Category: Ville Files

The Marmot has a posting about Chinese recycling used chopsticks without sanitizing them and then reselling them.   Just to demonstrate that this phenomenon isn’t just limited to China let me tell you about an experience I had in Korea.  Early in my first tour to Korea I liked to buy chicken on a stick in the TDC Ville.  An old, crusty NCO saw me one time eating a chicken on a stick and pulled me aside and told me not to eat chicken on a stick.  I asked him why and he told me to link up with him after curfew and he would show me why. 

Before 2001 there was a limited number of Warrior Passes that allowed 2nd Infantry Division soldiers to stay out after curfew which I just happened to have one.  So I linked up with this NCO after curfew and after curfew the ville was mostly dead with just a few GIs with Warrior Passes walking around.  We stood back and watched the scene and then the NCO pointed out a woman who was walking up the ville road and picking up the sticks that GIs had thrown on the ground.  We continued to watch her and as she got closer I could make out that she was the woman who operated the chicken on a stick shack.  She took the sticks and brought them into her little shack.  The NCO then told me that she reuses the sticks thrown on the ground to serve to GIs the next day.  I have never ate foods served on sticks in Korea after that night.

Also there is a reason why I don’t drink hard liquor especially with ice in the ville either, which I’m sure some of you ville veterans can guess why. 

From Yonhap:

A group of transgendered people will file a suit in April to seek the legal right to change their genders in their family registries, a civic group said Thursday.

The group said it will hold a briefing Saturday for transgendered people living in South Korea, estimated at 30,000, to help them join the collective action.

If they succeed will it be called the Harisu Law? 

Anyway, the only transgendered Koreans I have personally ever seen in Korea were in Dongducheon.  They would flock to the clubs up there to hit on drunk GIs.  I was at the infamous Rendezvous Club one time and saw this soldier hanging all over what was obviously a transexual but he was too drunk to tell the difference.  I sat by him and then pulled him a side to explain to him his folly.  He got pissed and wanted to throw down because he thought I was trying to steal his chick.  Since he was so enamored with his new girlfriend, I left him to his folly.  I never saw that soldier show his face ever again in that club. 

The big question is how this effects the juicy girl business?:

South Korea may limit the entry of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) due to the rising number of overstaying Filipino migrants, the local recruitment industry said Thursday.

Recruitment industry leaders said the government of South Korea has announced plans to reduce the rate of hiring Filipino workers to prevent an increase in the number of undocumented OFWs there.

Yong-Dal Kim, president of Human Resources Development (HRD) Service of Korea, reported that a huge number of overstaying workers will affect the labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under the Employment Permit System (EPS).

The government of South Korea has allocated 10,000 jobs for Filipino workers over the next three years. The same number of Filipinos are reportedly overstaying in Korea.

Only 10,000 Filipino workers over the next three years?  I’m willing to bet there is over 10,000 Filipina juicy girls in Korea already, in addition to the thousands of Filipino industrial workers.  How come I have this feeling the crackdown will target industrial workers and not juicy girls.

No more curfew and off limits areas are needed in places like Hongdae in Seoul anymore, courtesy of some brilliant scientists in Japan.  These scientists have discovered a spray that has the potential to allow foreigners and GIs to safely intermingle once again with the Korean citizens of night club areas like Hongdae. 

The Axe body deodorant spray causes Japanese females to immediately swarm towards Japanese men wearing this spray.  Just look at these Japanese Maiko fleeing from this hapless foreigner when a Japanese man wearing the spray rides by on a bicycle:

If Axe can make a spray that can cause Maiko to flee those big, bad, stinky foreigners in Japan than surely they can make a spray that would cause those naive, innocent Korean girls in Hongdae to flee the evil, drunk GIs and into the warm embraces of the Axe spray wearing, gentle, decent, kind Korean men that frequent the Hongdae area. 

Every soldier knows the Hongdae off limits order is not about "force protection reasons", but about keeping he big, bad foreigners away from Korean women, so here is a way to do it.  The police in Hongdae should be armed with this spray.  As soon as they see a helpless Korean woman talking to a foreigner the police should swoop in and spray the nearest Korean man in order to protect the naive, innocent women of Hongdae.  Peace and joy will return to the streets of Hongdae ironically enough due to the invention of somebody even worse than those big, bad, stink foreigners; the white washing of history, Dokdo denying, not quite as stinky, Japanese.

The funniest fight I ever saw in the ville has to be this alteracation that happened a few years back. Like the beginning to any good military story, “there I was” buying a kebab from the Turkish kebab stand at the Dongducheon ville. I’m pretty sure it was December, but it was winter and it was snowing very heavily that night. A number of Philippina juicy girls were out in front of their clubs checking out the falling snow. For many of them it was probably the first snow that they had ever seen. Anyway I’m standing there waiting for my kebab and suddenly from the corner of my eye I see this snowball fly through the air and smash a juicy girl in the back of the head standing in front of the New World Club. Absolutely a perfect shot.

Apparently some GI standing behind these other juicy girls who I think were standing in front of the Comet Club, threw the snowball that hit the juicy girl and fled, but the New World Club juicy girls thought the Comet Club juicy girls had thrown the snowball. Next thing you know there was a bunch of yelling in Tagalog and then the snowballs started flying. Before you know it there was a Braveheart charge from the New World juicies towards the snowball wielding Comet juicies.

Let me tell there are few funnier sights in the world than watching half naked juicy girls throwing snowballs and fighting in their super high heel shoes and slipping and falling all over the place on the ice. The ajummas eventually came out of their clubs and started yelling at the girls to go back into their clubs. The girls started going back into their clubs, but by this time a crowd had started to build to watch the fight. Some GIs started booing and then someone started throwing snowballs at the ajummas. The ajummas were pissed and started cursing and ran back into their clubs. That was by far the funniest fight I have ever seen.

The whole time I’m sure the guy that threw that first snowball was laughing his ass off even more than we were.

This posting about memorable bar brawls over at Blackfive got me thinking about memorable brawls I have witnessed during my time in Korea.  I have seen plenty of stupid drunken beer brawls in the ville, but they usually ended pretty quick and were relatively unmemorable.  Just a bunch of drunks pushing and shoving acting tough, the whole while someone would break them up.  There was a couple of fights though that were quite memorable that I will never forget.  The first one was at the Rendezvous Club over in Dongducheon.

Back in the day the Rendezvous Club was a nice place to go to meet local Korean girls because there were no juicy girls there at the time.  The club was really the only place in the ville where locals and GIs mixed.  The locals would arrive in the club right after curfew hit because back then the vast majority of GIs in the ville were gone and back on Camp Casey because of the curfew.  The few GIs that remained in the ville past curfew had what was called a Warrior Pass.  Back then every company had a limited number of Warrior Passes that the First Sergeant and Commander could give to people to stay out after curfew.  The soldiers that had Warrior Passes were usually older, more mature, and higher ranking and not from the younger 18-21 year old age group that statistics show cause the majority of alcohol related incidents.  Plus the younger soldiers that received a Warrior Pass for the weekend usually used it to hang out with juicy girls all night and not to hang out at the Rendevous Club with local Koreans.  The locals all knew this and thus had no problems mixing with the soldiers that did go to the Rendezvous Club after curfew.

The Rendezvous Club was really a nice place back then and was operated by a guy named Mr. Han.  Mr. Han was not your average GI ville bar owner.  Mr. Han if I had to guess was about 35-40 years old back then and over 6 feet tall, well built, with really long hair.  He had a few huge Koreans working security for him at the club and he always made sure his club had the most beautiful female bartenders in town.  The local police would occasionally stop by and pay their respects to Mr. Han as well.  In short he was the perfect stereotype of a Korean gangster.

Mr. Han from what I heard was one of the head Korean mob bosses in TDC and operated a number of the juicy girl clubs in the ville.  Anyway there I was, drinking a few beers with Mr. Han with a few of my buddies at the bar counter.  We were all friendly with Mr. Han since we frequented his club so often.  He spoke good English and despite being a mob figure was actually a really nice guy to us GIs.  Anyway a fight broke out towards the front of the bar where the dance floor was at.  No soldiers were involved, it was strictly a Korean on Korean fight.  There must of been about 15-20 people going at it and then some guy grabbed a beer glass and threw it at this other guy, but missed and the glass shattered against the wall near some Korean females.

That was when Mr. Han sprang into action.  He suddenly jumped over the bar and landed a round house kick on the guy that threw the glass.  That kick could have been straight from a Korean gangster flick.  From there he preceded to kick the living crap out of him and then turned his attention to another guy and began using more kung fu moves on him.  Mr. Han and the club security got the fight under control and literally kicked the people out.  The first guy Mr. Han had kicked the crap out of could not leave the club under his own power.  The club security just grabbed him and threw him out in the street in front of the club.  After the fight we figured it was probably a good time to finish our beers and get out there.

We walked outside and the guy that got the crap beaten out of him was still laying in the street in front of the club.  A soldier I didn’t know was walking down the street and saw the guy bleeding and came over to assist him.  He said he was medic.  He started checking the guy out and one the club’s security guards that was standing at the entrance of the club came over and told the medic to leave him alone.  So that is what we did, we left him alone and walked way.  There is times where you have to let Koreans handle business their own way and this was definitely one of those times.  The guy was left to bleed in the street as a reminder to everyone else to not start any fights in the Rendezvous Club.

I haven’t been stationed at Camp Casey since then and I haven’t been to the Casey ville for years so I have no idea if the Rendezvous club is even open any more or if Mr. Han still operates the place.  If so he is a nice guy to us GIs, but whatever you do don’t piss him off.  If anyone has any interesting fights they remember in Korea feel free to comment on them.  By the way here is a link to the funniest fight I have ever seen in Korea.

UPDATE: News of the policy has hit the Stars and Stripes now. Here are some thoughts from some of the soldiers interviewed:

I think its going to be bad for morale, said Pfc. Michael Stafford, who says he does not drink alcohol. Its stressful out here. We’re away from everything and people want to go out and have a good time.

Pfc. Kolubah Beyan, of 2nd ID’s headquarters company, said the new policy is much needed.

However, it always comes down to a person’s responsibility, said Beyan, a self-described infrequent drinker.

How well the policy works will depend on how it is implemented, said Sgt. Bobby Cumby of 2nd ID’s Special Troops Battalion.

It could encourage soldiers to drink less or could encourage them to stay off-post later for fear of having their blood alcohol level tested when they return, he said.

It has its pluses and minuses, Cumby said. Hopefully it will take down the number of incidents, but it kind of hurts the people who haven’t been doing anything wrong.

Over at Lost Nomad he is “speechless” over the latest only in Korea story.

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On the 2ID webpage the new alcohol consumption policy letter can be downloaded from here (HT: reader). Here are some of the key excerpts from the policy letter:

I find it interesting that TDY personnel don’t have to abide by this policy. I guess that means all the guys on TDY from the states for UFL can still go have a good time out in the ville while the soldiers permanently stationed in 2ID can’t be trusted too. Here is the alleged reason for the new BAC policy:

Nobody is going to buy the “Fight to Night” excuse that has been used for years for every mass punishment policy brought down on 2ID soldiers due to the actions of a few. A few years back E-6s and below who were stationed at Yongsan and other camps south of Seoul were banned from being able to drive a privately owned vehicle due to an increase in drunk driving incidents. At least when that policy was implemented the statistics were looked at and a policy was put in place that focused on the people committing the incidents, E6s and below. If the rise in alcohol related incidents in 2ID is because of underage drinking why isn’t a policy created that focuses on them?

Anyway to enforce this policy a lot of mandatory actions are being brought down on the company commanders to do things like mandatory health and welfare inspections of the barracks, inspections of off post homes, checking of refrigerators for booze in the barracks, quarterly alcohol training, etc. These are all things done at the unit level any way, but now since it is considered mandatory in a policy letter by the commanding general you will see more of these actions executed more frequently so the commanders can cover themselves when an incident happens. I’m willing to bet that unit commanders would rather have no alcohol related incidents than have over half their guys fire expert on the M-16 and wearing a PT excellence badge for example. Fat and can’t shoot, no problem as long as you don’t make the blotter. That’s the new 2ID.

I find it interesting how all the responsibility for fixing the alcohol related incident problems is put on the company commanders while the senior leadership takes no responsibility on themselves to help solve the problem. The senior leadership continues to create a ville culture that promotes alcohol by allowing underage drinkers to go into establishments that push booze and prostitutes on them and then they are surprised when there are underage drinkers busted in the ville?

Here is another interesting portion of the policy:

Commanders even before this policy could direct soldiers to take a command directed blood alcohol test. This is usually what is done to catch underage drinkers. So now the same approach is being used to catch people violating the new BAC policy. What isn’t clear in the policy is if MPs can have people take a BAC test. What will probably happen is that the MPs will pick people up who they think is above the BAC and then call the commander. I feel bad for the company commanders in 2ID. Not only are they being set up to take the blame for alcohol related incidents when they happen, but they will being getting calls all the time to come to the MP station to fill out paper work to do the command direct blood alcohol test probably on a lot of people who are not even over the limit. Than when the MPs aren’t calling him the CQ or First Sergeant will be calling him about soldiers they found that might be over .10% because if they don’t call him and the guy gets in trouble they will go down with him.

Something that wasn’t mentioned in the policy letter was the status of KATUSAs. I don’t see how this policy could apply to them when the US military UCMJ regulations don’t apply to KATUSAs. It will be interesting to see if the ROK Army will be willing to impose this on the KATUSAs or not.

This is probably the most interesting portion of the policy:

Harassment? Isn’t increased health and welfare inspections of the barracks harassment? Isn’t the MPs pulling people off the streets who they think is over .10% BAC harassment? Isn’t directing CQs to find people who might be over the BAC harassment? Let me guess, it isn’t harassment, it is “soldier care” just like this policy isn’t because of alcohol related incidents, it because the division needs to be ready to “fight tonight”, or the curfew isn’t because of blotter reports, but is for “force protection” reasons.

Soldiers aren’t stupid, but obviously some people think they are.

While out this weekend below is the card you need to carry around with you, along with a breathalyzer, a map of the off limits areas, a GPS device to make sure you don’t wander into some of the gigantic off limits areas like the Shinchon area, your warrior standard book, your battle buddy, and finally make sure you budget an extra 10,000 won to pay the extortion fare demanded by the cab drivers. It would probably be easier just to stay in the barracks at night.

Any wonder why soldiers dislike serving in 2ID?

Before going out this weekend make sure you review the latest off limits areas.  I have them broken down for you by Area.  You can download your own copy of the off limits areas from 2ID website by clicking here.  Have fun over the weekend, but obey the regulations and stay out of trouble.  There is already the new blood alcohol policy in effect, follow the off limits and curfew regulations before someone gets the bright idea to implement a new policy putting tracking devices around everyone’s ankles. 

Area 1:

Area 2:

For all the USFK personnel out there who will be affected by the Hongdae University off limits order here is a graphic of the exact area that is off limits:

Area III:

Area IV:

Area V:

Area VI:

Area VII:

The number of alcohol related incidents is on rise according to the Second Infantry Division Weekly Bulletin:

NEW ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION POLICY: New! Effective 8 FEB, the Division Commander issued a new policy on responsible alcohol consumption. It is our responsibility to assure that none of us are released from duty on 9 FEB until each of us fully understands this policy.

You won’t believe what the new policy is.  Soldiers even while off duty cannot have a blood alcohol content level above .10%.  What is behind the rise in alcohol related incidents that would cause such a drastic measure to be implemented?  Here is your answer:

DRINK RESPONSIBLY: In January 2ID passed the 100 mark for Soldiers involved in alcohol or drug-related blotters for this fiscal year. This puts us ahead of our FY06 pace, which was itself an increase over 2005. Underage drinking has been a significant contributor to this unfortunate trend. If you are under 21 — don’t drink! If you are of legal drinking age, then drink in moderation and don’t tolerate or encourage your buddy to drink who is not of legal drinking age. Every Soldier and leader has a part to play in preventing underage drinking and alcohol abuse.

So the policy to stop underage drinkers is “don’t drink!” while the strategy to stop the increase in alcohol related incidents due to the underage drinkers is to punish everyone.  Will soldiers have to carry breathalyzers with them to the ville now to test themselves after every drink?  How many good soldiers are going to get prosecuted under this policy and have their careers adversely effected because they blew a .12% BAC?  The soldiers that want to binge drink are now going to move out of the ville to avoid the breathalyzer bandits and stay out all night in other entertainment areas outside the ville where the breathalyzer bandits are not at and then just stay at hotel so the gate guards with breathalyzers don’t catch them.

Any bets if curfew violations will go up because of this policy?  I can see it now some soldier coming back from the ville worried about blowing over a .10% and instead of taking their chances with breathalyzer the soldier decides to go hide in a alley somewhere or find a hotel for the night.  In process of doing this he gets spotted by the MPs and picked up.

I have been saying this for a long time, but why do we allow underage drinkers into drinking establishments in the ville to begin with?  If it illegal for them to drink than why are underage drinkers allowed to go into a sleazy bar that pushes booze and scantily clad women on them all night?  This is a temptation that to many young soldiers cannot overcome.  If the command wants to solve the underage drinking problem all you have to do is deny the underage drinkers from entering the clubs in the ville and then anyone entering the gate underage you make them take a breathalyzer.  That prevents them from wandering to other entertainment areas outside the ville to drink and then trying to get back on post.  If the unit CQ is properly signing people out before they leave the barracks you can track if they went back into their room or not that night.  Knowing that soldiers are smarter than we give them credit for, they will try to get around this by having their buddy at CQ hook them up and sign them in for them so they can stay out all night and avoid the breathalyzer at the gate.  Do a few random 6AM formations on Friday and Saturday morning to account for everyone and you will be amazed how quickly this problem is rectified.

This leaves underage drinkers two options, drink in their rooms or get a pass from the First Sergeant to stay in a hotel for the weekend to escape the breathalyzer bandits.  If a soldier wants to drink in his room and play X-Box all night, personally I really don’t care.  A random barracks patrol roster with all your E-7s and up on it every weekend tends to keep them honest.  Something that also helps is to have designated underage rooms.  Don’t organize the barracks where you have underage and legal age drinkers mixed together.  This once again is shoving alcohol in the face of underage soldiers, especially when the legal age soldier has the fridge stocked with his beers.  I have busted underage drinkers before in the barracks by simply knocking on the door of a underage room.  The underage soldier opened the door holding a beer.  After you bust a few guys like this the underage soldiers learn to keep quiet and stay in their rooms if they are going to drink.  As far as underage guys going on pass this is where the First Sergeant needs to use a lot of discretion and only put underage people on pass that he/she trusts will not get into trouble.

Is this plan full proof and will stop all incidents?  No it won’t, but I am certain my suggestions would bring down the number of underage drinkers and it focuses solely on the group that is causing the problems, the underage drinkers.  No where in my suggestions are all the soldiers in the division punished for the actions of a few.  It is easy just to implement a blanket policy on everyone and be done it, especially with all the outside pressure I’m sure the 2ID Commanding General is getting hit with right now to cut down alcohol related incidents, but soldiers appreciate creative leadership that focuses on solving a problem with minimum impact on everyone else.

In the years I have been following USFK issues it seems like every time a new general comes in they face the same problem the commander before them faced and the new general issues blanket policies similar to the last guy that didn’t solve the problem then and won’t solve the problem now.  Former 2ID commanders General Honore, Wood, Higgins, and now Coggin have all had their fair share of alcohol related incidents and underage drinkers.  Mass punishment policies that have a short term impact that looks good on Powerpoint slides are always implemented, but in the long run the same issues will persist and rise again at the expense of the morale of all the soldiers in Korea.

Any bets that the next 2ID commander will be facing these same problems when he takes over?  It seems nothing ever changes except the name of the commanding general.

The Axels

In 69-70 I was assigned to 1/12th Arty. We were located at Cp
Snow in Pobwonni just south of Mickey Mouse Corner.
Once we were on maneuvers only about 30 min from base and stayed
overnight. I broke the rules and had my trucks pulled in close to each other
not more than 18 inches apart.
Other sections in the battalion did not. Consequently even though guards
were posted and roving around, some of the other sections had all the
axels removed from their trucks and had to be towed back to based by
mine and a few other trucks that escaped losing their axels.

Submitted By ; George Sackett
1/12 Artillery
1969 – 1970

This slicky boy story was from Korea, A Tour of Duty.
If you have your own slicky boy story to share e-mail me your story at gikoreaonline@yahoo.com and I will be happy to post it.