Well, the week passed without much fanfare.

Friday night, here at Cp. Hovey, is Wing Night at the Iron Triangle Club on post, social gathering for the Medics of HHT 4/7. The wings aren’t bad, they’re cheap, bheer is limited to Miller Lite (draft), and it was a good measure of being accepted into the platoon by my attendence. Of course, I had to endure some good-natured ribbing about my age (yup, I’m the oldest guy in the platoon… older even than the platoon sergeant), but I dealt it right back with aplomb, and honestly, they’re not a bad crew to be stuck with. Good thing about medics - they tend to make smarter conversation than the average line grunt.

Aside from that, I’m getting saddled with a new roommate… guy’s been here in Korea for a while, but seems to have an addicition to WorldOfWarcrack. Friday morning, he missed PT formation, was reported ‘out-of-ranks’, and they found him crashed-out in his barracks room, victim of his own foolishness. He’d been playing online until 03:00, and had exhausted himself. Idjiit.

So, today he’s moving all his stuff down the hall, joining me in my room, at the direction of the Troop 1st Sergeant, who expect me to act as a stabilizer/babysitter for the guy (or at least to make sure he wakes up on-time). We’ll see how well this works out…

Happy Choseuk, everybody!

It’s kinda’ like Thanksgiving for Koreans… return to ye olde homesteade, and pay homage to your ancestors (both living and deceased). Important stuff in a society that has a strong basis in Confucianism. What it means to most of us, though, is that all the Korean nationals who work on post, along with nearly all the KATUSAs, have the day off, so we get tomorrow off as well. Nice deal, for us.

So, I’m pretty-well settled in, here, and my only real complaint for today is that I’ve got this annoying, red, itchy sore on my shoulder that I’m not allowed to touch (smallpox vaccination… yippie ). Aside from that, I’m doing alright.

Additional news: Looks like I’ll be staying here in Korea for the full year (meaning, no deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan in that time). 2nd ID is already considered to be Forward Deployed here in Korea, and thus we aren’t in the rotation to do time in the sandbox.

So far, Korea ain’t a bad place to be, other than the rain that’s been hammering us for the past few days (we had a typhoon in the neighborhood… missed the peninsula, but Shanghai got hit by it pretty hard). My only gripe with Camp Hovey is that the main PX is over on Camp Casey, requiring a shuttlebus to get to. What-the-hey… if that’s my worst complaint, I think I’m doing okay.

I had CQ yesterday (24 hours, from 09:00 to 09:00 this morning), and managed to make it until about 04:00 this morning before the ZZZ-monster started biting me. Another what-the-hey… if I’m going to lose a Friday night, at least it was early in my tour, while I’m still restricted to post (newbies in Korea aren’t allowed off-post until after 30 days… helps keep them from getting into trouble, here).

Time being, today’s festivities are another trip to the PX and Commissary, to pick up sundries for the room. For now, at least, I have the room to myself… one of the few perks of being a senior SPC, and being as old as I am. I’ve already gotten a nickname within the Medic platoon, here… they’re calling me “Scrooge,” thanks to SGT Ashlock who misreported my last name as ‘Ebenezer’. I’m still not used to responding to ‘Scrooge’ yet, but it could be worse… there’s a guy in the platoon who’s nickname is “Bambi”.

Bah, Humbug, y’all!

The Army is a small, small world.
One of the guys in my inprocessing class, it turns out, is a former comrade from my days at Ft. Polk, back in 1992.
(Jeez, I feel old…)
Guy named Savage… I don’t know if any of you remember my story about the dude whose computer was stolen, and how our company clerk took revenge on the thief by “disappearing” his immunization records?
Well, Savage was the guy whose computer was stolen.
Fortunately, he’s one of the ones I was on good terms with while I served in Charlie Company, and best-of-all?
1. He’s being posted at Camp Casey (which adjoins Camp Hovey, where I’ll be stationed), and…
2. He’s married to a Korean national, and has been living over here, working as a Dept. of the Army civilian contractor, for the past 15 years. Speaks fluent Korean, knows his way around, knows all the good places to see/go/eat/etc., knows all the etiquette faux-pas to avoid… probably the BEST possible contact I could’ve made, here.

Some days, you hit the jackpot, y’know?
This almost makes up for the issue of my missing luggage.
Almost.

Well, I made it to Korea safely… and my luggage didn’t. Had to buy new toiletries to get me through the 48 hours until my baggage arrives, and I’m gettin’ kinda’ tired of wearing the same clothes.
C’est la vie.

News: I’ve got my pinpoint assignment… I’m being assigned to Headquarters, Headquarters Troop, 4-7 Cavalry (Air), at Camp Hovey, Korea.
What does this mean?
Well, for now, it means Air Cavalry, but they’re supposedly transforming into an Armored Reconnaissance squadron. I don’t know what the current status of the unit is.

Regardless, it’s gonna’ be a cool assignment.

For those who are interested, the unit’s webpage is…
http://www-2id.korea.army.mil/organi…nits/4%2D7cav/