Hello! I'm in D 3/2 and we recently were deployed to Korea. 3/2 is split between Osan and Suwon- I personally am in Suwon. I'm just looking for any advice from those who have been stationed here before- any must-see spots? Anything to stay away from? Any recommendations?
thanks.

Anything I could tell you would not be current at all as I was last there in 1978-9. Korea has changed a lot since then.

IHAWKER I was there during the same time frame
78-9 B 1/2 ADA

Tonio45, did you by chance know a female 1st Lt. Polly Holmes? How about a CWO Smith, Cpt. Fackner, or a 1stSgt Sheets? They were all in 1/2 ADA at that time.

A must see spot to visit would be Pan Mun Jom on the DMZ (demilitarized zone). It will give you a first person look at why you are in South Korea. Other places of interest would be any number of things in Seoul, Cheju Island, Buddist shrines, and of course Korean war battlefields (south of the DMZ of course). There are a few national parks that might be worth seeing also. Good luck and enjoy your tour.

One thing you might want to stay away from is soju which is a rock gut liquor. Very, very, bad hangovers the next day.

IHAWER don't remember those names since it felt like lock down on a remote site.

Oh yes, I recall that "lock down" feeling all too well.

Yeah we had a bus that would show up on Sat and Sun to take us to Yongson from about 1100 to 1600. Missed the bus your on your own to include curfew

During my last tour there, for “troop morale” I would authorize the dispatch of a duce to make a P.X. run on the first Saturday after payday. It was against the rules but I figured it was well worth it to bend them a little from time to time. The truck would leave at 8 AM on Saturday morning and usually returned around 5 PM, fully loaded with all kinds of purchases.

Good call

quote:

Originally posted by IHAWKER:
During my last tour there, for “troop morale” I would authorize the dispatch of a duce to make a P.X. run on the first Saturday after payday. It was against the rules but I figured it was well worth it to bend them a little from time to time. The truck would leave at 8 AM on Saturday morning and usually returned around 5 PM, fully loaded with all kinds of purchases.

When you are in Korea, especially being stationed in a missile battery on a remote hilltop, you have to make do with what you have and you learn to improvise.

We had an excellent mess and a great mess sergeant, but I took it a step further. I had our Korean R & U contractors build a nice patio as an extension from the mess hall and a large rock BBQ. We would have char grilled steaks with all the trimmings every Friday night for dinner and a keg or two of beer followed by a current movie. If we were on “hot status” we would do it on Saturday or Sunday evenings, but it was always once a week.

Every few weeks I’d dispatch my driver with jeep and trailer into Seoul to load up the trailer with charcoal. After a few months the CID came to investigate what we were doing with all the charcoal, they thought we were selling it on the black market. We offered them a steak and never saw them again