From My Service in Korea, I Learned – By Paul Hooper

My name is Paul Hooper.  I am a retired USAF Command Pilot and Major.  My first assignment out of USAF pilot training was to the 345^th Tactical Airlift Squadron at Kadena AB, Okinawa as a C-130E Co-Pilot.  I arrived on station in August 1974.  My first operational flight was to Osan AB.  There were no rooms in the “Q” so we were sent off base.  At that time only the main road in Song Tan was paved.  The crew bus exited the base and immediately turned right down a dirt street lined with stalls selling vegetables and other food goods.  It was a short drive and we checked into the Clover Hotel.

The next day we flew from Osan up to A-222 a short field runway up near P-518.  We made two trips hauling troops to Cheju Do where we were told they had rappelling training and some R&R. Flew back Kadena that afternoon. 

In May we deployed to Kwang Ju AB to participate in Exercise Capstan Dragon which I believe was the precursor to the Team Spirit Exercise program.  During Capstan Dragon we participated in a sixteen aircraft large troop movement from Pohang to A-222. 

Over the next three plus years I flew numerous missions similar to that mission.  The squadron moved to Yokota AB, Japan in September 1975 and I continued to fly to Korea for individual missions and exercises.  We really enjoyed missions that required an Remain Over Night (RON) in Osan as we shopped for tailor made clothes, sneakers, old school clocks, stuffed animals, etc.  I loved my time in Korea and watched Korea grow and improve in just those few short years.  I knew and looked forward to returning to the Land of the Morning Calm.  I was assigned to the 1^st Special Operations Squadron at Clark AB, Republic of the Philippines in April 1982 flying the MC-130E aircraft.  We routinely deployed to Taegu AB, Osan AB and Suwon AB to fly training missions in the mountains of Korea and support ROK Army Special Operations in blacked out airdrops.   I participated in Foal Eagle 1982 and Foal Eagle 1983 operating out of Taegu AB.    During those two stays I witnessed one of the most impressive examples of Korean industry and hard work.   During Foal Eagle 1982 the traffic was detoured around the bridge and across the river bed.  We watched the bridge being completely torn down during our stay.  When we returned for Foal Eagle 1983… there was a brand-new bridge.  That was fast. 

We deployed to Kimhae AB for Team Spirit 1983 and were billeted in a tent city.   I was the chief of the Advance Team (ADVON) and coordinated the use of Harvest Bear materials to build a Combined Air Forces Special Operations Base (CAFSOB) which supported USAF and ROKAF 

My next assignment was to Headquarters Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) where I was the Chief of the Special Operations Division responsible for USAF Special Operations in the PACAF theater.  I deployed to augment the operations staff at the Combined Unconventional Warfare Task Force (CUWTF) at Seong Nam during Foal Eagle, ULCHI Focus Lens, and Team Spirit exercises.  

In 1990 while assigned as the AFSOF Liaison Officer to the John F. Kennedy Special Operation Center and School (JFKSWCS) I deployed to the CUWTF to augment the staff during Exercise ULCHI Focus Lens.

In January 1993 while assigned to the 1^st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida I made my final deployment to Exercise ULCHI Focus Lens.  Visited the Tree House and said farewell to many long time friends… American and Korean.  I returned to Hurlburt and retired at the end of January 1993.

I would never have imagined I would be given the opportunity to return to Korea 24 years later.  I was invited to participate in the development, operational, and acceptance testing of a Terrain Following System for the ROKAF C-130H aircraft.  I spent most of the summer and fall of 2017, six weeks in the summer of 2018, and six weeks in the late summer of 2019 flying out of the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) facility on Sacheon AB.  The best job I ever had.  Working with the ROKAF, KAI, and Elbit Systems was a pleasure.  During our time off we traveled around Korea like tourist and were able to visit Osan/Songtan, Camp Walker, etc.   

On 13 October 2017 we had what we thought was our last flight.  We did not think we would be returning.  The Sacheon Aerospace Expo 2017 was on-going at Sacheon AB and watched the Black Eagles demonstration from the apartment on Saturday and Sunday.  On Monday afternoon, 30 October, Ed and I took the bus from our apartment and went to the base to see the demonstration.  Our timing was perfect.  We arrived right before the Black Eagles demonstration. We were behind the rope right in front of Black Eagle #1 for start up, taxi, and takeoff.  We were in the same spot for the entire airshow.  

The Black Eagles put on a great aerial demonstration.  One thing that made it better than some airshows I had been to, was that the music being played over the loudspeaker system was choreographed with the flight demonstration.  As the eight aircraft flew up initial for landing, an announcement was made in Korean.  The Korean next to us told us he had said that two of the Black Eagles were performing their last airshow as the two pitched up while the rest of the team pitched out for landing.  As they pitched up “Time to Say Goodbye” started to play.  It choked me up and brought tears to my eyes.

As the main group of the Black Eagles were on downwind, the two aircraft flew over inverted, joined the team on the downwind, and landed.  But that was not the end.  As the aircraft were taxiing in, a ROKAF Warrant Officer came up to the rope and said “Please come with me.”  He lifted the rope and took me down the line to where they were gathering people to greet the team.  We walked out to the team and Black Eagle #2 gave me a Black Eagles hat.  

As luck would have it we ended up returning in 2018 and 2019 and stayed at the Sacheon Grand Hotel

What did you learn from serving in Korea? Let us know –

Sharing your experiences from serving in Korea can be a powerful way to connect with others who have had similar experiences. By sharing your story, you may be able to help others who are currently serving in Korea or who are preparing to do so. You can share insights about the culture, the people, and the challenges you faced while serving. Your story can also help to shed light on the sacrifices that service members and their families make in order to protect our freedoms. So, if you have a story to share, we encourage you to take the time to put it down in writing and send it to KDVA.MyServiceInKorea@gmail.com along with any photos that help to tell your story.

Your contribution may be just what someone needs to hear in order to feel connected and supported.

From My Service in Korea, I Learned – By Samuel Perry

I was working as a teacher in a small rural school in southcentral Kentucky when I received my invitation to serve in the American armed forces. Although I could have obtained a deferment from the draft board because of my job, I did not, preferring to serve my country instead as a citizen soldier. I reported for duty in September 1962 and received Basic Combat Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky followed by eight more weeks at the Military Police School in Fort Gordon, Georgia. Following graduation, I received orders for Korea. 

On February 5, 1963, I boarded the troop transport, Gen. Hugh J. Gaffey, and embarked for Inchon, Korea with stops enroute at Pearl Harbor, Yokohama, and Taiwan. On February 26, 1963, after 21 days at sea, the ship entered Inchon harbor in the middle of a ferocious and blinding blizzard and was struck midship by a South Korean freighter. Chaos ensued as the hundreds of troops on board were hastily evacuated onto landing craft. The freezing temperature, blowing snow, and confusion during the landing made my arrival in country an event that seared into my memory and is something I have never forgotten. I shiver just thinking about it. At the Army Support Command (ASCOM), we were fed and given as much hot coffee as we wanted and bedded down for the night. The next day, we were dispersed by rail to our temporary duty stations. Mine was at Camp Humphreys, a dirty little Army post located outside the town of Pyeongtaek. There, I spent three days before being trucked in the back of a deuce-and-a-half to Camp Huston, a Nike-Hercules air defense missile site some four miles west of the town of Yeoju on the Han River. Camp Huston was under construction and was the HQ of Delta Battery, 4^th Missile Battalion, 44^th Artillery. Military Policemen provided security.

Although my MOS was 951 and I had been trained as a Military Policeman, my duty as such ended when the 1st Sergeant learned that I was a college graduate and knew my way around a typewriter. Soon, I found myself sitting at a desk in a warm Quonset hut, out of the fierce Manchurian wind, pecking out numbers on the Morning Report and typing up letters from the Battery Commander. a physical fitness fanatic named Capt. Cole B. Whaley.  However, my desk job did not exempt me from those arduous runs and endless side-straddle-hops he ordered for all personnel.

Capt. Whaley rotated back to the States and was replaced by Capt. Leo P. Hobbs, a West Point graduate and Army Ranger. Although now deceased after a long career in the Army, Capt.  Hobbs, became, and remains, one of my heroes and I will be forever grateful to him for serving as a role model at a time when I most needed one.

In June, Captain Hobbs asked me if I would like to get out of the office for a few hours each day and teach school again. The new commander of Eighth Army was revisiting an old Army program to improve relations between the Army and local communities and needed soldiers of exemplary standing to serve as boots on the ground. I jumped at the chance and following a crash course in the Korean language, soon found myself on the faculty of Yeoju Primary School. Another soldier was being sent to a similar school in I’chon, two miles east of Camp Huston. His name was Sgt. Dale Perkins, who was later KIA in Vietnam. 

My mentor, and South Korean counterpart at Yeoju Primary School, was Mr. Park Kyong Sik, and I learned much from him about Korean culture, student behavior, and the rigid code of conduct that governed the children. I must have done a good job in the classroom because as the new school term began again in September, I was asked to move up to the high school level. I then started teaching at Yeoju Girl’s Home Economical High School, under the supervision of Principal Yun Suk Je. I taught there until I rotated back to the States in February 1964, serving in that capacity while also continuing to work as Battery Clerk. 

My work in the Korean school system required not only classroom instruction, but participation in teacher meetings. There, I got to know my fellow teachers personally and learn of the challenges they faced in restoring the educational framework that had been demolished by the war. As a Seonsaeng Nim (Honored Teacher), I also got invited to social functions and celebrations. Through these, I learned to appreciate the rich Korean heritage, the spicy cuisine, and especially the music, which to most Westerners probably sounded like noise. Not me, though. I loved it. Most enjoyable of all my activities, however, were the visits to the homes of my students.

My active duty in the Army ended in September 1964 and I returned to civilian life as a Reservist until 1968. However, I continued to regard myself as a soldier, becoming a charter member of an American Legion post in Arizona and a charter member of a VFW Post in Kentucky when Korea veterans became eligible for the Korea Defense Service Medal. At the latter, I served in many offices at the Post, District, and Department levels.

Six decades have passed since I returned home from Korea. My career as an educator was a rewarding one and I officially retired from the teaching profession after 31 years. Thousands of young faces have graced my classrooms, and I have spent countless hours counseling and seeking to serve as a positive role model, much as Capt. Hobbs did for me.  But I have never forgotten the seven months I taught in the South Korean school system. Shortly after I returned home, Peace Corps volunteers arrived at the schools. They were followed, in turn, by American teachers of English who labor there to this day.

The Republic of Korea today bears no resemblance to the fledgling nation I saw when I served there. When I see photos of Seoul or any of the countryside there, I have to force myself to accept that they are real. So much has changed. Camp Humphreys has morphed into something hard to recognize. Camp Huston is long gone. I suspect that the students in the schools are also different. They are products of modernity. It was their grandparents, the ones I taught, the ones who had witnessed the horrors of the North Korean invasion, the ones who had to endure classrooms heated by charcoal burners on frigid winter days, the ones who walked four miles along rice paddy dikes to get to school, the ones who competed for allotted spaces on the school roster, and the ones who listened intently to tall Americans in green uniforms who sought to show them that soldiering was not always about waging war.

I fell in love with the Korean people while I was there and that love is as strong now as it ever was.  Arirang still brings tears when I hear it and kimchi is still one of my favorite foods. When I looked out from the door of my barrack on that day in 1963 and saw a bleak land of bare mountains stripped of vegetation by the ravages of war and villages of mud huts, thatched roofs, and dirt roads, I thought I had stepped back into the 15^th century. But that landscape is no more. The incredibly strong, dedicated, and patriotic men, women, and children who lived there at that time have worked hard over the past sixty years to rebuild their nation and have bequeathed to future generations a homeland of which anyone could be proud. I am just so happy and thankful to have played a small part in the transformation.  

What did you learn from serving in Korea? Let us know –

Sharing your experiences from serving in Korea can be a powerful way to connect with others who have had similar experiences. By sharing your story, you may be able to help others who are currently serving in Korea or who are preparing to do so. You can share insights about the culture, the people, and the challenges you faced while serving. Your story can also help to shed light on the sacrifices that service members and their families make in order to protect our freedoms. So, if you have a story to share, we encourage you to take the time to put it down in writing and send it to KDVA.MyServiceInKorea@gmail.com along with any photos that help to tell your story.

Your contribution may be just what someone needs to hear in order to feel connected and supported.