Daegu Air Base, Daegu, Republic of Korea - Part 2

Daegu (Korean: 대구) literally  means 'large hill', formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea, the fourth-largest after Seoul, Busan and Incheon, with over 2.5 million residents. In the middle of the city, you can climb Mt. Palgongsan in the Apsan mountain range to get an amazing bird’s eye view of this huge city! The Samsung Lions are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982 based in Daegu. Their home stadium is Daegu Samsung Lions Park. They have won the Korean Series eight times. The Samsung Lions is the first team to win four consecutive Korean Series titles (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) and are also the first Korean team ever to win a regular league title for five consecutive years (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015). If you’ve never been to a Korean baseball game, it is truly a must when visiting this country.

Though South Korea is a very beautiful and modern country, continual acts of aggression by the North and the simulation of invasion exercises carried on in the south are reminders that the tension between the two countries are still very much alive.  The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War. It experienced the destruction of virtually all of Korea's major cities, thousands of massacres by both sides, including the mass killing of tens of thousands of suspected communists by the South Korean government, and the torture and starvation of prisoners of war by the North Korean military. The Korean War has been called “the Forgotten War” in the United States, where coverage of the 1950s conflict was censored and its memory decades later is often overshadowed by World War II and the Vietnam War. However, since neither North nor South Korea had achieved its goal: the destruction of the opposing regime and reunification of the divided peninsula, this war still continues to this day.  It’s said that North and South Korean generals are still fighting this war; for them it has never ended.

I had a great time in Korea.  The night life was amazing – Thursday Party and Kikis were our places to go on any given evening.  If you wanted a cheap bottom shelf drink in a bag – Kiki’s was the place to go! Good food abound with Etoh’s Pizza in Daegu; a restaurant in Gwangju owned by a Canadian called First Alley Way, great beer at a brewery in Busan called Galmegi and of course you could never get enough Korean BBQ and what I like to call “conveyer belt sushi joints.” Oh, and Koreans love their chicken – eating and drinking chimaek (chicken and beer) and somaek (soju and beer) was an amazing aspect of this assignment! “Kam-sa-ham-ni-da” - thank you or getting in a cab and stating to the driver “pali-pali” – he’d get you there fast - were some basic phrases that one should know when going to South Korea! 

Much of my off duty time was spent running once again.  I ran races of various lengths from 5Ks to Half Marathons all over the country.  I ran in Daegu, Osan, Yeosu, and even an event called The DMZ International Peace Marathon in Cheorwon which sits directly south of the North Korean/South Korean border.  I ran races that were sponsored by military bases across the peninsula (both Air Force and Army), Korea’s National Marathon Association, and even the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency! One race I had signed up for – I spent the night in Gwangju – only to find out the next morning as I’m getting ready that the race was actually in a city called Gyeongju, some 135 miles apart from each other.  Needless to say, I didn’t make that race!

The people of South Korea – I always stated that the people of this country were the nicest, most charitable people that I’ve ever met.  That is – until you put them behind the steering wheel of a moving vehicle!!  I had a scary accident while in South Korea – I had proceeded through an intersection up near Osan Air Base and was broadsided by a Korean driver who ran a stop sign. This would be the first time that I would get a ride in the back of a police car!  Once everything was sorted out, it was found that the other driver was at fault due to the cameras that they have EVERYWHERE in that country.  I was actually surprised, because most places I’ve been, if an American gets into an accident –the American is at fault!  I still apologize to Senior Mike Ostrander from AFPET for totaling his rental while visiting us!

The people is what made this tour amazing – just to name a few that I worked closely with Chief Sigstad, Senior Sheridan, MSgt Bayse at 7th AF, Senior Killen and Senior Dobbertin at Osan Air Base, Senior Northington at Kunsan Air Base, Senior Noel, Senior Brancato, MSgt Sarten, MSgt Collins, MSgt Holloway, TSgt Northrup and TSgt Moore who I worked with at Daegu at various times throughout my year there.  And if you've ever been to Daegu oh in the last 30 years - you know how amazing Mr. Kim is! I think we set future rotations of Airmen up for success from our specific locations throughout the Korean peninsula and am truly thankful for their mentorship and friendship through the years that would follow.  And I can’t forget friends that I talk to even to this day; Adam, JD, Heidi, Sunny, Harry, Mike, Jessica, Meisha, Brandon, and many others who kept me sane during this assignment - thank you all! 

I had some of my most challenging moments in the military during this assignment, but also some of the most rewarding work that I had done up to this point in my military career.  I managed the inspection and maintenance of 345 Fuels Support Equipment assets, 88 facilities and 61 fuel trucks worth $269M with a team of 13 personnel.  A couple awesome achievements we had as a team on this tour in Korea was that we negotiated and oversaw the first-ever Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF)/USAF fuel pipeline shipment into Daegu with a receipt of 4 million gallons of jet fuel valued at 7.5 million dollars. In addition to that we worked with our ROKAF partners to hold a joint forces POL exercise with 35 military members from both the United States and South Korea, where we tested our war-time fuel operations and capabilities.  This was a great learning and bonding experience over a couple days working together with another country’s POL troops.  On a personal achievement note; I was ranked as the 3rd out of 54 Master Sergeants that were assigned to 7th Air Force in South Korea that year.  As stated, a challenging, yet amazing year!  So, so much more during that short year; all the driving around the country for both work and play, a trip to Disney World in Florida during my mid-tour, 17 tdy’s from October 30th, 2015 to October 20th, 2016 - totaling 63 days (the largest number of trips away from my duty station from any assignment I have ever had) and my first earthquake!!!  It was a great year of working hard, playing harder, running, flying, driving, and ground shaking!  I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

I left South Korea in November of 2016 and got home to my family in North Carolina the day before Thanksgiving.  From there, we packed up once again and started driving west to our new assignment – Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.  One last assignment on this amazing career, and the journey certainly continued……..

Until next time Korea!