Osan AFB- your thoughts?

[daveleau]

Hi everybody!

What are your thoughts about living at Osan AFB, South Korea? A slot opened up for a short tour, and depending on how short it is, I may sign up.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Balbatish]

Hi everybody!

What are your thoughts about living at Osan AFB, South Korea? A slot opened up for a short tour, and depending on how short it is, I may sign up.

Thanks!
Dave

Are you married? I'm not sure how they do things on the Airforce side of the house, but a genreal rule of thumb, is that Family can't go with you to Korea.

 

[daveleau]

It would be unaccompanied. It would be a chance for me to be a chief in a major war planning situation as a young CGO, which is why I am thinking of it. The issue is the duration and the safety. I would not want to volunteer if going off-base would be a hazzard of kidnapping or terrorism or if the assigned short tour was 2 years.

 

[E_Powers]

When my dad was stationed over on Okinawa, my mom got a chance to go to Korea with another enlisted mom. She said she loved her visit but wouldnt want to live there. Personally i think if one is single any forein assignment would be a positive experiance. on top of that basically any thing else a christian would say

 

[Balbatish]

It would be unaccompanied. It would be a chance for me to be a chief in a major war planning situation as a young CGO, which is why I am thinking of it. The issue is the duration and the safety. I would not want to volunteer if going off-base would be a hazzard of kidnapping or terrorism or if the assigned short tour was 2 years.

Do it. If for no other reason, just to say you have been to Korea.

You can do two years standing on yer head


P.S- As far as being Kidnapped, from what I remember, it doesn't really exist in South Korea.

 

[Sybaris]

Been to SK a zillion times. Never been to Osan though.

Kidnapping and terrorism? I think that's more of a threat from the forces there than from the locals.

 

[Balbatish]

Kidnapping and terrorism? I think that's more of a threat from the forces there than from the locals.

You mean the ROK military forces?

 

[Glaz]

Osan is like the 5 star resort of US military bases in Korea. Don't know where you get this fear of being kidnapped from, never heard about that happening when I was in Korea. Korea is really a nice country, go for the good experience.

 

[daveleau]

I'm familiar with the kidnapping of Japanese, but have not heard of any kidnapping of Americans there. The kidnapping of the Japanese was why I was asking.

I was given some great guidance by my commander about the job. He was pretty clear that my impression of the job was nothing like the reality of it. Instead of being heavily involved in planning, I'd be sitting in the back of the vault for 2 years, getting few opportunities. I was thankful for the candor and did not volunteer.

I'm not ruling out a possible other opportunity there, but I was glad to hear that this was not the one I wanted before I volunteered.

Thanks for the help!

God bless you,
Dave

 

[NOSELF]

Well well well, what a small world it IS!
I have been in this lovely country for 22 months. At....yes thats right Osan AB ROK. Like anything it is what you make it.
LOL!!! THE ONLY HAZARD GOING OFF BASE IS SONGTAN SALLY. She is the most visible local prostitute and her request of "wanna go?" always gives me a warm fuzzy, not really.
Sounds like you are an occifer. So you will get to do something that all of us poor junior NCO's can only dream about, DRIVE. The curfew sucks, the 10,000 rules, suck, but then military without 10,000 rules is kinda like.......Songtan with out Sally
If you post on here then chances are you are a pretty conservative Christian type of guy. The area around base is party central, drink, puke, drink, puke, work work work, year done, go away. I dont think you will fall victim to the sins of Songtan, Or will you? Greater men have fallen im sure .
They have tours, you can go up to the DMZ and watch them give each other dirty looks all day (the north and south) you can go skiing, did it, had a good time, tours to Seoul (only 48 miles away) good shopping, they have baseball here, they have basketball (pro teams in Seoul). Seoul has a bit of history. It is a cool place if you get away from the party downtown. You have a big advantage too, you can drive, so you can just pick a place on the peninsula and go, well not Pyongyang but all points south.
They will tell you when you first get here. "Dont make songtan your only destination" This is true, as self righteous and puritanical as they seem at first, they are right. Plus, you are one, a Christian and two an Officer so your hands will not be left idle for the devil to put to evil use.
Hey, why are you in the military? Dont sit in the states!!! Come out and play. It is a big world and they are ALLLL waiting to meet you cowboy, so come on over. Sally says hi!
ciao

 

[Crusader05]

The kidnapping incidents were mainly of North Korean defectors who were speaking out against Kim Chong-il. Not so much against the average US servicemember.

Ask your intel troops about the current watch condition and threat to US forces in the ROK.

Everything that I've heard is that Osan is a great assignment and can be a lot of fun.

 

[daveleau]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I'm in training now, and the intel shop in the training squadron leaves much to be desired. If a similar opportunity comes up, I guess I could call me home squadron intel shop for some generic info.

 

[Crusader05]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I'm in training now, and the intel shop in the training squadron leaves much to be desired. If a similar opportunity comes up, I guess I could call me home squadron intel shop for some generic info.

Where are you training? If your intel shop cant take 5 minutes to look up threat conditions in the ROK (which should take literally one minute) that are totally useless. I mean I havn't even graduated training and I could look that up in a second. If I was in your position I would be very ticked off with that level of service.

But to help you out. I found the consular info on the ROK from the State Dept, it has some info, also here the link for our embassy in Soel. I didn't see any travel advisories issed since febuary of last year.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1018.html
http://www.dynamic-korea.com/

 

[daveleau]

I am constantly ticked off by the service, or lack thereof in the training squadron. Thanks for the links!

 

[Mirelys]

We're stationed in Seoul right now, and it's a great place! I've heard Osan is good too. We're with the Army though. I am non-command sponsored, but it's not been a real problem (more a pain).
It's quite safe here actually. I'm not worried walking alone at night, as long as it's not in Itaewon.
It has been a wonderful experience, and I don't think you'll regret coming over here.
Do I sound like a commercial yet?

 

[ACougar]

If your married I would avoid volunteering for a hardship tour, plenty will come along without you volunteering. If your single then I wouldn't miss the opportunity to experiance another country as culturaly rich and diverse as South Korea. In my twenty I had three tours over there, 2 to Yonsan and 1 to Casey, I hated being seperated from family but really learned to love the culture and the food.

 

[sqrn37]

I'm an AF cadet, but I was at Osan AB for a few weeks last summer. I considered it safe, even off-base and in Seoul. From what we were told, there are sometimes protests outside the bases there by the younger generation who disapprove of American presence in the country but even this is not a huge deal. There, protesters need to send up paperwork to do it, so the base knows in advance and just stays clear of it. We were told that the worst that may happen if an American military member ends up near one of these is the group trying to incite a reaction (i.e. verbally or perhaps pushing the person, to try to get them to respond with violence, which can then be turned around against Americans). There are numerous long-time business owners right outside of Osan who keep the base informed of what's going on also, since they hear things from other S. Koreans. The business owners are very thankful for Americans being there and when talking with one of them, he said that a mistake he thinks his generation made with their children was shielding them from the bad thta had happened in the past. The result of this is that they don't realize and appreciate why Americans are there. That was a bit of a tangent, but hopefully it at made for a little bit of interesting reading. Also, Osan offers trips up to visit the DMZ, a very memorable experience.

 

[HumbleSiPilot77]

Hey there bud,

I am stationed at Cp Humphreys, very close to Osan AB, and will be glad to answer any questions you might have. Depending on the length of your tour, I don't think you will be upset with Osan, for the experience, I say give it a shot, Osan is pretty decent. That is where we all go shopping...

 

[Saysimba]

Hi everybody!

What are your thoughts about living at Osan AFB, South Korea? A slot opened up for a short tour, and depending on how short it is, I may sign up.

Thanks!
Dave

Dave, after spending 4 years in the ROK many moons ago, I can say I know a little about Osan. Great place, even though I was army. Had better R and R facilities, so thats where I went whenever I wanted just that.

If you are single, no sweat. If you are married, think about taking your wife, even if it means putting her up in a hootch in the village. Otherwise, the temptations are going to be to great. She can teach English and make a grand a month doing that only an hour or two a week with ten students.

Lots more, but this is a start.

 

[USincognito]

My dad did an unaccompanied tour to Kunsan in the late 70s and while he enjoyed the travel and cultural aspects, he missed being away from his family and apparently fresh whole milk (he drank almost a half gallon during his leave at the mid-point).

With Clark being closed and operations in Thailand being very limited since 1973, if you're going to head to east Asia for an assignment, you could do much worse than Osan.