By Army Sgt. Maj. Christopher Seaton
I Corps
CAMP YONGIN, South Korea, Aug. 25, 2014 – The white Kia
pulled through the gate near a fuel point at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul as
Army 1st Lt. Jae Hyun Lee made a verbal note to no one in particular, “Okay, I
can’t drive like a Korean anymore.”
Lee, a company executive officer, and Army Staff Sgt. Min
Sung Cha, the unit supply sergeant, were on a mission for Headquarters and
Headquarters Battalion, I Corps. The two U.S. soldiers had just completed the
1.5-hour drive north from the unit’s life support area in Yongin, where the
corps stood up for Exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2014. Since the two soldiers
arrived in South Korea from their home station at Joint Base Lewis-McChord,
Washington, they had made several runs like these.
Microphone-finding mission
Their goal that day was to find an omni-directional
microphone on the local economy for the corps’ video teleconference suite. The
two soldiers had to quickly find a specialty item in a foreign country -- no
big deal, especially since they both grew up in Seoul.
Lee and Cha are part of a group of 10 native-Korean speakers
assigned to I Corps. Four of those 10 speakers work for the headquarters
battalion.
It’s a statistic that battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Woodrow
Ishman Jr. says is extremely fortunate, given the unit’s focus on operations in
the Pacific theater.
“It’s huge for us,” Ishman said. “It’s great to have
somebody who can overcome the language barrier, knowing they have our best
interest at heart. Because of them, it’s seamless for us to get supplies or
make trips to the airport.”
Different backgrounds
The soldiers’ backgrounds prior to arriving at I Corps vary
widely.
Lee, a 26-year-old Ranger-qualified infantry officer, was
born in Philadelphia. He’s a second-generation American whose grandparents were
displaced by the Korean War. When he was a baby, his father got an
international job and the family moved to Seoul. Even in South Korea, Lee
attended international schools and spoke primarily English at home.
Cha, 43, was raised in South Korea and Japan. His family
moved to Olympia, Washington, in 1989 to follow opportunities. Cha got his
green card, but moved back to South Korea after a few years. In 1997, when the
Korean economy crashed, he joined the U.S. Army from the recruiting station at
the American base in Seoul.
“When I joined the Army, my English was pretty bad,” Cha
said.
“Was?” Lee joked. The two exchanged a playful laugh and
chattered in Korean.
The two soldiers aren’t translators. Nor are they in
specialty positions designed for Korean language speakers. Units that are based
in South Korea are augmented by English-speaking Korean Army soldiers, known as
KATUSAs -- Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army. American units training in the
country don’t have KATUSAs.
Ishman says he considers soldiers like Lee and Cha as
“extended linguists,” who also happen to be American soldiers working in vital
roles for the corps.
“Their language is an additional asset that’s really
critical to our mission,” Ishman said. “Our Korean counterparts see that and
they trust us even more because we have them on our staff.”
Multi-faceted roles
Lee and Cha perform multi-faceted roles in the command. In
addition to helping quickly integrate Korean army staff at the American joint
operation center, they also play a role in preparing their American
counterparts for major exercises in the unit’s new area of operations. Cha, who
also speaks Japanese, first showed his value last year as I Corps prepared for
the Japanese Exercise Yama Sakura.
“It all started in the motor-pool during [morning]
formations with Staff Sgt. Cha teaching basic phrases,” Ishman said. “He was
huge in Japan.”
Another Korean-American assigned to the battalion, Capt. Jae
Woo Park, provided a detailed briefing for family members in preparation for
the current exercise. Ishman said those briefings helped ease a lot of concerns
for the families of I Corps soldiers.
For Ishman, the Korean-American soldiers go a long way in
helping fulfill one of the major priorities of I Corps’ commander, Army Lt.
Gen. Stephen Lanza. His guidance includes the edict that the corps will remain
heavily invested in the Pacific.
“Having someone who knows what to ask, knows what to do,
because he’s from the country is amazing,” Ishman said. “All those little
things they can do to help us support the Corps staff make a big difference.”
For Lee and Cha, that impact doesn’t play a major role as
they maneuver their white Kia through the streets of Seoul in search of the
latest critical part needed to get a corps staff section back on its feet.
“A job is a job, so I’m not really focused on that,” Lee
said. “I’m an American soldier and I do what the Army asks me to do.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment