By Some US Navy sailors stationed in Jinhae are doing some good work with the local community:
On Friday, August 19, 2011, 19 Sailors from Commander, Fleet Activities
Chinhae (CFAC) and its tenant commands joined 25 residents and staff from the Changwon Pulip Maeul (CPM) for a day of fun as they headed out together for a bus tour of the city of Changwon.
Sailors and children with special needs were matched up with one another. They quickly warmed up to each other and had no trouble becoming friends.Throughout the day, Sailors interacted with the children and assisted in transporting wheelchair-bound residents on
and off the bus for several sightseeing stops including Gyeongnam Provincial Art Museum, Jinhae Pavilion, and Jinhae Dream Park.
A highlight of the day came at the Jinhae Pavilion which is located off the Jinhae Bay. While the Sailors and CPM children were having lunch together, a high school choir director walked up and offered to sing for the group.The teacher mentioned that her students noticed and were impressed with what the U.S. Sailors were doing for the special needs children, and that they wanted to sing for them and the children. The choir sang beautiful songs and even performed a couple of special dance routines.
To this unexpected response, the Sailors caught onto the purpose of what giving to the community is all about. LS1 Hiram noted, “This was an extraordinary event, and I felt honored to be a part of it. I gave only a little but received so much more.” [Good Neighbor Website]
2:08 am on September 9th, 2011 1
Some PAO somewhere needs to befriend a few Korean-language reporters and push* them to tell these stories.
* wine and dine or some such
7:21 am on September 9th, 2011 2
I’m really curious as to why US forces in Korea aren’t more aggressive in these sorts of activities. Serving the community!
EX) A US soldier teaching english while stationed in Korea? It’s a win win situation. Korea pays for the teachers, US gets to station soldiers in Korea peninsula for free. Yeah!
11:14 am on September 9th, 2011 3
Because as #1 and #2 points out, the Korean media knows that these are all just publicity stunts to make the USFK look good on the outside.
5:32 pm on September 9th, 2011 4
Some units do a lot of community stuff- a number of factors, usually time and people, drive the train on that.
5:52 pm on September 10th, 2011 5
Wrong again, Tom. Obviously you’ve never met some of the people involved in these activities, who do the same type of things whether they’re stateside or some other country. It’s genuine.
However, the reality is that these impressions do balance out the negative impressions created by taxi jumpers and pro-North or pro-Beijing agitators such as yourself.
8:47 am on September 11th, 2011 6
@ TOM
My Certificate of Appreciation reads as follows: For exemplary volunteer services as a Community Volunteer by unselfishly giving 50 hours of your time to support the needs of the community. The talents you so willingly shared with the community have improved the quality of life for our service members and their families at Camp Humphreys, Korea. 22 November 1991 23rd Support Group.
Here is the kicker Tom. The only time I volunteered for anything in 1991 was for the Orphanage the unit supported.
There was never an article written about our time with that Orphanage. During my 4 years there was never any news coverage about our work with the Orphanage.
The point I’m making Tom, is that you have zero knowledge about what the American forces in Korea do. There really is no reason you should know either.
I will concede that in my later duty times in Korea, the command at Camp Humphreys cared less and less about the outside community. It seemed to become more xenophobic as the years went by. I was not happy with this either. As usual I blame the dumb-chits that were getting the promotions. I was either becoming much more intelligent or the officer corp was really starting to dumb down. I go with option two of course.
11:07 am on September 11th, 2011 7
Too bad Tom has never chosen to live in his fatherland. He could have done so much for those of his blood in need……Maybe he’s making up for it by being an especially wonderful Korean-Canadian and doing all he can to support Korean people in need there? (Not holding my breathe on that one….Or course, I do next to squat in this area where I live in the US too….
)
Anyway, Tom should have knowledge about these kinds of things given the job in USFK he once held, but like with his unwillingness to actually read consider what others write on here, he sees things the way he wants in order to fit his racial bias.