15 years ago....

About 15 years ago, I spent a whole year on the land known as South Korea. I was in Camp Stanley, the only place on earth where you can go up hill both ways. Korea is cold and hot and beautiful and the majority of Koreans don't want us there. There are three things to do in Korea; go to the field and play soldier, get drunk, and travel up and down the Peninsula. That is what most soldiers spend their tour of duty in Korea. I, on the other hand, found something else to do. I found an old Korean named Master Han. He was my kickboxer instructor. From the first time I entered his gym I was hooked. So he started to train me four hours a day, every weekday, 6 hours on Saturday and 8-10 hours on Sundays. I was training hard because I wanted to learn what he was teaching.
About five months into my training I had to run 2 miles for my military Physical Fitness Test. My time was less than 10 minutes and I was so freaking happy I went out that night and drank a few beers with my friends. That was one of the few nights I went out, because kickboxing training was taking so much of my free time.
One beautiful summer night in Korea, I was stuck with what we call "courtesy patrol." That means that we walk all over the place and go into the bars to make sure that everybody is just having fun and there are no fights and Korean Nationals are not taking advantage of drunk soldiers. About three A.M. I received a call that there were three US Soldiers at the gate who have been detained by the Korean police and need to be handed over to US authorities. That was us on the courtesy patrol. I got to the gate and saw all three soldiers, of athletic appearance, that looked like they had gotten their asses kick but a lot of people. On the corner of the room was a short Korean, about 70 years old and it looked like he was very mad.
The Korean Police told us in English that the three Americans were coming back from town after a night of drinking and didn't want to pay for a cab, so they decided to jump an old man, take his car, drive it to Camp Stanley, and stop a few hundred meters from the gate, leave the car there and walk on the camp and go to sleep. The three IDIOTS didn't notice that the old man was closing his shop for the night, his shop had a Korean sign and an English sign. It said: "Lee's Aikido Academy." The old man was Master Lee and he had been a master for about 20 years. According to the Korean police it took Master Lee less than ten seconds to put down the three American thugs on the ground. I looked at the three idiots and couldn't help it and started to laugh. The three idiots said that they were sorry and were going to pay a fine and pay some money to Master lee. Master Lee said that He didn't want money, just an apology from all three of them. The police also said that they were not going to press chargers. My LT, a West Pointer of about 230 lbs of football, told them that they were lucky and he was just going to report it as a minor confrontation with a national. A few days later, my Master and I went to visit Master Lee because I wanted to meet him. Master Han and Master Lee had been friends for a long time and both had served in the Korean Army. As we entered his gym, I saw one of his new students; it was idiot number three, one of the soldiers that had tried to jump him a few nights before.
Tangent!!!!!
Master Han was a sergeant Major in the Korean Army and held a very high rank in Tae Kwon Do discipline. I was invited to his home many times and I grew to respect this man as a father, just like in the movies!!!!! In one of the visits he showed me his photo album from Viet-Nam. He showed me the picture of his tent, his friends, his first kill, and many other dear moments. In one picture he showed me his old training technique; he had one metal skewer THROUGH the muscles of each fore arm and hanging from them were two sand buckets. Thank God he never trained me like that.
Back to the story:
So my whole year in Korea was about drinking a few beers, doing kickboxing, going to the field a lot and falling in love with a girl from Israel that had gone to Korea to shop. That story is for another time.
Good night.