Ok, I have to admit, one of my favorite things to do is stop for a restroom break at one of Korea's infamous rest areas. These really are little travel adventures in themselves. First is the adventure of getting into the busy parking lot and then threading through the traffic to the maze of shopping and restaurants that awaits. Fortunately most places are dual labeled in Korean and English. I don't understand the custom, but all the men's rooms are quite open visually to the public. You can look right in and see the urinals as you walk past. One I've stopped at even had the urinals tangent to a large picture window looking out over a river. Little privacy for the men's side of the house. Can't speak to the women's, though I been told that can be an interesting adventure too.
But the real adventure is exploring what you can find. There is all sorts of unique Korean foods available in the little restaurants. Convenience stores carry their version of treats and snacks. Most are much healthier than ours, but I have yet to find a diet coke there. Usually nice coffee shops, but serving are 1/2 the size of what we would be used to. But the best are the Korean Walnut Cakes. Little bite size breaded pastries with chocolate bean paste inside that are actually the size and shape of walnuts. These are delicious and cheap for what you get.
I say I need a potty break but what I really need is my Walnut Cake fix.
Spring is finally coming to Osan. Still chilly today, but we've had some nice warm days.
It is also yellow dust season, which makes for some spectacular sunsets.
Have said goodbye to some great fellow airmen and am saying hello to some great new airmen I am looking forward to serving with.
Was out last weekend to a local orphanage where I was once again blessed by these wonderful Korean children. Not only did we play with them as usual, this time they demonstrated native Korean dancing for us. And they were really very good.
It is daughter week, so says my older brother (at least in one way I'll always be able to describe myself as "younger".). So in celebration of this wonderful week I announce that I have the two most beautiful talented daughters in all the world. I am very proud of both of them and will be glad to be back home with them again in a few months.
Monday was a great day to be a born and bread Tennessee hillbilly as our chapel staff tackled some steep rocky out crops in South Korea. This is Mt Dae Dun San. For April, it was a bit chilly and the cherry blossoms are still sleeping here. But as we the final four of us made our way to the top, the sun broke out and the view was incredible.
A fairly stable cable car took us about 1/2 way up the mountain. Then we began a steep ascent to this swinging (yes it swang) bridge. Then up this steep ladder, climbing between two rocky projections on the side of the mountain.
Here is part of the ascent from the tram up to the bridge. The steps were not typical of the rest of the trip up. This is a view of the entire mountain from the base where we parked. At the top the view was astounding. Looking down on the knoll we climbed to reach the ladder, it all looked incredibly small. It didn't take too long to reach the top though. Not really that far in distance but it was straight up (and straight down). Going down was harder than going up.
Then those of us who climbed to the top visited the little shops on the street as we waited for those who didn't want to tackle the full climb to finish up their refreshment. There were nice looking shops and restaurants. Ate some fried ginseng root here. This is a popular treat in Korea. Supposedly very healthy for you. Tasted like deep fried tree root. Lots of fiber.
We stopped for lunch/dinner at a very relaxing restaurant in the area. I had my traditional Be Bim Bop, but I did try this for the first time --- octopus.
It actually wasn't bad covered in pepper sauce. It doesn't have much flavor on its own and is just a bit chewy.
National Prayer Breakfast --- one of the Chapel's signature events. I was blessed to be on point this year for our Chapel Team's National Prayer Breakfast and thanks to the contribution of many folks I couldn't have asked for it to go any better.
First of all, I was most honored to have an esteemed Airman come all the way from Washington D.C. to serve as our guest speaker. Colonel (ret.) Norman McDaniel encouraged all gathered to "Keep Faith" not only with our nation, but with our fellow airmen, our families, and our God no matter the circumstances. This is something he is most qualified to speak on as he spent over 6 1/2 years in captivity as a POW in Vietnam.
I was blessed to spend quite a bit of time with him this past week. One day we visited the DMZ. Having participated in this tour I now how a healthy respect for those who stand their post there on that line and especially in the Joint Security Area. I will confess that I was very ignorant of significant history there. For example knew nothing until this tour about operation Paul Bunyan and the death by axe of a fellow Captain named Bonifas. It was earie looking north into the rugged mountains and seeing a lone North Korean sentry looking back. It was a cold and blustery place, and not entirely because winter has not fully lifted yet in Korea.
How different South Korea is. A few days later, Col McDaniel, my boss, and myself aided by our language specialist made our way into Suwon to visit the fortress there and have some lunch. Lunch was very good, as can be seen by the nearly empty table. And as we made our way up the incline to look out over the city of Suwon from the ridge the fortress topped, it began to snow - cold but beautiful, though I was wishing I had my hat. (Sort of one of the risks you run when you keep all your hair cut off.) Still yet, we took time in the cold to ring the bell of harmony. Far away from family, there was something still quite powerful about this huge solemn tone ringing out over the entire city in celebration of one's family.
The Prayer Breakfast itself was a very enjoyable event. It is hard to believe that it is already over. So much work goes into preparing a big event with lots of moving pieces that when it is over it seems like it flew by. But it was well worth it. The ROKAF (Korean Air Force) chapel here at Osan brought their choir over and they were amazing. I had the idea of inviting someone to do something like this from the National Prayer Breakfast I attended at Bolling where the AF Singing Sergeants performed. I have to say the ROKAF Choir was easily their equal. They brought their String/Wind ensemble and had liturgical dancers with 30 vocalists and I had goose bumps both for their practice and their performance.
Col McDaniel kept the crowd enraptured during his entire address. Afterwards people flocked to have their pictures made with him or to shake his hand. All week I saw how he naturally connected to folks. On the bus trip back from the DMZ, he had so impressed our Korean tour guide, that she introduced him to everyone and they gave him a huge round of applause.
Spring is trying to pop out here at Osan. I've seen the first signs of buds on the trees, but it is cold today, in the 30s. Lots of wind yesterday, big wind.
But in these sort of dreary dog days of spring with the promise of newness to come, is also a bit of sadness about our impending move to England. We have discovered to that England is a very difficult country to import a family pet to. Our dachshund has been part of our family for 14 years now. But my wife and I are beginning to think that the long trip locked in a carrier all the way to England may be more than our puppy can handle. For one, the six month process doesn't officially begin until later this month, which puts her arriving about a month after me. So either my family holds in the US for a while after my departure, or we find someone to put out puppy on the plane for us. But that isn't the biggest issue for her. She does not travel well in a puppy carrier. We're not sure about how well she will do in the transit or what the impact may be on her health. So we are thinking of having someone keep her.
But all in all, it will be hard on all of us to leave her behind. She's been part of our family almost since the first day we've been family. But our story is not unique.
Separation from family is not unique in military service. In fact it is expected and typical.
As I reflect over my five years of active duty service and my expected service until retirement, I realize just how different our lives as an American military family differ from the typical American family.
Military families don't have the full range of freedom that most American families have.
Military families are often told where they will live. It is not like we can pick up an move anywhere we want. The needs of the military will dictate where we live for the most part. We can ask for a particular geographic area, and the needs and desires of the family are considered, but in the end it is the posting that decides where we live.
Which impacts the continuity of the family's life experience. Mobility means a change in environment. Different environments mean different resources, both in quantity and in quality available to the family. This can be desirable as the base of experience is broader, but the consistence is less simply because the difference is greater. Personally I think the gain in experience is worth the trade off in continuity. I miss home for instance, and I realize that my children will not equate home with "one place", but they will be better equipped for the demands of mobility in our current world that come in many professions and they will be well equipped to decide "where" they wish to live as they will have experienced different places.
Take schooling for instance. Schooling will be interrupted. It will be eclectic because military families move often and schooling quality could be radically different from one location to the next. But most Americans are dependent on the community in which they live for the quality of the schooling for their children. Not everyone can afford private education. Not every community offers the same resources.
Different places do have challenges as well as opportunities in the socialization and upbringing of my children. Not ever social value and way of life is truly valuable in a scale focused on quality, especially when weighed by a value set that is shaped and informed by the vision set for by our God and Creator in the Holy Scriptures. I am a Christian and make no apology but only offer humble thanks for the fact that my values are shaped by the Holy Spirit speaking to me through the Old and New Testaments. I realize that to many this is "quaint" and to some "harmful" but I have found it anything but. That said, I have the challenge of teaching my children to think critically with an informed mindset regarding what the world around them offers them.
Many freedoms for military members and families are curtailed in comparison to the rest of American citizens. Mission drives some. Quality of life and concerns to keep a strong professional and competent military force with healthy families drive others.
We carry military ID cards. My card had embedded in a chip certain personal information. I have to provide the card when demanded in many situations. I find the current debate on a National ID card to be interesting when I hear fears about the "government" have so much personal information on tap. It already does so for those of us in uniform.
In some places, depending on the location, the mission, and the country we are told what we can and cannot own, sometimes what we can and cannot eat or drink, and so forth. Sometimes there are curfews. If we live on base, we can't bring just anyone over. Speed limits are very small and you don't dare go over or you can loose driving privileges. There is no such thing as one DUI after another. One DUI is usually death to an officer's career and will normally result in suspension of permission to drive on base.
So there are many restrictions. But the curious thing is this: the quality of life seems so much better. On base I'll let my children play in the front yard and don't worry about them. I let them go without concern to our activities centers or be enrolled in a program because the people volunteering have had background checks and are known to our community. We drive slow, but when I'm walking I feel safe because people do obey crosswalks. Smart restrictions and higher accountability, for us, in my humble opinion leads to a higher quality of life.
So what does this have to do with the dog?
I love that old elongated puppy. I'll never forget when my new wife and I went to look at these puppies for the first time in this dilapidated house trailer in Illinois. Out came a line of puppies following a toddler who was clothed in nothing but a diaper. And the last one in line, a little tiny runt of a thing, came over and put her paw on my wife's foot. (She still does that.) It was instant magic.
It will be hard to leave our little elongated puppy behind. But I have orders and she may not tolerate the plane ride. And the benefits to my family economically, socially, on all scales are so great in my head I know it would be foolish to sacrifice a career for a 14 year old dog. But the heart grieves the decisions of the head because this dog is a member of the family.
Of course we haven't fully decided yet. Decisions of the heart are often like that... stubborn to listen hoping for another way. And maybe there is. Perhaps that is a key thing about being human... logic does not always have the right answer.
The groundbreaking Women Airforce Service Pilots were buried without military honors and long denied benefits. But now they'll receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
(Quoting LA TIMES ARTICLE:) By the time the program was disbanded in December 1944, 38 women pilots had lost their lives. But there were no flags or military honors at their funerals. Their bodies were sent home and buried at their families' expense. The surviving WASP veterans paid their own way home and melted from history's pages.
The military decreed that their existence had never been cleared by Congress, and denied them benefits. Arnold's son Bruce lobbied for their recognition as veterans, a status Congress finally conferred in 1977.
This week, with fewer than 300 WASP members still alive, Congress is bestowing Congressional Gold Medals on all the trailblazing pilots. (READ FULL STORY HERE)
It has been a bit of a long day for some reason. Had a bit of time off this afternoon and perhaps had to much time to start thinking, but tonight I find myself missing my family and especially my wife. Be nice to have a cuddle in front of a fireplace. A year is a long time apart. But not an uncommon experience for those of us who serve in uniform.
When I came home from the airport my 3 girls all had flowers to welcome me home.
It's not too often that I've received flowers. I made sure to take photos of them because I want to treasure them in my memories.
My boss likes to describe Osan as jumping on and jumping off a high speed train. But for me it is more like riding a half trained horse that has lots of energy and stamina and will get you some place in a hurry, but you can't take your eyes of it for a minute. Let us just say, "I'm back in the saddle and moving at full romp".
I've been back from my mid-tour for about two weeks now. I am resting much better now that I know my daughter's surgery went well and she is now mostly recovered and on the mend. Last Sunday I was back in the pulpit. And while I truly enjoyed being at home and miss my family, I also missed not being in the pulpit. It was good to be leading services again. I have a great bunch of folks that attend the two services that I pastor here at Osan.
Moving full speed ahead (yes, echo from my navy days) on the National Prayer Breakfast. I can't wait. I know the guest speaker is going to be phenomenal as I have heard him speak and I know him from the time I served in D.C. Tickets are going like hotcakes.
Our staff took a day trip to Seoul for some team building which was quite enjoyable. Only the in military would I think that I, someone from the hills of East Tennessee, would experience an opportunity to eat first rate Chinese food in the capitol city of the Republic of Korea not only with Koreans and people born in American, but also someone from the Philippines and someone from Peru as well as (my goodness!) an Alabama fan.
Then I was on the road to visit with one of my squadrons that happens to be located in Daegu, about three and half hours from Osan. It was a cloudy day and the clouds had wrapped the rugged hills and mountains of the landscape tightly. But there was little participation. Strangely, it was cooler the further south we went.
On the way back we stopped at one of the rest areas (put rest areas in the States to shame). I had to get some of the famous Walnut cakes. I love these things. Walnut flavored dough on the outside with chocolate bean paste in the inside. Also bought some to share with the newcomers to our staff.
My oldest daughter had her "Black Saga" competition. Her team came in second and will progress onward with her next competition being held in Baltimore. She's been working very hard on this and I am proud of her.
Have arrived in Korea and find myself at the airport waiting for the shuttle to my base. The flight presented a pleasant surprise in that it landed an hour early from what my schedule had said. Now I have time to grab a bite to eat here at the airport before the two hour shuttle drive to Osan. Got stuck in a middle seat in the middle of the aircraft, but was still able to sleep for six hours or so. Long flight though. This one seemed much longer than when I first flew over in August, but I know it is a matter of perception.
I had a window seat down to Atlanta and it was a beautiful day as these pictures attest.
I am missing my family. The last few days my littlest girl kept asking me why I have to do this job anyway and why I can't stay for when she goes to the hospital. Hopefully she'll understand better one day.
One of my favorite literary techniques is the art of foreshadowing, which I first learned about during Advanced Placement English my senior year of high school. Today was sort of a day that felt like foreshadowing to me. It has been a sad day in many ways as I spent my last hours at home with my wife and children. It had me sort of thinking that this must be a bit what it feels like when one knows he is coming toward the end of his life and has limited time left.
It is harder leaving this time than it was in August. I think I am more aware of what I am missing in my family's life, things that I will not regain. My girls are growing leaps and bounds.
My little one is going through rites of passage like loosing her teeth. My oldest is also growing up fast and I am missing her band concerts and debate competitions.
My kids are not the only ones changing. I grew out my beard when I first got home. Boy has it changed - sort of gray now - hair too - this is the longest I've had my hair in awhile. I couldn't take it. As soon as we got back from Tennessee I shaved it off and cut my hair.
We visited some friends where we used to worship that we have not seen for a few years. They have changed too. The older I get the more I recognize how fast time flies and how little time we do have on this earth. But the upside of that is that the next six months are likely going to pass as quickly as the last six did.
So tomorrow I am on an airplane headed back to duty. And I pray to not have to sit next to some fat movie director who thinks because he is rich and famous he can sit in my seat too.
Yes, being a former fat person myself, I have strong opinions about this story circulating through the news these days. I heard something about a group that is working for "fat acceptance". While there is plenty of room for education and sensitivity so that abuse and bullying, especially in school, becomes a thing of the past - I truly hope that people don't loose sight that being grossly overweight is a harmful thing not a good thing. What Southwest did, in my opinion, was not bullying, but holding someone accountable for decisions he had made about his lifestyle and weighing his situation with the fact there are other passengers in his row. Just my two cents on that.
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