South Korean and U.S. navy troops engage in a volunteer service program at a facility for the disabled in Donghae, about 280 kilometers east of Seoul, in this photo released by South Korea’s First Fleet Command on March 18, 2017. (Yonhap)
I bet these soldiers learned that making kimchi is actually a lot of work:
A group of soldiers got a taste of Korea when they joined local volunteers Thursday to make kimchi for needy people while building community relations.
The 40 soldiers from the Fort Sills, Okla.-based 2-18 Field Artillery Battalion rotated into South Korea last month to join the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, which is stationed near the border with North Korea.
For many, this was their first excursion into the city and their first taste of the traditional fermented side dish made of vegetables and seasonings, not to mention making it.
“It was fun making something new and unique,” Pfc. Billy Stephenson, 20, of Port Arthur, Texas, said before lining up for a hard-earned lunch. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
Photograph of Colonel William S. Mullins from the 8th Army’s Surgeon Generals Office delivering toys and clothes to Korean orphans from the November 27, 1967 Stars and Stripes.
Great job Major Hull!:
A 2nd Infantry Division aviation officer who leapt into an out-of-control boat to save five people from drowning has been awarded the Soldier’s Medal.
On leave from a tour to South Korea, Maj. Richard Hull, 35, of St. Petersburg, Fla., set out last Sept. 2 in a friend’s boat on a fishing trip from Nantucket Harbor, Mass.
As they headed for open water, the pair spied a small, inflatable, hard-bottom boat approaching an opening in a rock jetty. The vessel struck the jetty, and three men and two women were flung into the water, Hull said.
“They were calling for help, and their boat was going around in circles with the engine running,” he recalled.
To everyone’s horror, the pilotless boat nearly struck the people in the water, Hull said.
“The adrenalin was similar to being in Iraq,” said the veteran of two desert deployments.
Thinking fast, Hull’s friend, John Perone, maneuvered his boat to slow the stricken craft, allowing Hull to leap into it and bring it under control.
Hull then maneuvered the inflatable boat to rescue the people in the water. He stayed aboard, bailing water, while the Coast Guard arrived and towed it to shore. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link.
The Korean netizens and anti-US groups will assuredly keep talking about these two soldiers, but I can guarantee you won’t hear them talking about these soldiers:
Two 2nd Aviation Regiment soldiers traveling on a snowy highway last Friday said they reacted automatically when they spotted a car wrapped around a telephone pole with one bloody passenger hanging out a window.
“We have to stop, was the first thing Staff Sgt. Kimberly Veal, of the regiment’s Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Attack), told the driver, Pfc. Bradley Herron, of the same unit.
They found three others in the car: one dead, another injured and another who appeared unhurt.
During a phone interview Monday, both Herron and Veal said they were shocked to see people driving past the crumpled car without stopping to offer help. [Stars & Stripes]
No one stopping to offer help at the scene of an accident? I’m shocked I tell you. Anyway make sure to read the whole thing because these soldiers did go above and beyond the call of duty trying to aid the people trapped in the vehicle. Great job by these two soldiers.
The Stars & Stripes bringing you another story that will never make headlines in the Korean media:
A group of 8th U.S. Army soldiers traded their uniforms for oil-resistant coveralls and rubber boots Wednesday to help clean up the worst oil spill in South Korean history.
Forty-five soldiers boarded a bus at Yongsan Garrison early Wednesday for the three-hour trip to Baeknipo Beach, in Taean Coastline National Park, where they donned protective gear and used old clothing to scrub oil off rocks.
Thousands of South Korean workers have been laboring on the coast since a barge came free from its tugboats in rough waters and smashed into a Hong Kong supertanker seven miles from shore on Dec. 7, spilling 10,500 tons of oil. [Stars & Stripes]
Yongsan was able to get 200 soldiers to volunteer over the next six days with the clean up. That is a great turn out and what will be even more impressive is if USFK can get all the posts involved and keep clean up volunteers going to Taean for the next few weeks to provide the long term help needed to clean the coast line.
This statement from a Korean volunteer really shows the potential long term impact these soldiers who are volunteering are having on the people they are interacting with:
The soldiers eagerness impressed Korean volunteers at the beach.
I’m really thankful that the Americans came out to help, said Lee Hae-choon, a volunteer from Asan. Not even all the Koreans are helping, so the U.S. soldiers coming is really incredible.
This Koreans reaction is not unusual. I have met many Koreans indoctrinated by the Korean media’s constant negative depictions of GIs, who always react with astonishment when the stereotype doesn’t match the GIs they actually meet for the first time. Likewise the same can be said when GIs actually meet real Koreans from outside the ville who also do not match the stereotypical Korean found in the ville areas of USFK. This was a great idea by whoever organized it and outstanding job by the troops who are taking part in the clean up.
Here is a good news story, that USFK will never get credit for in the Korean media, that was published in the Stars and Stripes:
Orphans from Dongducheon got a taste of holiday fun here Thursday at a Thanksgiving feast served up by 2nd Infantry Division soldiers.
The dinner, served at the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment Dining Facility, was for children from the My Home Orphanage. It was part of the division’s Good Neighbor Program, said 2nd Lt. Tae H. Rose with Headquarters Headquarters Company, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team.
Rose, 34, who was born in South Korea but raised by adoptive relatives in New York City, said he felt a special bond with the My Home kids.
“My parents both passed away when I was a child. My aunt was married to a GI and she adopted me,?explained Rose, who grew up speaking English but studied Korean in college.
After graduating, he worked five years for an advertising agency in South Korea to hone his language skills before joining the Army five years ago. South Korea is his first overseas tour, he said.
Soldiers with his unit visit My Home regularly to play with the orphans there, he said.
This is a common event throughout USFK spending time with children from the orphanages not only during the Holidays but also during regular weekends. There is never a shortage of volunteers to go spend time with kid’s at orphanages or other activities like teaching English at area public schools.
However, all the good will these soldiers create is always seems to be negated by a couple of idiots getting drunk and standing on top of a taxi and the story is spread all over the Korean media.
