This was an issue I see happen a few times with soldier’s licenses expiring while in Korea.  However, what I found more common than this was new soldiers PCSing to Korea from urban areas who had no licenses at all.  Let me tell you it is interesting to see Master Drivers trying to train a kid from Brooklyn how to drive his first vehicle, a large HMMWV on Korean roads:

John Sevigny wasted five precious vacation days standing in line at a Department of Motor Vehicles office while in the States recently.

Sevigny, a civilian employee who works at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, had found himself in a Catch-22 situation. Because he’d sold his home when he took his overseas assignment, he didn’t have the one thing the DMV required before it could issue him and his wife new driver’s licenses — a utility bill less than two months old to prove he lived in Washington state.

The DMV wouldn’t accept his voter registration card, letter of employment, orders, passport, Department of Defense identification card or U.S. Forces Japan driver’s license. The final solution was having his brother come to the DMV to sign an affidavit saying that Sevigny lived in his home during his visits to Washington.

If he hadn’t renewed the license, Sevigny said, he also would have lost his overseas driving privileges, because U.S. Forces Japan is one of the military commands that requires drivers to maintain a valid stateside license at all times.

While Sevigny had to deal with Washington, each state has its own rules. Some make it easy for military personnel, but civilians who live overseas can slip through the cracks.

“The main differences between military and civilians are that most civilians do not benefit from state DMV military-only clauses and special rules,” U.S. Forces Korea Provost Marshal Office explained in a statement. “Some [states], but not all, allow online renewals, offer extensions, or have military clauses that state the license is valid as long as the military member has a valid military ID card.”  [Stars & Stripes]

Back when I was stationed in Korea if you didn’t have a stateside license or it was expired you could still drive a military vehicle with you military license, but you had to have a fully licensed driver TCing the vehicle with you.  Does anyone know if this still is the case?