Today we had a trip to Camp Humphreys. I was very interested to see this, knowing it was a US base. I was curious to see what it was like beforehand, if it would be full of a lot of Korean soldiers or only American soldiers, expecting to basically just see a big air strip with some hangars with a lot of cool fighter jets and other aircraft. What actually waited for us was quite a surprise.
Upon arrival, honestly if I wasn’t told it was a military base I don’t think I would have ever thought it was one. It looked like a small city or town, and that is really what it is. At some point in the visit, I learned that it is actually bigger than DC area. It has 2 elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, all of which looked even bigger than the ones I went to. It has an 18-hole golf course, plenty soccer fields, football stadiums, basketball courts, etc. and countless apartment buildings.
At the beginning, we were treated to a small welcome with LTG LaNeve to the base, where he told us about the importance of the base. He talked a lot about how important it is to have a good relationship with the Koreans, as well as how they always need to be ready for the threat North Korea poses. It was really cool, and almost anxiety inducing to see someone of such high rank in the military.
Later on, we had a lunch in the same cafeteria as the soldiers were eating. It felt like being back in the dining hall at school, except there were plenty of Korean people and the workers also spoke Korean. Afterwards, we had a tour in the sort of “parking lot” they have on the base, except it was full of military vehicles. We were guided around by some of the Army Engineers there, which we learned focus mainly on operation of the vehicles. We saw all kinds of things, mainly focused on how they can support others, as the Engineers can never operate on their own, they operate entirely on support of others.
Later on, we had a bus tour of the entire base. Fortunately it was on a bus, because if it weren’t then we would have definitely spent many hours walking around the huge base. We saw all sorts of buildings I mentioned earlier, some places where they take the vehicles for practice, some important office buildings and EU buildings, etc. This place was really huge, much more than I expected for a military base.
Finally, we went home. We got to the hotel at around 4pm, and honestly, I fell asleep right away. Even after some of my friends coming to wake me up and calling me, I was so tired I couldn’t even get out of my room. I ended up sleeping from around 4 when we got back to around 11pm. At first this was quite scary because I thought I wouldn’t have a good night’s rest for the next day, but it all worked out well in the end.