Today was the big event to honor the USFK Civilians of the Year. GEN LaPorte did the presentations, we also had the Honor Guard and Army band. Ok, I admit it. I eat that stuff up. It was all very impressive, we had great weather, and I think the honorees were very moved by the ceremony. Afterwards, we had a nice reception at the Dragon Hill Lodge. GEN LaPorte and LTG Campbell both came by and were very gracious. This is a big deal and a lot of work goes it to making it happen. When I first got to Korea I was told you DON’T WANT TO SCREW THIS UP! A predecessor some years back had, and her time in Korea ended shortly thereafter. Anyway, Corine and Ms. Yi on my team took the lead on covering all the details and did an outstanding job. As their supervisor I get some reflected glory, but I counted on them and they did not let me down.
Speaking of LTG Campbell, I was with him yesterday too at the quarterly Korean Employees Union luncheon. He gave some insights on Secretary Rumsfeld’s visit, which I am not at liberty to share here. He did say the SECDEF left the peninsula in high spirits. So take that as you will.
I’ve praised the KEU in the past as the most professional union I have had the opportunity to work with, and I’ve been in this business for longer than I care to admit (ok, 25 years). At the conclusion of the luncheon, Mr. Kang, In Sik, the President of the union, presented LTG Campbell with 37 million Won his membership had donated for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Campbell said that this was a further demonstration of the genorisity of the Korean people, and he told Mr. Kang that people in the US and especially the Gulf coast would appreciate and remember the helping hand of our friends in Korea.
LTG Campbell also told us that he had attended a Korean Methodist Church on Sunday and the Pastor asked him to address the congregation. He related how 50 years ago young Americans came to an unfamiliar land to fight for the freedom of a people they did not know. And today Korea has risen from the ruins of that devastating war to become a powerful nation, both ecomomically and militarily. And the Korean nation has also matured diplomatically to the point where today young Koreans are deployed to an unfamiliar land to fight for the freedom of a people they don’t know. And 50 years from now the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan will remember those sacrafices made on their behalf.
In case you haven’t guessed, I am really glad that I have had the opportunity to be here and witness first hand all the good we have done for our Korean brothers and to see them stand up for the cause of freedom. HooAh!
I met a lady recently at a yardsale outside B’ham, AL, in a very middle class neighborhood in suburbia. She looked like a school teacher, which she was, but when I talked to her I learned she and her husband had been missionaries to South Korea, living there 15 years. They’ve been back for five. I asked for her impressions of the Korean attitude toward the US. She said that the Koreans who remember the Korean War appreciate the US and like Americans. She said the younger generation were anti-American, but that it seemed more ideologically fashionable than deeply felt – because if they had a chance to get to know a real live American, they jumped at it. I didn’t talk to her long, but it was very interesting. I wonder how it would feel different to her now.
She also spoke some about members of their congregation in Korea who had escaped North Korea; the horrors they described in their country were chilling, she said.
I should tell her about your blog.
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