Well, thanks to the recent attack by North Korea against a small island off the West coast of Seoul, I have plenty of time to sit down and write another entry. The attack occurred sometime in the morning on November 23rd. South Korean military forces were running practice operations near the disputed water border between North and South Korea, when the north opened up with roughly 200 artillery bursts at and onto a nearby island. South Korea responded in kind, and since then there has been no other activity. Unfortunately, at least two Republic of Korea (ROK) service members were killed in the attack, and according to some news stories a number of civilians on the island were killed or injured as well. Apparently, the US Media has been playing this attack up as an apocalyptic event, and though I do not wish to detract from the serious nature of ANY armed attack against a US Ally, particularly one that precipitates the movement of an entire carrier group into the area, the effect on the common solider (Judge Advocate in this case) who is currently going through in-processing, has been minimal.

To be honest, I had no idea about the attack until the evening of the 23rd, when the officers were informed that our pass privileges, regardless of who our sponsors are, were canceled for the weekend, and that there would be NO alcohol consumption until further notice. This, fairly devastating, news led most of us to rush to the computers to find out the details of the event.  Since that time, there has been little to no change on this particular installation, but of course, I cannot speak for the other Camps around Korea. The bottom line is simple, for the foreseeable future, everyone here is safe, and though we remain ready to act (since we're all sober and just hanging around) we do not expect anything serious to occur.

Beyond that rather exciting event, my week, since I last wrote, has been a constant stream of "hurry up, wait, and listen to this brief." Much of what we are listening to is aimed at the enlisted soldiers, and has little applicability to officers and in particular Judge Advocates. For example, we received a legal brief yesterday, and before the briefer even began (he happened to be my sponsors), he outed my battle buddy and I as being the JAs in the group and informed us that shortly we would be giving this same brief. To be honest, the process isn't as bad as I make it sound, and it is certainly necessary to go through, particularly for the younger kids just arriving here, who are away from home for the first time, and very likely this is the first time they've ever been out of the country.

Tuesday was definitely the best day thus far. The entire in-processing class was taken out to an authentic Korean lunch, and then taken to the Korean National History Museum. I was impressed, the museum itself was easily comparable to any Smithsonian on the Mall in DC or any of the famous museums you'd find throughout NYC. The only unfortunate part of the day was we spent twice as much time in a bus, in transit from the base to lunch, lunch to the museum, and then the museum back to base, then we did eating and checking out the exhibits. However, it was an excellent taste of what to expect during the weekends when I get to head into Seoul or around Korea in general once we're done with this process.

Other then that, today is Thanksgiving Day in Korea, though it is still the evening of the 24th in the States. There are big plans for dinner at the DFAC, and I'm looking forward to some turkey and pie. I am a little disappointed that I wont be able to get off post and hang out in Seoul for the weekend, but I think I'll probably survive the event and have the chance  to check out that Capital City sometime in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and thank you for your thoughts and concerns, we're all good over here...