Korean women view a grand-opening sheet cake as soldiers in the background sample offerings during the grand reopening of newly revamped food court March 24 at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea. (Galen Putnam / U.S. Army)
Korean women view a grand-opening sheet cake as soldiers in the background sample offerings during the grand reopening of newly revamped food court March 24 at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea. (Galen Putnam / U.S. Army)
The interior of the newly revamped food court at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea. The expansion gives troops a bigger variety of food options than before and is part of a continuing effort to upgrade the base for its long-term role as part of a U.S. military hub in southeastern South Korea. (Galen Putnam / U.S. Army)
PYONGTAEK, South Korea — Pizza Hut to Popeyes and beyond: Troops at the Army’s logistics base on Camp Carroll now have a far wider range of American fast-food choices following a $940,000 expansion of the base food court, officials said Monday.
Burger King and American Eatery remain and thanks to the project — which also increased food-court seating from 86 to 138 — soldiers now can choose among Subway, a larger Baskin-Robbins and, of course, Pizza Hut and Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits.
The Popeyes is the first of its kind at Camp Carroll and the first at an Army installation south of Camp Humphreys in Pyongtaek, in west-central South Korea. Camp Carroll is in Waegwan in southeastern South Korea.
The Pizza Hut replaces what had been an Anthony’s Pizza operation. The Baskin-Robbins is much expanded; previously, it offered comparatively few flavors and cones only, said Wilfred Plumley, Camp Carroll installation manager.
“It’s a big difference,” said Army Spc. Shykera Kendall, of Company C, 307th Signal Battalion. When she first came to the base 14 months ago, she said, “The biggest thing on Camp Carroll was the Burger King. After you’ve been here awhile, it kind of gets old. Now we have the Pizza Hut, the Subway, the Baskin-Robbins, so you get a lot more variety.
“You get to taste something different every day, as opposed to just pizza or just burgers,” she said. “I know that everybody just absolutely loves it.”
The project began in June 2003 and wrapped up late last month, under a partnership between the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Camp Carroll’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation office.
Under an AAFES-MWR agreement, a certain portion of the food court profits can return to MWR, said Paul Stenseth, AAFES general manager for Area II and Area IV.
“It goes back to the military customer because it enhances the MWR programs,” he said.
“Before,” said Plumley, “you could not get a banana split anywhere in the Waegwan area. Now you can. There was no Pizza Hut in the Waegwan area. We had Anthony’s. Anthony’s was OK but it’s not Pizza Hut. It’s a morale boost,” he said, “because outside of the installation there are no options as far as western food.”
The expanded food court also helps ready Camp Carroll for its scheduled role as part of what the U.S. military calls the Taegu-Pusan hub in southeastern South Korea, Plumley said.
The U.S. military plans to consolidate its Korea-based forces in coming years into that hub and one other in Pyongtaek.
“It’ll simply be better morale for the troops,” Plumley said. “We didn’t have a lot of things out here … now a lot of things are being added on.”
Galen Putnam/Courtesy of the U.S. Army
The newly revamped food court at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea, held a grand reopening ceremony March 24. The expansion gives troops a bigger variety of food options than before and is part of a continuing effort to upgrade the base for its long-term role as part of a U.S. military hub in southeastern South Korea.
