Would an assignment in Korea help or hurt your career?

Sir, I think the issue with Korea is two-fold:

1) I think you are spot on that we simply do a poor job of documenting the great things we do there.

2) Tours in Korea are generally only a year long. It's harder to make an impact in a year than it is over 2-3.

That being said, Korea is still one of those assignments ouside of combat in Afghanistan, that has immediate real world implications. Definately a must do.

It's true that Korea is a very difficult and challenging place to be stationed. The 2nd Infantry Division has to be prepared to go to war at a moments notice if deterrence fails. The difficultly lies in getting the "buy-in" from junior Soldiers and junior leaders. In most other contingency units (like the 82nd) the unit is well aware of what their mission is and they have the time to train and build a cohesive teams to execute. It is very difficult to achieve the same level of dedication and qualification in a unit that loses 10% of it forces every month.

What you are left with is an organization in which half the force is striving to be prepared for the mission and another half that is simply counting down the months until they rotate home. This phenomena combined with leaders who demand operational readiness, makes this a very challenging assignment.

But I constantly tell my Soldiers that Area I is the hardest place to "Army", but if they can be successful here, they will be rock stars everywhere else.

I personally had a challenging tour. It put strain on my career, and my family. But the things that I've learned in only a year here, couldn't have been taught anywhere else at such a fast pace. The experience and the outstanding Soldiers that I have served with has made this a truly rewarding tour.

I commanded my first Company in Korea 1998-1999. Like you, was not elated. I just came from almost 4 years at the NTC OPFOR by way of the advanced course (told by my Branch Manager that "you have been sitting on your ass in Conus"). Had been married for less than a year. Was a great assignment.
- pre- GWOT, this was the tip of the spear, living on 3 hour alert status for a year
- pre-GWOT, many hit a overseas rut. If you went to Korea once, hope you liked it, because you would keep getting sent back Everytime you were due an overseas tour. Same went for Germany. It was either or.
- don't think it hurt me as I only extended a short period for command length. Was successful in command.
- have not been back since, except TDY.
- I have served overseas tours meriting an OSR since, including deployments: Afghanistan and Germany. Have been to Afghanistan and Iraq for non-OSR credit too.
- I think any appearance of homesteading there will hurt someone.
- I think lengthy or multiple extensions there, especially in a none developmental assignment, will hurt someone.
- going where the Army told you to go and doing the best job possible will not hurt you.
- documenting is a perennial problem. What is important in USFK is hard to communicate to a wider audience.
- with the move to RAF, Overseas tours will go down in favor of rotations of units. There will be a narrow opportunity for people to PCS, maybe even without families eventually.
- trouble is about anywhere you go and your propensity to find it is an individual skill. The relative close quarters of Korea service amplifies individual foibles
- would be interested to see statistics, because I intuitively don't know