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Why Korea is an Assignment of Choice – By Charles P Borchini, Col, USA Retired

How Korea Shaped & Impacted My Life

Korea has had a POSITIVE LIFELONG impact on my life and that of my family.

My Aunt served in Korea with the Eighth Army Ordinance Office from 1962-1963. I remember

her talking about Korea and its people, and telling us about the churches she attended, to

which she continued to donate long after she returned to the states.

After I graduated from college in 1972 (with a low lottery number and a draft notice), I

enlisted in the Army and went to basic training at Ft Jackson, OCS and Airborne school at Ft

Benning and the MP Officer Orientation Course at Ft Gordon. My first assignment was as an

MP lieutenant with the 759th MP Bn at Ft Dix. I still remember many of the NCOs in my

company and battalion telling me about their tours in Korea. In 1975 while our battalion was

deployed to Ft Indiantown Gap to support Joint Task Force New Arrivals, the Vietnamese

Resettlement operation, I received my orders to Korea and I was ecstatic.

I arrived in Korea in April 1976 and was assigned as XO of Company C, 728th MP Bn located

on Hialeah Compound in Pusan. Our company was responsible for MP combat support and

law enforcement in the Pusan area. Our MPs guarded US military equipment that was

transported all across Korea from Pusan to the DMZ on the Korean National Railway, often

sleeping on open flat cars underneath large vehicles. When US Navy ships came to the

Pusan port, our MPs patrolled the bar districts where things usually got pretty exciting. We

trained in route reconnaissance, convoy security, land navigation and POW operations. In

August 1976 after the Ax Murder incident in Panmunjom, we tightened up security on all of

the facilities in the Pusan area and significantly increased our training and readiness. Our

company ran the Mess Hall for all of the units assigned to Hialeah Compound. We had a

fabulous Mess Sergeant and under his leadership our Mess Hall won every Mess Hall award

in Korea and the Pacific region, ultimately winning the Connelly Award for best small mess in

the Army in 1977. Gen Vessey, the CINC, came to our company to present us with the award.

Like many units in Korea, our company sponsored a local orphanage where our MPs

volunteered and donated funds. We also raised funds from across the entire Pusan military

community by sponsoring an annual AFKN radio marathon.

In January 1977 my replacement, Susan Anderson, arrived in Pusan and I was reassigned as

the Operations Officer at the Pusan Provost Marshal Office. Susan and I fell and we married

in August 1977. We both LOVED Korea and the Korean people and were terribly sad when

our assignments in Korea ended and we returned to the states.

In June 1986 we returned to Korea with three children. I was assigned to the 728th MP Bn on

Camp George in Taegu where I served as the Battalion Operations Officer and Executive

Officer. We had a wonderful two years in Korea. As S3 and XO I traveled throughout the

country, conducting night land navigation training, mobile weapons firing and quarterly squad

competitions. I often visited our companies located on Camp Humphries, Camp Carroll,

Camp Walker and Hialeah Compound. One of our units on Camp Humphries ran the 8thArmy Confinement Facility; we spent quite time there inspecting and auditing the prisoners’

accounts and responding to frequent Congressional Inquiries the prisoners submitted. My

family and I traveled to Seoraksan and flew on US Air Force hops from Osan to Japan and

the Philippines, visiting Tokyo Disneyland and Grande Island.

After we returned to the states, I was assigned to the 4th PSYOP Group at Ft Bragg and

visited Korea many, many times for exercises and planning. I met with the CINC, coordinated

with the Combined Forces Command staff and the ROK Army PSYOP Group and visited their

loudspeaker installations along the DMZ.

The last assignment I had in the Army before I retired was as Deputy Director of the 50th

Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee. Our committee coordinated and

ran many events and ceremonies to honor Korean War Veterans. We met several times in

the US and Korea with Gen Paik Sun Yup and the Korean Government’s Commemoration

Committee. We met many Korean War Veterans, including Senator John Warner from

Virginia and Congressman Charlie Rangel from NY. On June 25th 2000, we had a huge

ceremony in Washington, DC at the Korean War Veterans Memorial where President Clinton,

Sen John Glenn, who was a Korean War Veteran, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

and Korean War Veterans spoke. This assignment was extremely rewarding and moving

because of the many Korean War Veterans we met.

In September 2025 my wife Susan and I were blessed to return to Korea as part of the Korea

Revisit program sponsored by the Korean War Veterans Association and the Ministry of

Patriots & Veterans Affairs. It was a SPECTACULAR visit, beyond anything we could have

imagined. Almost everything has changed in Korea since the 1970s and 80s, high rise

buildings, new train stations, high speed bullet trains and state of the art industries building

ships, military hardware, automobiles and appliances. The modernization is a tribute to the

determination of the Korean people and the umbrella of protection provided by those who

served in Korea over the past 75 years.

My first sights of Korea remain with me today, of farmers up to their waists in rice paddies

with oxen and plows, with women balancing baskets on their heads, motorcyclists carrying

drunk pigs and stacks of baskets on the back of their motorcycles, and every shop we walked

into had a framed picture of Gen MacArthur hanging over the doorway. The Korean people

are the most hard working people I’ve ever met. During this last visit, the one thing that

impacted me the most was the deep gratitude the Korean people have for those who fought

and served in Korea. In the past, every time I left Korea, I had tears in my eyes wondering if I

would ever return. Now when I think about Korea, I have a big smile on my face and feel that

my wife and I did our jobs. We played a small part in helping Korea to become a strong,

vibrant, free, democratic society with state of the art housing, roads and industries and high

quality of life for its people. Thank you Korea!

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