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!

Daegu Air Base, Daegu, Republic of Korea - Part 1

After a LONG trip around the world, I landed in Daegu, South Korea some 20 hours after I left North Carolina on October 6^th, 2015.  My co-workers (all 5 of them) were waiting for me at the airport, loaded me and my bags up and drove the last 10 minutes to the place I would call home for the next year.  The one thing that I absolutely loved there, we were such a small presence, we would meet our new arrivals at the airport just as they had done for me.  That was an amazing aspect of this small, close-knit POL family that we had there!  I found myself at the forefront of this little shop with a huge mission.  I was assigned to the 607^th MMS (Material Maintenance Squadron) where our motto was “Just Turn the Key.” 

We all lived in Daegu but also were the caretakers of 3 additional bases spread all over the Korean peninsula with bases in Daegu, Busan, Suwon, and Gwangju.  All 4 bases were in a standby caretaker status but would be very vital to the United States if a conflict were to ever break out again between North and South Korea.  We had contractors on each of the bases and we would spend time at each site for a few days each month to make sure the bases could be opened up at a moment’s notice if and whenever necessary.  The 607th Materiel Maintenance Squadron maintains assets across these four co-located operating bases (Daegu, Gimhae, Gwangju and Suwon) and oversees the reception and bed-down of outside units to these locations. One thing won’t change. In wartime, it would still be the Airmen of the 607^th MMS who would get each of the bases ramped up for war — unlocking and organizing the ammunition, fuel, medical supplies, vehicles, forklifts and other equipment needed to set up a combat air base.

The United States has engaged in four military occupations after World War II and the one in Korea was both the shortest and by most accounts, the least successful. At the end of WWII, the country of Korea was divided in 1948 at the 38^th Parallel, with backing from the US sponsored ROK in the south and the Soviet-sponsored Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north. The Korean War started on June 25^th, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. It ended unofficially on July 27^th, 1953 in an armistice. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty was ever signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war, engaged in a frozen conflict. To this day, the leaders of North and South Korea are still in an on again/off again process to work toward a treaty and formally end the Korean War. A little Korean War history about each of the bases that we maintained:

Daegu - At the outbreak of the Korean War, the airfield consisted of a dirt and gravel runway and two concrete buildings. The airfield was designated by the USAF as K-2. The airfield was used as part of the Bout One project, an emergency program to train Republic of Korea Air Force pilots to fly the F-51 Mustang. The Bout One planes provided close air support to the U.S. 24th Infantry Division through July 1950. On 10 July 1950, the Bout One force was re-designated as the 51st Fighter Squadron and was merged into the 12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron on August 4^th. Taegu Airfield was abandoned following the North Korean attack on Taegu in mid-August 1950, but USAF units began reoccupying the base by September 23^rd, 1950.

Suwon - This base was originally established during the Korean War as Suwon (K-13) Air Base and hosted United States Air Force units. The base was evacuated on the night of June 30^th, 1950 in the face of the Korean People's Army (KPA) attack, but the base was not occupied by the KPA until July 2^nd, 1950. The base was recaptured on September 24^th, 1950; the base was again evacuated in the face of the Chinese Third Phase Campaign on January 5^th, 1951 and the base's buildings were destroyed. The base was recaptured on January 28^th as part of Operation Thunderbolt and by March 6^th, despite its poor condition, the base was used for the staging of F-86 patrols along the Yalu River and Mig Alley.

Gwangju - Though I haven’t been able to find much Korean War history pertaining to this base, Gwangju (K-7) is 150 miles south of Seoul. It was an active-duty US Air Force base until the ownership of it was turned over to the Republic of Korea in 1991. The ROK subsequently used the airfield as a base and airport in Kwang Ju City, the 5th largest city in the South Korea. The US Air Force continued to maintain nearly 250 acres of the base. The continued US presence was part of the potential forward deployment of US military personnel and equipment in a wartime scenario. In peacetime the base is normally used for training by South Korean Air Force units and US Air Force units on a regular basis.

Gimhae - The base was originally established during the Korean War as Pusan West (K-1) Air Base and hosted United States Air Force and United States Marine Corps units. On June 25^th, 1950, 10 divisions of the North Korean People's Army attacked the Republic of Korea. The North Koreans quickly overwhelmed the South Korean Army and moved south. On June 30^th, 1950 C-54s of the Fifth Air Force began transporting a battalion of the 24th Infantry Division from Itazuke Air Base to K-1, however the weight of the C-54s damaged the runway and later flights were made using C-47s. By April 1951 K-1 served as the headquarters of the First Marine Air Wing and Marine Aircraft Group 12 was based at K-1 to provide aircraft for combat missions and special missions.

To be continued……..