Over my time in Okinawa, I got the opportunity to travel to many different places to work. The most frequent foreign destination for me outside of Japan was Camp Mujuk, South Korea. In total, I have been to Camp Mujuk four times for a total of over two months, but no trip to Mujuk was as eventful as my first visit.
Camp Mujuk is located in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula outside of the city of Pohang and is the only U.S. Marine base in the Republic of Korea. However, Pohang is also a major hub for Republic of Korea (or ROK) Marines. ROK and U.S. Marines work together constantly and have several joint trainings and exercises annually to build a stronger alliance. Culturally and physically, the U.S. and ROK Marines are incredibly similar. ROK Marine basic training nearly mirrors U.S. Marine basic training, and ROK Marines share the same “hardcore” drinking, fighting, and partying culture of their U.S. counterparts.
There are several joint exercises hosted at Camp Mujuk throughout the year, and in March of 2023, I volunteered to deploy to one of these exercises for a month along with about a dozen other Marines from the band to work as security guards inside a building on base. The exercise itself was uneventful shift work, but after the exercise, we had an extra week at Camp Mujuk with essentially no work, and with the exercise over, we even had the whole base to ourselves.
On one of these free days, myself and two other lower enlisted Marines from the band wanted to go on a hike north of Pohang called the “12 Waterfalls Hike.” Our Master Gunnery Sergeant (the highest-ranking enlisted member of the band) caught wind of this and decided to tag along, too. This was great because he had a rental car and we all knew that “Master Guns” would offer to pay for our food and drinks, too. Money saved is always money earned. Besides, he was getting paid about as much as the three of us combined.
The weather is South Korea is similar to Iowa weather, so late March was a bit chilly, but warm enough for just a sweatshirt. Each waterfall had a beautiful pool of clear water beneath it. We were about 3 waterfalls in when Master Guns got a work call he had to take. While the rest of us were waiting, one of the Marines with me, Justin, decided to jump into the water. He claimed it didn’t feel too bad, so of course, I decided to jump on in, too. When Master Guns turned around and caught sight of us splashing around in the freezing water, he started wheezing so hard with laughter he had to hang up on his call. The other Marine with us – Michael – was notorious for being a bit of a know-it-all and a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, but it was warranted. He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. However, he felt the need to keep reminding Justin and me that the still water pools under the waterfalls were probably full of bacteria. We kept swimming anyways. We eventually all continued down the trail, two of us soaked and two of us dry.
The hike ended up being much longer than anticipated, but after about 6 hours, 10 miles, and 12 waterfalls, we were almost back to the car and were all starving. Just as we started to complain to each other about our hunger, a short, elderly Korean woman standing on the side of the road started waving us over. Behind her was a giant tent with tables, stools, and a grill. The decision to eat here was unanimous.
We decided to each order something and we could split everything. While I don’t remember everything that was ordered, I do remember Master Guns ordered duck bulgogi. Bulgogi is a style of meat cut popular in Korea, but it is usually beef or pork. The duck was delicious, and myself, Justin, and Master Guns ate loads of it. Michael was clearly a more intelligent eater than the rest of us, too, and decided to stick with vegetables and rice.
It wasn’t long after we got back to base that those of us who ate the duck started to feel a bit queasy. Even our fearless Master Guns spent most of the remainder of the trip in the restroom. On top of that, Justin and I got nasty colds from being wet. The only person who escaped unscathed (but probably had the least fun) was Michael. If I could do it all again, I would – but I probably wouldn’t eat the duck.