25 January 2007
Today we finished our Junior Leaders Safety Course (JLSC) which was at Camp Stanley, our 1 hour bus ride away. The class was for the junior leaders - the people who work most directly with the soldiers while in a leadership position, team leaders and squad leaders (sergeants and staff sergeants), W1 - warrant officers, and 2LTs who, like me, are going to be the platoon leaders. We had to learn about the security and safety risks here in Area 1 of Korea...everything in 2ID land...everything north of Seoul. The biggest problems here are the prostitution and human trafficking, so we learned how to look for that, inform the soldiers, who to notify if we see something, things like that. We also had to learn about the hazards of working close to N. Korea, working with S. Korean soldiers, driving in Korea. We also were refreshed with some of the hazards found in daily training with vehicles and electrical equipment. The course overall obviously was very important, but a little tedious at times.
We did go on two field trips though. The first was last Friday evening to the entertainment district outside Camp Casey, also called 'the ville' or downrange. We walked through a couple bars to see the potential hazards that comes with drunk soldiers looking to hook up with the 'juicy girls' as the women working the entertainment establishments here are called. Yesterday we drove out to four different 'accident sites' where military vehicles had some type of fatal accident because of leadership failures and human error. It wasn't exactly necessary to drive to these places to understand the point, but it was fun to see a little more of Korea. I definitely was exposed to a part of Korea I had yet to physically see, the threat of N. Korea. The first accident site we off loaded the buses to see was in rice patties. It's winter here, so the ground is frozen and the crops are all just stubbles between the rows of raised dirt. In the fields, though, are black bags, about the size of a backpack, some the size of a can of coffee, with white stakes, some had blue tips, some had red tips. What we learned was that they were land mines, placed in the field during the winter in order to disable and N. Korean tanks or other vehicles as they advanced into S. Korea. They're not there in the summer because the ground is too soft and the vehicles get stuck. Another physical deterrent we saw were rock pilings, or would be if N. Korea came south. Along the side of several of the very narrow country roads were cement structures that looked like unfinished overhead passes. There are explosives within the structures that the S. Korean army would set off, causing the cement to pile in the road and thus blocking the N. Koreans. It was interesting, scary, and comforting all at the same time.
Another funny thing about our 'accident site' filed trip was that it was supposed to show us that accidents are avoidable, but we actually got in an accident during the trip. I actually didn't because I wasn't in the bus that hit the hay truck, but 'the ghetto' bus we came to call it, hit a hay truck, but no one stopped, because that's just what happens in Korea, you hit something, you keep going. The bus driver of 'the ghetto' bus also didn't fill up with gas before we left Stanley, so at our last site he siphoned gas from our bus with a tube he found on the side of the road. So imagine 60+ Junior Leaders all out on the side of the road in S. Korea watching 'the ghetto' bus almost go over the edge of the hill while trying to siphon gas. Then to top it all off, on the way back our bus driver ended up cutting of an eliminator (we named it that, for the big brother of the terminator which are basically trash trucks, but they cause lots of damage). So this eliminator was tailing us, swerving to try and get around us, running through intersections. Had we not already seen pictures of accidents involving these huge trucks it would have been a lot funnier, but it was a little scary at the time.
Today we finished the course, so we checked in with our units. We talked with the 1SG (senior non-commissioned officer of the company). He's pretty into running, so Saturday we're running up a mountain, welcome to Korea. We met some of the other senior sergeants who are platoon sergeants. We were out with the Battalion while the BC gave awards for excellent performance while in the field the past two weeks. It was fun to see, nice to see soldiers getting recognized, and interesting to hear what types of things the soldiers did to go the extra mile, simply because it's there job and that's what they do.
I'll be the evacuation platoon leader. Basically my job with be to coordinate with maneuver units here at Stanley - the infantry and armor units - and make sure they have adequate medical care while in the field. There are about 12 different ambulances I'll be in charge off, 6 tracked vehicles and 6 FLAs - wheeled ambulances. The platoon sergeant is new also, so we'll get to learn the job together.
We did go on two field trips though. The first was last Friday evening to the entertainment district outside Camp Casey, also called 'the ville' or downrange. We walked through a couple bars to see the potential hazards that comes with drunk soldiers looking to hook up with the 'juicy girls' as the women working the entertainment establishments here are called. Yesterday we drove out to four different 'accident sites' where military vehicles had some type of fatal accident because of leadership failures and human error. It wasn't exactly necessary to drive to these places to understand the point, but it was fun to see a little more of Korea. I definitely was exposed to a part of Korea I had yet to physically see, the threat of N. Korea. The first accident site we off loaded the buses to see was in rice patties. It's winter here, so the ground is frozen and the crops are all just stubbles between the rows of raised dirt. In the fields, though, are black bags, about the size of a backpack, some the size of a can of coffee, with white stakes, some had blue tips, some had red tips. What we learned was that they were land mines, placed in the field during the winter in order to disable and N. Korean tanks or other vehicles as they advanced into S. Korea. They're not there in the summer because the ground is too soft and the vehicles get stuck. Another physical deterrent we saw were rock pilings, or would be if N. Korea came south. Along the side of several of the very narrow country roads were cement structures that looked like unfinished overhead passes. There are explosives within the structures that the S. Korean army would set off, causing the cement to pile in the road and thus blocking the N. Koreans. It was interesting, scary, and comforting all at the same time.
Another funny thing about our 'accident site' filed trip was that it was supposed to show us that accidents are avoidable, but we actually got in an accident during the trip. I actually didn't because I wasn't in the bus that hit the hay truck, but 'the ghetto' bus we came to call it, hit a hay truck, but no one stopped, because that's just what happens in Korea, you hit something, you keep going. The bus driver of 'the ghetto' bus also didn't fill up with gas before we left Stanley, so at our last site he siphoned gas from our bus with a tube he found on the side of the road. So imagine 60+ Junior Leaders all out on the side of the road in S. Korea watching 'the ghetto' bus almost go over the edge of the hill while trying to siphon gas. Then to top it all off, on the way back our bus driver ended up cutting of an eliminator (we named it that, for the big brother of the terminator which are basically trash trucks, but they cause lots of damage). So this eliminator was tailing us, swerving to try and get around us, running through intersections. Had we not already seen pictures of accidents involving these huge trucks it would have been a lot funnier, but it was a little scary at the time.
Today we finished the course, so we checked in with our units. We talked with the 1SG (senior non-commissioned officer of the company). He's pretty into running, so Saturday we're running up a mountain, welcome to Korea. We met some of the other senior sergeants who are platoon sergeants. We were out with the Battalion while the BC gave awards for excellent performance while in the field the past two weeks. It was fun to see, nice to see soldiers getting recognized, and interesting to hear what types of things the soldiers did to go the extra mile, simply because it's there job and that's what they do.
I'll be the evacuation platoon leader. Basically my job with be to coordinate with maneuver units here at Stanley - the infantry and armor units - and make sure they have adequate medical care while in the field. There are about 12 different ambulances I'll be in charge off, 6 tracked vehicles and 6 FLAs - wheeled ambulances. The platoon sergeant is new also, so we'll get to learn the job together.
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