Ulchi Focus Lens tent 'hotel' provides
all the comforts of the barracks
By Franklin Fisher, Taegu
bureau chief
TAEGU, South Korea — Hotel-805 is on a U.S. Army heliport in
Taegu. But to a sergeant, his six-person staff and their patrons, it’s no different
than running a five-star resort.
The sergeant and crew are part of the Ulchi Focus Lens exercise now
under way in South Korea. Their job is to see to the day-to-day needs and living
conditions of servicemembers living in a “tent city” during the exercise.
He and his six soldiers keep things on track in what’s called
the Life Support Area. It shelters 280 servicemembers from various branches. Though some
live in tents, others are in buildings known as hard billets or Butler buildings.
There’s one other LSA at Walker and one at nearby Camp Henry.
“Anything for the customers, know what I’m saying?”
said the “mayor” of the H-805 tent city, Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Crowell, 35, of
HHC, Eighth U.S. Army, in Yongsan. “We relieve stress and raise morale, provide
videos free, food at low cost, a lot of coffee.”
They sell snacks, show movies, run a free laundry pick-up, keep
showers, washers and dryers in good order, check on air-conditioning problems in the
living quarters, police litter, change light bulbs, ensure the free cable TV and Internet
service is OK, and do lots of other odd jobs to keep things humming at their
“hotel.”
Crowell and crew do all this out of a rectangular steel shipping
container fitted with windows and wooden flooring. Except for its sea-green color, it has
almost the look and feel of the trailers used by hard-hat supervisors at a big-city
construction site.
Steel though it is, some call it the “MWR Tent,” for
morale, welfare and recreation. Such a container is also known as a “CONEX.”
Crowell calls it the MWR CONEX.
His people work in shifts — six hours on, then twelve off. Their
busiest time is 6 p.m. to midnight. Many servicemembers are getting off their shifts and
come in for a snack.
For movie-watchers, part of the CONEX is set up with folding chairs.
“And if there’s a good movie in here, this place is
packed,” said Crowell. Titles include “Top Gun,” “Days Of
Thunder,” “Deep Blue Sea,” “Gang Related,” “The
Matrix,” “Armageddon,” and the local superhit, “Bride of Chucky.”
“That’s a classic,” said Crowell. “That’s up
there with ‘Gone With The Wind’ and all that.”
They also keep a refrigerator stocked with hot dogs, sausage,
condiments, ice cream sandwiches, Klondike bars, candy bars and sodas.
“Only the best,” Crowell says.
An ice cream sandwich or can of soda goes for fifty cents. A hot dog
runs a dollar.
Pfc. Jerry Sabanal, 23, of Company G, 52nd Aviation Regiment, an
Apache helicopter crew chief, had good things to say about temporary life at the Hotel-805
hotel. “It got me surprised,” he said.
“Being out here, this is supposed to be a ‘tent’
city,” he said. “It’s like being back at the barracks. It makes a soldier
relaxed. It’s a great deal, especially if you have a bad day at work. You can watch
TV, watch movies.”
Crowell sits in the CONEX talking with visitors. A helicopter passes
low overhead, the pounding of its rotors sending vibrations down into the earth, then
right back up through the floor.
“That’s the free massage,” a sergeant says jokingly.
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