block walls with a plywood roof. It had charcoal heating. And 7 people lived in it. It had a small elevated dirt path that went to the main dirt road that went to the nearest town 3 miles away. It was totally surrounded by rice fields that were at least one foot of water all the time. I went in the winter and the fields were frozen. I loved my KATUSA friends and their family. I went to one of their sister's wedding (both traditional and modern ceremonies), and they included me in all their activities.

I can not understand how some of the military were/are so insulated from people who aren't like them, and furthermore unwilling to even acknowledge the differences in people.

Howerver, I will defend the US Army Officers, as they saw my abilities and promoted me rapidly and made me liason for the KATUSA in my company.

Active duty Navy right here. I was on the USS Donald Cook when we launched the first missiles into IRAQ. I am currently doing mobile ground communications. I am working on getting my breeding group of bearded dragons and starting in crested geckos. I had to get rid of my bp's I just didn't have the time to make sure they stayed friendly as they were when they were babies.

02-06 USMC YUUUUUUTTTTT!!!!!! MCBH

I really miss the Corp... Two of my buddies already got recalled and I'm just waiting for my number.

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

I actually asked a crew chief one time about the leaking hydrolic fluid and he's response was "let me know if it stops ... that means we're all out and about to crash .... if we ain't leakin, we ain't flyin" ... nice right? :rofl:

-adam

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Truer words have never been spoken. However that is only true in the 53 and 46 community. Those are Sikorskys, the Bell helicopters don't leak like that. If we have a leak, we freak out. I do like those Super Stallions though, as they drug me all over Afghanistan. I never cared for Sea Knights, as they twist too much while you're flying on them, it made me a little nervous.

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

"let me know if it stops ... that means we're all out and about to crash .... if we ain't leakin, we ain't flyin" ... nice right? :rofl:

-adam

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When i worked on F-14s thats what we always said, "If its not leaking its broke!"