In 95 I was only there TDY. My full one year "vacation" was in 88-89. I was stationed at Osan but often worked at CP-T and Seoul.

I loved the food, and the shopping, before the Olympics was nice. Like the USA, I met a lot of different types of people - the good, the bad, and the ugly.. Most of the time, if you treated them with respect, they would treat you with respect. But I honestly did not believe in the mission over there. Often I thought our job was to keep the South Koreans for invading the North.

In 95, I was up in Seoul. It was up there that I experienced something that would have been unheard of in the 1980's -- A shopkeeper was rude to us. Some of my friends said that the Olympics sure changed South Korea, and not for the better.

To me an American GI's life is pretty valuable. It is not a resource to be squandered.

Sorry for the rants, but as an old rusty GI, American GI's getting killed is a touchy topic with me.

My first time there, was in 94/95 as i said earlier. It was an "oh schitt" time, as we REALLY thought we were going to war soon at the time. (but that happens alot, ) My home station was at Osan, but i was rarely there. I was all over the penninsula. Camp Humprhies, Suwon, Kwang Ju, Taegu, Chong Ju, and a couple other places im probably forgetting.

The food was ok I thought, but some of the resturants outside of Osan were umm.. not very hygenic. (theres a story attached to that statement). I never did try Gaegoki. No thanks.

>>Often I thought our job was to keep the South Koreans for invading the North.

I've heard that ALOT. I sometimes wondered if it was true.

>>It was up there that I experienced something that would have been unheard of in the 1980's -- A shopkeeper was rude to us

I got used to rude, but some things were a bit beyond rude. Thats what i remember the most.

>>Some of my friends said that the Olympics sure changed South Korea, and not for the better

I heard that too from the old timers. Thats when they got "excessively proud" . Something changed in their national phychi (sp) with that event.

>>Sorry for the rants,

I have ranted about this far more then you have.

Please - no talking about 95.... That was not a good year. Though my time in Korea was very short - I had to stay less than 12 hours.

I will say this - I would MUCH rather have stayed in Eilot than have had to take that flight to Osan. I still wonder if I ever recovered all the a$$ that got chewed there.

Good to run in to other people who have done tours there.

As we used to say about Korea. If you have not been there STFU. :har::har::har:

Yeah, Korea is one of those places that one wouldn't understand unless they had been there.

I've been there twice, so i guess i have my license to b*tch. You know whats crazy? I never did take a mid tour leave. I got so used to living one day at a time, home became a distant memory. I had a choice, go on another TDY and build reventments, or take mid tour. I asked myself, "Why go home? There's no one waiting for me." So, i went to Kwang Ju for 41.50 a day per diem instead. :woot:

edit: Man, i made so much in per diem its sick. (I was basicly TDY most of the time) Give you two guesses where all the per diem ended up at.

Weeee.... business as usual in the Land of the not quite right.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/0...taliation.html
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...2__789751c.jpg

I just developed a theory, like 2 seconds ago. That theory is that the brinkmanship on the Korean peninsula, is on, roughly, a 5 to 7 year or so rotational cycle.

Maybe you will change your mind if you know that someone in that country playing SH4 with TMO, like me. :)

Joking aside, there are only few Koreans who deny the necessity of USFK, and over 80% of population think that station of US Forces is essential for peace in this region. In fact, many of us appreciate military assistence of US, including myself.

I feel sorry about your unhappy experiences about South Korea, but there are many more Koreans who like US - at least, don't dislike US - then those who dislike US. Minorities often use extreme measures to show thier opinion, so it may seems like that they are representing major public, but they are not, as KKK doesn't represent the majority of US citizen.

Our tree of prosperity is standing on the sacrifices of soldiers of foriegn and domestic, who risked and still risking thier lives to save freedom and liberty of this small country. It is shameful that some people ignore that fact, but most of us remember and appreciate it.

I just want you to know that.

Nice one there Scudhawk. :yeah:

Oh - and welcome aboard! :arrgh!:

welcome scudhawk

yep, there is good and bad in all, or in this case, some that do, and some that dont like the us.

Old Doug would say..."Told you so, we should have wiped those damn commies off the earth when we had the chance." :hmmm:

You take care....keep out of the line of fire, should it materialise.

good plan, thing is all the Liberals would complain and the POS known as the UN , with countries like Russia and China would prob :cry: Oh I forgot France.

Who the hell gave china veto power? they should be slapped.Was it Nixon? :damn:

The same group of people who made the mistake of giving the US a veto.

The only way the nuclear powers (US, China, USSR, France, and UK) would agree to the charter of the UN is if they had special perks.

In the UN, all member states are equal, it is just that those with the nukes are more equal that the others.

Article 27 paragraph 3 of the UN Charter has been a travesty since the incorporation of the United Nations. Fat chance any of the nuke-five will ever agree to change paragraph 3 though, so we are stuck with it.

I can understand the nuke-five being permanent members of the SC, but that veto rule makes the SC an undemocratic oligarchy, and with the history of the misuse (abuse?) of Article 39, an oligarchy is not in the best interest of the member states.

The permanent members of the security council were the major members of the Allies in WWII. When the Nationalist were chased off the mainland on to Taiwan the members of the UN voted to make the PRC the "Recognized" China in the UN.

Spot on sir :salute: