Focusing on mission, Kunsan servicemembers keep morale high
By Jim Lea, Osan bureau
chief
KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Base residents have expressed the
same shock, anger and concern felt by Americans worldwide since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
But everyone is coping and keeping morale high by “focusing on
our mission of helping to defend South Korea,” said 8th Fighter Wing commander Col.
Burton Field.
“We’ve encouraged people to open up and say what they
feel,” Field said in an interview in his office as U.S. F-16 and South Korean F-5
jets took off from the base runway 200 yards away. “They’re angry and some have
expressed frustration over the fact that they’re so far away and can’t be
involved in the recovery efforts back home.”
People here are like family, he said. “We stick together and
support each other in the worst and best of times. Morale has never been a problem here.
“Fortunately, none of our people had relatives” among the
more than 6,000 victims of the New York and Pentagon attacks.
Kunsan is a remote tour base and married enlisted members and
officers, including Field, must leave their families in the States while serving their
year in Korea. The base, which has about 2,500 military personnel, is also home to a group
of soldiers who man Patriot missile batteries that help protect the base from attack.
Since the attacks, “morale has never been higher,” said
Master Sgt. David Piontkowski, first sergeant for the 8th security Forces Squadron.
The base’s first sergeants started a wing-wide fund drive to aid
victims immediately after the attack. As of Friday, they had collected about $800.
“Our people are professionals," Piontkowski said. But,
“it has been a catastrophic, traumatic experience. But we’re focused on
defending the base and taking the fight north if that’s required.”
There was plenty of evidence of the tightened security at the base
last week: Large concrete barriers were staggered along most major streets on base, and
many parking lots beside key facilities were blocked off and empty.
Cars inched through the main gate as security police officers
accompanied by K-9 working dogs carried out 100 percent vehicle checks.
There were five Air Force wives from the States visiting their
husbands at the base when the attacks occurred. Two of them — Jennifer Edwards and
Jessie Wells whose F-16 pilot husbands are assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron —
said they’ve been spending a lot of time with other wives, watching movies and the
news and having lunch together.
They took time out to listen to President Bush’s message to
Congress on Friday.
“He said everything the American people need to hear,”
Edwards said, “to feel better and know we’re stepping forward to make the world
more secure.”
Troops have been restricted to the base except for mission-essential
trips. That restriction was reduced Friday when force protection level Bravo, one step
higher than normal for Korea, was set.
But still off limits are the bars and clubs in America Town, a mile
from the front gate. Early Friday, a pair of U.S. soldiers chatted through a pedestrian
gate with a pair of young women.
“It’s been too long,” one woman said plaintively.
“When can you come out? I miss you too much.”
One soldier reached through the gate to give her a hug and said,
“I don’t know, but soon, I think.”
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