Roy Rage - (Korea) Day 176

In the 8th army headquarters looking down at the entrance.
The 8th army logo is that pinwheel on the floor.

Work call this morning was at 0600. I've come in earlier than that before, but this time it was for a meeting of only two people. So all four of us came in to get a meeting ready that was only going to have two people in it. It was in the top secret conference room and there was the commander involved (the four star general), which is why the full setup was required.

The nice thing about coming in so early was that I had plenty of time to re-image the conference room PCs that had the security incident happen. Technically they are calling it a "data leak" not a security breach, but security breach just sounds cooler. This so far has actually turned out to be a good learning experience for me. I was able to image some machines for the first time and get everything back up and working correctly. We were able to take two hard drives out of other machines that were not being used. We will probably have to have the original hard drives (where the data leak occurred) destroyed. They are currently locked away in our office safe.

I then was able to catch a lot of the NBA playoff game. A bit later we had to setup for a meeting over in the 8th army building. We don't setup a lot of meetings there. Their building is actually nicer than ours and our building is the headquarters for USFK (United States Forces Korea) and United Nations Command which is pretty ironic. After we setup I headed off to lunch. I already had a major headache from not eating. I had two pop tarts first thing in the early morning and this meeting didn't start until 12:30, so I was getting pretty hungry.

I ate lunch in my room and was able to video chat with my wife which is always a nice treat. When I headed back to work I was able to finish up my remaining SkillPorts for the week. I think I'm going to be the only PFC who is maxed out on military education promotion points! Our sergeant then came up and told us he had some bad news for us. He said one of us is going to have to come in next Monday which is a holiday for us. The ROKs want to use the conference room and the officers in our office told them it was no problem. This isn't a problem for them because they will all be having the day off, spending quality time with their family and enjoying all of what the holiday has to offer them. They will probably be kicking back and taking it easy. They may even stay in their pajamas all day…the sky is the limit. For one of us though, we will have to come in on our day off turn everything on, then wait around until the meeting is over to shut everything down and lock up. After contemplating playing rock, paper, scissors for it SPC Mick volunteered to do it. We had actually all planned to go to an amusement park here in Seoul, but decided to put it off until Tuesday because of this. I really think the officers should have told them "sorry, it's a US holiday and nobody will be here". I know if we needed a ROK to come in on one of their holidays it wouldn't happen.

Speaking of stuff not happening my sergeant and I headed off to our company to make sure some paperwork got done. I picked up a copy of my approved leave form and also a copy of my weapons card which shows my score from when we went to the range. The weapons qualification and the PT test are supposed to be updated to our ERB, but that never happened. So I took a copies to our battalion S1 shop and had them input the information. I also had them input the certificate of achievement I received from the exercise earlier this year. Now my ERB is almost up to date. Once I've been here 6 months I can have them add the Korea Defense Service Medal as well as the college credit hours I've finished so far this year. My sergeant says I should update it all the time I have something. I was going to wait until I got my bachelor's degree, but he said it's better to add each credit as you get it.

When I got back I filed all my paperwork in my "I Love Me" book. The we cleaned up the office and took off. SPC Roy gave me a call and asked if I would accompany him to run an errand. His father-in-law needed some paperwork picked up from the used car lot where he sold his car. This place was across town and was going to take a while because of all the traffic. I thought SPC Roy was going to lose it a couple of times because of all the crazy drivers. A guy cut him off and it led to him pulling in front of this guy and stopping in the middle of the road. SPC Roy got out and yelled at him for a few, then got back in the car and we headed off again. While driving in Korea you just have to assimilate I guess. He hasn't been able to. The drivers here are all crazy, you just have to deal with it and move on. I can say that because I don't have to drive in it everyday…lol.

We stopped at an E-Mart when we finished. This place is like a Super Wal-Mart on steroids. I was able to pick up some treats to send back to my family and we also picked up some dinner to eat when we got back to my room. After we ate I checked in with school and then went to sleep.