Comments:
I hated leaving in 1981 because I already planned on taking 1 elective class I would have needed to graduate. But alas, we moved to Fort Meade, Maryland. I was thrown into a school with over 2400 students and half of them were from civilian families and had no idea how to be friendly to a newly arrived student. Meade Senior High wanted me to take a full schedule without a lunch period the entire year because I didn't have the necessary credits in the appropriate classes to graduate. Korean according to the State of Maryland is not allowable as a foreign language. Only Spanish, French and German were counted as creditable classes towards graduation. So that along with me sitting in a ton of civics, government and Social Studies classes with only 9th and 10th graders was super fun. I appealed the credit decision and finally they relented and said I would have to take 6-7 classes daily and pass everything in order to graduate. I did get a 15 minute break in the afternoon and could go outside and smoke a cigarette to relax (If you were 16 and older you could smoke at school in designated areas. I loved that era). So my reentry to the United States after being gone for over 5 years was a really shitty experience and I hated everything about life.
I began to think how I could get back to Korea where I had grown up and also (in case no one remembers) to see my mom. My parents got divorced in 1977-78 when we lived in RGH and I hadn't seen her in over 5 years. She married a Korean man and stayed there for many years until returning to the States almost 12 years later. So since I had become disgusted with school I had no desire to go to college or any other educational situation going into the Army was the perfect way to get back to Yongsan. After all anyone you talked to in the Military in Korea complained how it was the last place they wanted to be. My reasoning was if nobody wanted to get stationed there if I asked to go there repeatedly while in the Army I would be a shoe-in and it would be easy to get stationed there. After 14 years, 2 tours in Germany, 2 different wars and a 3 year Army Recruiting assignment in Billerica, Massachusetts, the assignments Gods finally said that I would go to Fort Gordon, Georgia to school for 8 months I could then go to Korea. I was finally happy. Returning was surreal and exciting at the same time. I actually got stationed to a Signal Battalion in Camp Coined and had a temporary room next to the Yongsan PX. It was so crazy seeing and going to the places where I had grown up and spent a large part of my lifetime. Our house on South Post was still there and it looked solo tiny. The biggest thing was I had to visit SAHS and a damn Burger King had replaced our old Hot Dog House/Hang Out Area/ Smoking Area but other than a lot of new buildings (especially the Dragon Hotel) almost everything was still the same like I had only been gone a few months and returned. Of course my first person to seek out was Mr. Michael O'Brien. I took a lot of art classes and he was like a second Dad to myself and others I imagine. Plus he had known my mom and over the years would still see her at educator functions since my mom ended up teaching at Seoul International School. His classroom was still there and one of the last satellite classrooms prior to apparently trying to consolidate into a one building school. He looked a little older and even though I was a Staff Sergeant in the Army I felt like a 13 year old kid just meeting a new teacher. So I really felt at home for the first time in a very long time. I had been all over the world in some really bad areas, good areas and horrible areas but never felt as comfortable as I did returning to Yongsan. I always had long blonde hair while living there and now I had a really short flat top but when I showed my ID Card to get into the Main PX the man checking the Id's said "I remember you from a long time ago and said where was my hair". I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday but a guy who saw me almost 15 years earlier remembered me, my hair, my little sister and my mom. He said he had been working there for ever and was now proudly in charge of customer service. It validated my feelings that growing up in Korea during my teenage years and being a part of a very small community that was a family to many of us brats was what I needed and still seeking for and haven't found since. I miss our little community where people actually cared about and for others. It was a rare time and even rarer people that made it that way. I wish I could find another place like it where I felt as comfortable and warm as I did back then. So, I've been married twice but no kids. First marriage sucked. Second marriage (Korean) was okay but one day she came home and announced she didn't feel like being married anymore. Just that simple. Now I've been with a great lady for the past 10 years and my 3 dogs and live on a few acres in Hephzibah, Georgia a few miles away from Fort Gordon. I'm a Disabled Veteran living day to day and just trying to enjoy life. I did reunite with my mom back in 1988 when she visited me at Fort Lewis, Washington. She eventually divorced and returned to her hometown of Winter Haven, Floods and remained a teacher for many years. She had a long fight with different cancers and fought for a lot of years. She passed away on 1 January 2018. I really miss her.
