Life Under the Gun - Air Force's airmen training in South Korea

Airman, Sept, 2001 by Master Sgt. Louis A. Arana-Barradas

Hard work and training is the life for airmen who work north of Seoul

Each day, Staff Sgt. Nate Sandler gets up early, goes to work and trains hard. If he's lucky, he'll get to "call in air" for the soldiers he works with. That puts a smile on his face.

Then he returns to his dormitory and grabs some chow. And if there's no new movie to see, he'll likely hit the sack early. The next day, he does the same thing over again.

Apart from a few trips into Seoul, and a one-month leave back home, that's pretty much what his life will be like during his one-year tour in South Korea.

Lots of work and little play. Boring? To some it's like gulping down a fistful of Sominex.

Sandler doesn't think so. He's an enlisted terminal attack controller with the 604th Air Support Operations Squadron. His job is calling in close air support missions for the Army's 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry at Camp Greaves. A bluesuiter in a sea of green.

But he loves his job. The more he gets to do it, the better he gets at it. And the better he feels.

"There are a lot of motivated troops in the battalion. They accept us like one of them - it's good to be a part of that. Their sense of urgency is higher than anyone else's in Korea," he said.

No wonder. The camp is a skip and a hop from the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas. He lives in Camp Casey, a 45-minute drive away -- and only 12 miles from the DMZ.

Sandler would rather be home with his family, of course. Most of the troops feel the same way. After all, duty in South Korea isn't the Air Force's cream assignment. Living and working conditions aren't the best. The yearlong separation from family has gnawed at the conscience of troops who've served there since the 1950s. But the sergeant said there are advantages.

"We put our training to work every day," he said. Which lets him concentrate on his job and mission. "And I know I'll leave here much better at what I do."

Deterring the threat

But he doesn't like the constant reminder of why he's in South Korea. The area north of Seoul where he lives and works is home to dozens of U.S. and South Korean army camps. It's the 2nd Infantry Division's turf, "Warrior Country." A no-nonsense place -- and with good reason.

North Korea has a million-man army along the DMZ and thousands of artillery pieces trained on the South. Many of them are the long-range kind, and can drop shells on most of the camps. And on the South Korean capital of Seoul.

Some 37,000 U.S. troops in the South help maintain a fragile cease-fire on the divided peninsula. Because 50 years after an armistice silenced the guns of the Korean War, the threat to the South remains real. The two countries are technically still at war.

So at both camps, Sandier lives under North Korean guns. It's the same for nearly all the troops in the northern camps. That's something Sandier said is always in the back of his mind.

"So we don't play around," he said. "This is serious business." That business is remaining a strong deterrent force to keep the North from "doing something stupid," he said.

To help do the job, some 14,000 soldiers are on duty with the 2nd Infantry Division along the 150-mile long, heavily fortified DMZ. The few airmen who work with them are a key part of the force. Most are tactical air control party members, enlisted terminal attack coordinators, weather and a host of support troops.

They're like a part of Army units. So they live, work, eat and sleep alongside their soldier comrades. They're close to the fight. More so, since they must see the target to call in close air support and other strikes. But living like soldiers suits most of the airmen fine.

"We don't want to be strangers," Master Sgt. Jorge Collier said. He's the Air Force's only enlisted battalion air liaison officer in the country. And he leads a tactical air control party with the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry -- of "Custer's Last Stand" fame.

"We live with soldiers," Collier said. "By eating with 'em, smelling like 'em, doing what they do, we become part of them. We want to do our job that way. It's good business."

Their business is vital to the division's mission on the peninsula. There are 165 air support operations squadron troops. And 25 with Detachment 1, 607th Weather Squadron. Their job is to control close air support and attack sorties and provide weather information.

Both have headquarters with the division at Camp Red Clouds some 154 miles northeast of Seoul. But the majority of the airmen work with Army units at some five or six camps.

They are the keyhole through which air power unlocks the door for the Army to maintain the peace, or win any future conflicts, said Lt. Gen. Charles Heflebower. He's the 7th Air Force commander and the top U.S. airman on the peninsula.

They're some of the best at what they do, Heflebower said. So the division commander knows how important they are to his ability to fight and win.

The 604th's systems and control flight commander, Capt. George Dalton, said the division truly understands the importance of air power to their operations.