Today was cold and rainy, but it should be the last day of bad weather for a while. Unfortunately, we spent a lot of time today outside. We were at Camp Humphreys, the main US military base in South Korea and the largest US military base outside of the USA. Its even bigger than Washington DC, which is insane to think about. It’s highly protected as well, which is why we couldn’t take many pictures inside it.
We started our visit by watching a promotional video for the base advertising to military families, which wasn’t supposed to be shown to us. Then we watched the actual video we were supposed to watch, promoting the 8th division of the US army. The three-star general on base talked to us for a bit, about what they do at the base (train with the Korean military) and why they do it (deterrence and strengthening of alliances).
We had lunch at the canteen along with the other soldiers, and then began the main portion of the visit: touring the Engineer Corp’s motor park. We were led through the tour by the Engineering Corp major and a few lieutenants, who were very good at answering all the questions we had. We saw vehicles used by the Corp for training exercises, including military-grade construction vehicles, mine detectors, and troop carriers- one of which was from the Korean war! We got to go inside it, and it really put into perspective how cramped and claustrophobic the soldiers must have felt in the war. We also learned about what the army engineers do, which is maintain and operate the military vehicles on the base and prepare combat maneuvers like mine clearing and bridge building.
After the end of the tour of the motor park, we went on a bus tour of the base. It really is impressive how much effort has been put into making the base as accommodating as possible for the soldiers and their families. There are gyms, 4 schools, and even a Krispie Kreme on base. I can imagine people would be very comfortable living there.
That’s it for today. Until next time!