In South Korea all males are required to serve in the armed forces, police department or fire department for no less than two years. There's a new law which would allow males to complete their two years in some other capacity (e.g. working in the equivalent to DSHS, Parks & Recreation, Water Department, etc.) that will be enacted in the next year or so. I'll say this: I definately wouldn't be opposed to some sort of mandated service to the nation in the United States.

KATUSA: Korean Augmentation To the United States Army.

KATUSA's are selected from the pool of Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) soldiers to serve within the United States Army. They work on our installations, wear our uniform (with the South Korean flag rather than the American flag on their shoulder) and so forth.

Before I'd sort of railed on having to work with international forces, but it's actually quite interesting.

We help them with their English and they help us with Hongul. They're also more than happy to take us out into various South Korean cities for a night out.

At any rate, the reason I'm posting is because this story stuck with me:

I was working an overnight shift with a KATUSA and we were talking about his experience working with the Americans and what other South Koreans think about the Americans. He told me that among the older generation in South Korea, the Americans are loved. The younger generation, though, wants to see the U.S. eventually leave South Korea so the nation can create its own identity.

The KATUSA said when he's talking to someone who is strongly anti-U.S. he tells them the story of when he went to the Korean War Memorial in Yongsan. At the site there are stones with the names of all U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict. He said it's interesting how we break up the names of our soldiers by state.

But he said that he explains to people that U.S. soldiers came and died solely for the Korean people in a land they had never been to. In only three years of fighting, almost as many Americans died in Korea as did nine years of Vietnam. Without the U.S., the entire peninsula would be The People's Republic.

The KATUSA said he actually cried thinking about how willing Americans are to go to foreign nations and die on foreign soil for foreign people they'll never meet, regardless of the reason the government sent them.