One Year - (Korea) Day 128

In the parking lot near our office. An old man rides this bicycle here and
has his own little mobile car wash service. He washes people's cars throughout the day

Work call this morning was at 0800. We had to setup for the usual Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room. This is also the meeting that I run the two laptops for it. I had SPC Mick hang out with me so he could get an idea of what is done. The meeting ended a little after 1100. After the meeting was over, our sergeant, me and SPC Roy headed over to the gym to play basketball. There were a few others from various offices and we played 3 on 3. There were a couple girls playing as well. It turned out to be a pretty physical game. SPC Roy was guarding me at first and was hanging on me, pushing me, running into me and anything else he could do to try and stop me. One game I had a female sergeant guarding me and she was worse than SPC Roy! Even though she was a girl I still stuffed her every time she tried to shoot near me, you're not going to get special treatment if you're playing with guys.

After basketball we took showers and then picked up some food to go from the food court. I felt like something a little healthy, so I had Subway. We took the food back to our conference room and ate in the control room. There was another DADT meeting going on, so we could watch TV..but we had to keep it down. Evidently radiation is coming our way now from the troubled nuclear plant in Japan. Because of all the radiation that is flowing into the pacific ocean we will not be eating any seafood. I'm sure they'll say any radiation that reaches us will not cause any harm, but it is still scary. I think the government would say that no matter what so there would be no panic. I may try and stay indoors a little more…at least for a while.

After lunch I headed down to our office to setup one of the new laptops we got. I then setup a desktop up in the conference room. This will give us two extra computers now which will be nice. We will not have 5 people fighting over 1 computer. By the time I finished I was told to clean up and go home. The young hawaiian called and asked if I wanted to play basketball. I seriously considered going, but I can barely move after hiking to Seoul Tower two days in a row, then playing basketball today. I think if I would have played, they may have had to take me out on a stretcher. Instead of playing basketball I took a nap…LOL

After I woke up, I did my schoolwork and then watched a TV show. Another day down, in fact this month marks one third of my time here in Korea finished. Sometimes it feels like time is flying by, other times it can't go by fast enough. I really miss my wife and family. It kills me that I have to be away for so long. Today is actually my one year anniversary of being in the army. I've done so much in this last year. I finished basic training, an old man amongst a bunch of mainly young kids. It was tough, but also had a lot of funny parts as well. I met some good people and proved to myself that I could still physically and mentally survive. It kept me away from my wife and family for about 10 weeks, with very little contract. I was able to see my wife for a week between basic and AIT, then I was off again…alone. I survived AIT a TRADOC environment that sucked quite a bit. I hated being treated like crap and I hated being away from my wife and family for even longer. I pushed through and graduated at the top of my class…distinguished honor graduate. I also met some good people and was able to hang with my good friends PFC Metal as well as the young and old hawaiians the entire time. I think without the close friends it would have been much worse. I was grateful that I could have a phone and a laptop though. Even though I couldn't be with my family I could still talk and video chat with them…AIT was about 6 months. Once I was finished with AIT I found out that I was going to Korea…unaccompanied. WTF? I was hating life at that point. I knew I would be away from my family for periods of time, but I didn't expect to only see them for two weeks and then be away for an entire year. I've tried to make the best of being in Korea. I love the food and the people are great. I don't care for being a private. It's strange that I've been sent to school fully trained in computers only to serve coffee to generals. I'm glad I still get to video chat and talk to my wife and family, but because of the time difference it can be tough sometimes. I'm still going to try and enjoy my time here as much as possible. I'll be sad quite a bit, but I'll push through.

I've been in the army for a year. Basic was pretty much what I thought it would be. AIT was quite a bit crappier than I thought it would be. Korea has been nothing like I thought it would be. We'll see where I am in another year…At this point I don't care where I go, I'm just hoping that I'm with my wife. In one year I've seen my wife and/or family for a total of about 3 weeks! If all goes according to plan I'll be at my next duty station as a specialist in December and I'll have been living with my wife for 4 or 5 months…that sounds so good.

the wife

One day over, one more day to go.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 12:28 AM

mom

It makes me so sad to read your comments about being so lonely. Just know we are missing you bunches also and cant wait to have you home. Hang in there, you are doing an awesome job

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 04:08 AM

Brandon

It can get tough being here without family. I was just reflecting on this last year since I joined. I don't think a lot of people realize the sacrifices that are made by service members. I'll keep chugging along and taking it one day at a time.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 10:02 PM