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

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

"They know what they're doing," he said. "We tell them what enemy formation we need to kill, and they tell us what kind of bomb load to drop on it. We can't do our job without them."

And they give soldiers a "warm fuzzy" in a pinch, said Sergeant 1st Class John Wick. A career tanker, he's the Army squadron's tank master gunner. The airmen he works with are part of his unit's tactical operations center in the field.

"These airmen get your back' when we roll into combat," he said. "You know how valuable they are when you run into a bad situation -- when you need A-l0s to come flying overhead."

The airmen know that, too, and the job of maintaining the peace and going to war is one they learn fast.

Staff Sgt. Phil "Bear" Bell, an enlisted terminal attack controller, knows he'd be on the front lines in a fight. But not knowing if it will happen tomorrow takes some getting used to.

"It's stressful thinking about that," he said. "So you rely on your training -- Air Force and Army -- because we train like we'll fight. You learn to depend on that, and each other."

Heflebower said troops in South Korea have a sense of mission that's second to none. Especially since North Korea's capability to strike the South without warning hasn't changed. The threat is real. So the mission for U.S. troops is real.

The two Koreas are talking reconciliation and reunification. After 50 years of U.S. presence, some South Koreans question the need for U.S. troops.

Not Yu Bang-woo, a 73-year-old former bar owner in Seoul. On a flight from San Antonio -- where he took his niece to start college -- to Seoul, he said it was because of the Americans that he could send her to school. They saved the South from the North's onslaught, he said, providing the stability that allowed him and his country to prosper.

But many young Koreans want U.S. troops to leave. Yu said it's because they've grown up in a prosperous country, insulated from the realities of war.

"They're naive. They don't know the dangers we still face from the North," he said. "I will never trust them to keep any promise. They continue to provoke and talk tough. But older Koreans know this. And they don't want the Americans to leave."

Heflebower agrees South Korea needs a strong U.S. presence. That strong, well-trained and well-led deterrent force is what has created the stable environment under which the two countries exist. Without the troops there, the North might turn to a military option for reunification.

"While we're here, we keep that option off the table," he said.