A Visit By Pinnochio
Something really weird happened today. I was walking out the front gate of my camp and standing outside of the gate adjacent to the congested road in front of the camp was none other than Pinnochio himself. The Pinnochio of Walt Disney fame was in front of the camp waving at cars. Somebody was dressed in an authenic Pinnochio costume. It might as well have been something you would of seen at Walt Disney World.
I walked over to Pinnochio to see what was going on. It is not every day I get to meet somebody as famous as Pinnochio you know. As I approached him, Pinnochio would just look at me and wave. He wouldn’t speak at all. I wasn’t sure if Pinnochio was tresspassing or not because he was standing outside the camp and on the corner of the road.
The Korean National Policemen that sit in front of the camp bored all day just stood there and giggled watching the scene. So no help from them. So I walked back to the guard shack and informed the gate guards that we had a possible tresspasser by the name of Pinnochio outside. They just looked at me like I was nuts. So I led them out of the guard shack and pointed out Pinnochio to them. The Korean contracted guards went to talk to Pinnochio but all they received was the same wave I got. The soldiers inside the guard shack in turn got on the phone to contact the MP’s to see what to do. There is no SOP I have ever seen on how to deal with a Pinnochio sighting. So it was best we remain careful because we were breaking new ground here. We were creating doctrine that would be used for all future Pinnochio encounters.
A crowd of soldiers began to build to watch the seen. Eventually Pinnochio must have gotten uncomfortable with the amount of people watching him. He then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk away from the gate and the camp. As he walked away into the sunset, Pinnochio continued to wave at his new found fan club until he got to a bus stop and got on a bus and left for good. God I wish I had my camera handy.
What was really strange about the whole scene was that the Koreans walking by just seemed to ignore what was going on while the soldiers that left the camp all had the look of what the heck is this, on their faces. I guess Pinnochio sightings must be something that doesn’t draw much attention in Korea.
Anyway later on that day I began to think about why Pinnochio would be in front of the camp waving at cars? Then it hit me. It was probably a protestor using the character of Pinnochio to say that the US Army is a bunch of liars. At least that is the best theory I can think of. Does anyone else have any better theories?
I got to hand it to the protestor for being creative and funny though. Most protestors are really lame and just chant slogans and beat on the KNP’s. I got a kick out of this one. Maybe this will start a new trend for protests. Maybe Alladin will show up tomorrow to represent us as a bunch of thieves. I’ll make sure I have my camera ready next time.
I would have a different concern. It may be the jobs I have concerning security and work against terrorist threats, but if it was a full body costume, that would mean you could not see the person nor through the costume. A suicide bomber attempts to do as much damage as possible by getting into as crowded an area as possible. If, and I am not saying this was the case, this could have been an attempt to see what the American Reaction would be. You indicated that Americans stood and looked but the Koreans did not. In the future, if this was a study, a suicide bomber could conceal his bomb within the costume and wait till he drew a large enough crowd before detonating it. The majority of the crowd would be Americans it appears. Additionally, through the use of the costume, he/she conceals his/her identity which might have drawn suspicion otherwise. Another reason that I find this strange is that he / she would not communicate with anyone to determine what he was doing there or protesting, if that is what he was doing.
While this person was outside of the base, I think the proper way of handling it and future incidents of this type would be to have called the KNP and have them remove the person. If he/she is just a protester as you indicated he might have been, then the KNP would be able to find out. I would also instruct all personnel working and living on the base to avoided contact with a costume character in an unusual location such as the entrances of gates. Again, I may be overly protective, but it is better to be safe. Think that standing orders should be given to the Korean Guards outside the gate as well on matters like this not only so they do their jobs better, but for their safety as well. These would have to be worked out within their command. I would also work with the KNP to see what they would think would be the best method of handling this type of incident in the future.
Just some thoughts.
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The KNP's there did nothing, once the MP's were notified that is when the person began to leave. However, I doubt someone would do a suicide bombing in this way because it would be easier just to walk into a club in Itaewon on a Friday night with a bomb and take out a whole bunch of people. That was a big concern a few months back when we had a 9PM curfew. It continues to be a concern but you can't tell people not to go to the club, you can only inform them to be careful and look for suspicious activity and report it. I feel safer here than I do back in the states so overall the Koreans do a good job with security.