Frozen Dumbass

 

So it looks like another brutal winter for the people at Kunsan is taking place, however this year's snowstorm has taken things a step further - the base is on lockdown, and nobody can leave unless they have the commander's permission. Furthermore, the chow hall is closed along with any other eating establishment, save for the shoppette. If the roads are that severe to where adashi can't drive on to base, then how the fuck are they going to have the shoppette open?

It never fails to amaze me just how many dumbasses fail to prepare for these kinds of situations, especially when they've been baptized by fire, so to speak. By that I mean people who have been at Kunsan for at least 4 - 5 months. They know that there's always a problem with the heating, AC, or electrical grid, regardless of what time of year it is. I experienced this shit in 1995, when the base water supply stopped working due to lack of funding, and the local Civil Engineering people had to pump water into trucks from nearby Eunpa Lake. This nasty, disgusting sewage water was treated with the ROWPU equipment that was on base, and somehow it was safe enough to drink, cook with, do laundry and shower with. There were also times where you couldn't flush the shitter, because equipment malfunctioned, or there wasn't enough water getting pumped properly through the pipes. That pretty much set the tone for the remainder of my time there, along with any future trips I would make to that embarrassment of a shit hole they call an air base. I also learned that chow hall food was hella disgusting to eat, and the Koreans didn't give a damn how bad they fucked up the menu that they served. After all they didn't have to eat it, so it prompted me to keep my own food in my dorm room. After all I had a fridge already provided, so why not?

No, instead these dumbasses are standing outside the BX in the freezing cold, instead of grabbing an MRE left over from a training exercise, and making do with it. Even as nasty and disgusting that many MREs are, there are some that are half-way decent for such situations. If you don't have to go to work, then go back to your dorm room and wait until CE plows the roads and the locals can get to the air base to do their jobs. Otherwise, you're just a frozen dumbass who should know better.

You would think that after leaving Kunsan for the final time in 2005 that I would be long over it by now. Nope. After having spent 3 tours there and coming to realize how toxic and unhealthy that place is, and even worse, the Air Force knows better but refuses to do anything to improve it, I've come to realize that this shit will always stay with me no matter what I do or where I go. I remember in 2001 when there was a rash of suicides on the ROK, between Osan, Youngsan, the various Army Camps and even an attempt at Kunsan...medical leadership was concerned, but it seemed that USFK and Air Force leadership really didn't do much about it. While you can argue what is there that can really be done to prevent it, I can at least offer one or two solutions. Simply - make Kunsan an assignment where active duty members can bring their spouses and family members, no different than Osan or Youngsan. This will give people the ability to decompress from the daily grind and be around the people they care about. The other solution is to quit enabling the dickheads and the assholes (i.e. Senior NCOs and Blue Falcon officers) by encouraging them and promoting them. Nowhere else in the Air Force have I seen such a blatant display of shitting on subordinates and junior enlisted taken to new levels, all with a smile on their face. If this is what "professionalism" looks like, no wonder I despised every minute of it. But whatever.

All I know is that ultimately you cannot rely on the Air Farce or Uncle Scam to provide for you when you need it the most, or even when you least expect it. You have to be your own boss, you have to be your own master, and nobody else. Of course the military wants people to be codependent since they're easier to manipulate and they don't even try to hide it. The fact that so many people are blind to this is what makes it a tragedy.

Hopefully they will learn (they won't) so this doesn't happen again (it will). The only lesson we truly learn is that we do not learn. Have fun, assholes.