Great job by these soldiers serving up at Panmunjom for rescuing this ROK farmer last week:
U.S. and South Korean soldiers attached to the United Nations Command Security Battalion in the Joint Security Area on the border with North Korea rush a South Korean farmer to a U.S. Forces Korea helicopter that carried him to a hospital on May 31, 2017.
U.S. and South Korean soldiers stationed in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the country from the North responded to a different kind of emergency last week.
A farmer in Taesong-dong, the only South Korean village located in the heavily fortified area, got his right leg caught in a tractor Wednesday. His mother, who was with him, called the village chief, who contacted the civilian affairs company with the security battalion at the nearby Joint Security Area.
Soldiers acted quickly, rendering first aid while the farmer was bleeding profusely. U.S. Forces Korea, meanwhile, sent a helicopter to medevac him to a hospital, Jung Dongho, a public affairs officer with the security battalion, said Friday.
The farmer, who was only identified by his surname Choi, was flown to the Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, where he underwent surgery for four hours. He remains hospitalized so doctors can monitor his condition, Jung said, adding it took just over an hour from the time of the 5:15 p.m. accident to get Choi to the hospital. [Stars & Stripes]
Great job by this soldier in Daegu who climbed a water pipe to assist a family during an apartment fire in Daegu:
A routine trip to the commissary turned into a lifesaving mission, Feb. 5, outside of Camp Humphreys. Staff Sgt. Victor Gomoimunn and his wife, Nicole Lysiak, were on their way to do their grocery shopping when she noticed smoke coming from a building just down the street from their home.
Gomoimunn, a petroleum supply specialist from Waterford, New York assigned to 339th Quartermaster Company, immediately ran towards the smoke filled building asking the gathering crowd if there was anyone left inside. Upon receiving reports that there was a woman and her young child still in their apartment on the third floor he ran into the building through the front door searching for a way to get upstairs to them.
“I saw the children standing outside and I was worried about them,” said Lysiak. “We know many of the residents in the neighborhood and when I looked up he was gone.”
“The building was filled with black smoke,” said Gomoimunn. “I couldn’t see anything and I couldn’t breathe.”
Knowing that someone may still be trapped inside he began searching for another way in, explained Lysiak. He ran around the side of the building searching for another entrance before spotting water pipes going up the side of the building. They happened to run near a third floor window. [Army.mil]
You can read the rest at the link, but Gomoimunn climbed the water pipe and helped a family get on to a balcony and was prepared to help them down the water pipe when the fire department arrived to fight the fire.
South Korean and U.S. navy troops engage in a volunteer service program at a facility for the disabled in Donghae, about 280 kilometers east of Seoul, in this photo released by South Korea’s First Fleet Command on March 18, 2017. (Yonhap)
I bet these soldiers learned that making kimchi is actually a lot of work:
A group of soldiers got a taste of Korea when they joined local volunteers Thursday to make kimchi for needy people while building community relations.
The 40 soldiers from the Fort Sills, Okla.-based 2-18 Field Artillery Battalion rotated into South Korea last month to join the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, which is stationed near the border with North Korea.
For many, this was their first excursion into the city and their first taste of the traditional fermented side dish made of vegetables and seasonings, not to mention making it.
“It was fun making something new and unique,” Pfc. Billy Stephenson, 20, of Port Arthur, Texas, said before lining up for a hard-earned lunch. [Stars & Stripes]
Sadly one of the USFK servicemembers who helped rescue a family in Songtan from a building fire has passed away from an injury she received during the rescue:
Staff Sgt. Cierra Rogers died May 20, 2016 in Florida from injuries she sustained in April while rescuing a family from a burning building near Osan Air Base, South Korea.
The 731st Air Mobility Squadron at Osan Air Base has honored an airman who died from injuries sustained while helping save a family from a burning building.
Staff Sgt. Cierra Rogers died May 20 shortly after arriving at her follow-on duty station in Florida. She was 26 years old. Rogers, who was credited with being the first airman to arrive at the scene, was hospitalized in the days following the April 29 fire in South Korea’s Songtan district and required surgery. (……..)
“This beauty was in the hospital when everyone was being interviewed,” friend Kris Murray wrote in a tribute post on Facebook. “[Cierra] remained calm and told the mom how to breathe in the smoke, then convinced the mom to throw her three babies out the window to safety where firefighters and a few airman and soldiers waited to catch them. Cierra got very hurt in the process while sliding down some wires and kicking a window in.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this article from the Osan AB public affairs office does describe Staff Sergeant Rogers’ action during the fire and how she sustained the injury:
taff Sgt. Cierra Rogers, 731st Air Mobility Squadron administrative assistant, was among the five individuals trapped inside the apartment. When they began to smell smoke and noticed a fire broke out, she reacted quickly to help the mother and her children get out the building.
Rogers explained that after realizing they could not go through the main doors, she kicked through one of the windows leading to the apartment’s patio, which provided the only means of escape from the smoke and growing flames.
“From then I made a decision because you can easily die from choking on smoke,” said Rogers.
Despite the deep laceration she suffered from kicking through the glass, Rogers continued to push forward to get herself and the family closer to safety.
She looked down on the alley below. She attempted to scale down the building using wires near the patio. A few steps down she slid down the wire, falling 15 feet to the ground.
Several service members quickly rushed to her side to provide self aid buddy care until first responders arrived. [Osan PAO]
You can read more at the link, but condolences to her friends and family for their loss.
Photograph of Colonel William S. Mullins from the 8th Army’s Surgeon Generals Office delivering toys and clothes to Korean orphans from the November 27, 1967 Stars and Stripes.
A South Korean boy celebrates with a U.S. soldier as he visits a U.S. Army air defense artillery unit in Suwon, just south of Seoul, on May 5, 2015, as part of a Children’s Day event. (Yonhap)
A 2nd Infantry Division aviation officer who leapt into an out-of-control boat to save five people from drowning has been awarded the Soldier’s Medal.
On leave from a tour to South Korea, Maj. Richard Hull, 35, of St. Petersburg, Fla., set out last Sept. 2 in a friend’s boat on a fishing trip from Nantucket Harbor, Mass.
As they headed for open water, the pair spied a small, inflatable, hard-bottom boat approaching an opening in a rock jetty. The vessel struck the jetty, and three men and two women were flung into the water, Hull said.
“They were calling for help, and their boat was going around in circles with the engine running,” he recalled.
To everyone’s horror, the pilotless boat nearly struck the people in the water, Hull said.
“The adrenalin was similar to being in Iraq,” said the veteran of two desert deployments.
Thinking fast, Hull’s friend, John Perone, maneuvered his boat to slow the stricken craft, allowing Hull to leap into it and bring it under control.
Hull then maneuvered the inflatable boat to rescue the people in the water. He stayed aboard, bailing water, while the Coast Guard arrived and towed it to shore. [Stars & Stripes]
The Korean netizens and anti-US groups will assuredly keep talking about these two soldiers, but I can guarantee you won’t hear them talking about these soldiers:
Two 2nd Aviation Regiment soldiers traveling on a snowy highway last Friday said they reacted automatically when they spotted a car wrapped around a telephone pole with one bloody passenger hanging out a window.
“We have to stop, was the first thing Staff Sgt. Kimberly Veal, of the regiment’s Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Attack), told the driver, Pfc. Bradley Herron, of the same unit.
They found three others in the car: one dead, another injured and another who appeared unhurt.
During a phone interview Monday, both Herron and Veal said they were shocked to see people driving past the crumpled car without stopping to offer help. [Stars & Stripes]
No one stopping to offer help at the scene of an accident? I’m shocked I tell you. Anyway make sure to read the whole thing because these soldiers did go above and beyond the call of duty trying to aid the people trapped in the vehicle. Great job by these two soldiers.
The Stars & Stripes bringing you another story that will never make headlines in the Korean media:
A group of 8th U.S. Army soldiers traded their uniforms for oil-resistant coveralls and rubber boots Wednesday to help clean up the worst oil spill in South Korean history.
Forty-five soldiers boarded a bus at Yongsan Garrison early Wednesday for the three-hour trip to Baeknipo Beach, in Taean Coastline National Park, where they donned protective gear and used old clothing to scrub oil off rocks.
Thousands of South Korean workers have been laboring on the coast since a barge came free from its tugboats in rough waters and smashed into a Hong Kong supertanker seven miles from shore on Dec. 7, spilling 10,500 tons of oil. [Stars & Stripes]
Yongsan was able to get 200 soldiers to volunteer over the next six days with the clean up. That is a great turn out and what will be even more impressive is if USFK can get all the posts involved and keep clean up volunteers going to Taean for the next few weeks to provide the long term help needed to clean the coast line.
This statement from a Korean volunteer really shows the potential long term impact these soldiers who are volunteering are having on the people they are interacting with:
The soldiers eagerness impressed Korean volunteers at the beach.
I’m really thankful that the Americans came out to help, said Lee Hae-choon, a volunteer from Asan. Not even all the Koreans are helping, so the U.S. soldiers coming is really incredible.
This Koreans reaction is not unusual. I have met many Koreans indoctrinated by the Korean media’s constant negative depictions of GIs, who always react with astonishment when the stereotype doesn’t match the GIs they actually meet for the first time. Likewise the same can be said when GIs actually meet real Koreans from outside the ville who also do not match the stereotypical Korean found in the ville areas of USFK. This was a great idea by whoever organized it and outstanding job by the troops who are taking part in the clean up.
