Jersey Time

Kunsan Air Force Base is a really small base. One of the things that caught on (a long time ago) was each department wearing a jersey. Each department designs their own jersey. Here's a picture of Dave and his legal team. I loved this tradition. I'm all about traditions.

 I asked Dave when I get to Kunsan if I could get a jersey. He said I could but ended up surprising me with one the other night. He actually had it made before he left to come to the states in May. I was so excited!

Okay so let me lead you through my jersey. Patches are the thing when it comes to designing your jersey. Some of these guys have patches all over their jerseys. On the front is THE LAW of the pack. The guys and girls at Kunsan Air Force Base are called "The Pack". Notice at the top right is a wolf and a judge's gavel. On the left is my name in English and Hangul (Korean).

Everyone has a call sign. Dave's is SHARK, so naturally mine would be SHARKETTE! If you didn't know I'm a high school math teacher. Most people put numbers on the back. Mine would be PI or 3.14...

On my right side is the Kunsan Base patch and of course the Prattville Power P patch. GO LIONS!!!

On my left side is the Auburn University patch, the Air Force patch, and an American and South Korean flag patch.

Super cute and it means I'm a part of the team...kind of! At least I look the part.

DMZ Take Two

Okay so here's the second leg of our DMZ tour. Remember the DMZ is the Demilitarized Zone. It extends from the east to the west of the Korean Peninsula, and divides the two countires.

This is a picture of North Korea.

This is propaganda village in North Korea. That flag pole is 160 feet tall and was erected after the South Koreans erected one that was 100 feet tall. That flag weighs 800 pounds dry. There are also high rise building that were built in the 1950's. Of course it's all for propaganda. No one lives in these buildings. They were merely constructed to make North Korea look like it was prospering. Our guide told us that at night they "might" turn on lights. He said they know there are no floors in the buildings because when the lights are on the light will travel to the bottom getting dimmer at it travels down.

Post 4 where the August 1976 axe murder took place. I've got a closer picture a little later in the blog.

This is a monument that stands where the yellow poplar tree stood. The round concrete base shows how big the tree was. The tree was removed by the Army because the two South Korean towers could not see in order to protect one another. South Korea had just had their memorial day and laid flowers at this site as well as graves of other South Korean soldiers.

Let me get back to that poplar tree...
At 10:30am a UNC work party supervised by CPT Arthur Bonifas and 1LT Mark Barrett began to trim the tree. At 10:50am a North Korean officer threatened the UNC work party when the UNC refused to quit pruning the tree. Shortly after the threat, North Korean soldiers murdered the two Army officers and injured 8 other U.S. personnel by beating them with axes and metal pipes.

This is the bridge of no return. POWs were released here and this bridge is a part of the post 4 area where the axe murders took place. Once they crossed the bridge they could never return. President Clinton was quoted as saying, "This was one of the most scariest places on Earth." He actually crossed over the line that divides the two countries in the middle of the bridge (not knowing of course). As he did, he was met by a North Korean soldier holding a rifle (our guide said the soldier wasn't going to do anything but wanted to show President Clinton that he was there and beware). A young South Korean ROK soldier then stood in front of the President shielding him from the enemy soldier. You would think that he would have gotten praise for being so brave. Instead, when he returned to the DMZ he was verbally reprimanded by his superior for interrupting an important (an unexpected) photo opportunity for the President.

Well that completed our trip to the DMZ. It was both surreal and scary all at the same time. I'm so glad I got to go. If any of you military are ever stationed over in South Korea it is a must see tour.

D M Z

DMZ- Demilitarized Zone

The DMZ winds 155 miles across the Korean Peninsula stretching from the Han River to the East Coast. It's devoid of people which makes it one of the most unnatural nature preserve. Peace and high tension coexist here on a daily basis. Only military are allowed here. I was very pleased to get this opportunity. I can't even begin to tell you how surreal this place really is. The quietness can be deafening. It's both fascinating and scary at the same time.This is the only place in the world where enemies stand face to face in peace and high alert every single day. Since the axe murder of 1976 (I'll get to that later), security guards are forbidden to cross over to the opposing side's area. There were many rules we had to follow while touring this site. Here are some pictures.

I'm standing on the South Korean side. North Korea is to my back. On a daily basis there are five ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers that stand at the ready. These guys do not move! They are South Korea's finest and each hold many degrees. That makes them pretty smart! Oh our tour guide told us they know English too, and that they were probably listing to everything being said.

This white building in a long line of blue ones housed the North Koreans for a while. Our guide said that the soldiers could be seen stepping out and making neck slashing motions toward the ROK Guards as well as "the finger". It became known as the monkey house.

There are always two guards on the North Korean side. The first one you can see. He kept looking at us. The other is behind the white curtain looking thing in the window. It was one of the few places they would let us take photos. Our guide said that we were allowed to take photos of them beacuse more than likely they were taking photos of us.

Again these ROK Soldiers do not move. They keep half their body behind the building as a way to protect themselves. They also do this in case they see something on the other side that might look suspicious. They will lift their concealed hand (in this case his right one) to show that something doesn't look right on the other side.

This is inside the Military Armistice Commission (MAC).This building has housed secretary's meetings, joint duty officer's meetings, and general meetings for observation of the Armistice Agreement since its signing.

I'm actually standing in North Korea in this picture. There are always two ROK soldiers that stay in this building during the day. Our guide told us that there use to only be one. There is a door behind the ROK soldier that leads to the North Korean side. At night the door has to be locked, and the one soldier went to lock it on this night. There were a few North Korean soldiers standing on the other side waiting for him to start locking, and they opened the door and pulled him into North Korea. The ROK guard was able to fight his way back and was not harmed. After that incident the South Korean government put two guards inside. One will hold on to the corner of the wall behind us with one hand and have a gun in the other while the second guard holds on to him with one hand and locks the door with the other. Talk about being cautious. 

There will be more to come on the DMZ...stay tuned!

Imjingak and Dora Mountain Station

     Dave and I are finally able to be a married couple. It's been rather interesting spending some time in a foreign country. Our flights were long but good. Dave took me on my first trip this past weekend. We had so  much fun that I wanted to share it with you all. I'm sure South Korea isn't on your bucket list, so here's some of the fun you can have if you ever do stop by.

     Our first stop was the Imjingak. It's located 7KM (4.3 miles) from the "Demilitarized Zone" (DMZ). Imjingak has become the representative for unification and a safe tourist spot.

     This is a picture of the "Bell of Peace". It weights 21 tons and was made with the desire for peace and unification. It sees over 2 million visitors a year.

     As Dave and I were leaving the bell a group of women stopped us. I know very little Korean, and these women wanted to get a picture made with me. They were so cute. So here's the picture.

     I was feeling happy and decided to speak my first Korean. I've always heard that they will appreciate your efforts even if you are a little off. After I spoke one of the ladies said, "No, no we are Chinese."

FAIL

     If you will look behind us in the previous picture you will see that there's a large deck you can go up to view the land. Here are some pictures atop that deck.

     Behind Dave and me in this first picture is the "Bridge of Freedom" North Korea returned 12,773 POW there in 1953.

Behind me here are some rice fields. Theses things are everywhere in the rural parts of South Korea.

Imjingak also housed a lot of military equipment used in Korea.

Our next stop was the Dorasan Station. This train station was build in the hopes that the two countries would not be divided forever. You can go buy a ticket into North Korea here even though you cannot actually go into North Korea. President Bush visited here on February 20th, 2002.

This last picture reads, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North.