Most memorable parachute jump

[riksavage]

Back in the 1990’s I worked with a US chap who’d done an exchange with the South Korean SF. He recalled doing a night time parachute jump with the South Koreans. At the back of the plane were a group of SK ‘rough terrain’ jumpers. He said they were dressed like American football players. Their mission was to jump into the mountainous areas of Korea. According to him their training casualty rates were pretty high, to a level you’d never get away with in a Western military. All were volunteers. He also witnessed a dog and pony show demo at their base with a load of visiting VIPs as part of an ASEAN cross training initiative. One of the Koreans misjudged the fast roping and fell off the roof. No one responded until after that particular phase of the demo was completed, then the medics rushed in.

 

[par avion]

Their mission was to jump into the mountainous areas of Korea.

Pretty much the whole of Korea is mountainous north and south. Seoul is ringed by mountains.

 

[riksavage]

Pretty much the whole of Korea is mountainous north and south. Seoul is ringed by mountains.

Hence the rough terrain jumpers. Rather than jumping into padi fields.

I have another South Korean parachute story. Another colleague of mine, former SASR took part in an ASEAN cross training initiative back in the 90’s. He was part of a mixed patrol - 2xSASR & 2xKorean SF . Aussies were NCO’s, 1x medic, 1x radio operator. One of the 2 x Korean SF was a Lt. Idea being ASEAN/US SF would take part in a mixed patrol exercise spread across the region.
Phase 1 - jump into Hawaii and conduct covert patrols. The 4 x man patrol jumped in, missed the DZ and landed on volcanic rock. One of the Koreans smashed his elbow on landing. SASR medic decided to radio for a medical evac. Korean officer refused and said Koreans stay in the field. SASR refused and called for help. Massive verbal punch up resulted with the Korean injured bloke refusing to disobey orders and leave the field. Korean bloke ended up getting in serious medical trouble later on causing the patrol to end. Next phase they flew to another country: on landing, the remaining three in the patrol (2xSASR + Korean Lt.) stepped off the Herc tailgate to be met by a Korean SF Lt. Col. The Korean Col. verbally beasted the Korean officer then filled him in on the spot. According to the SASR guy, he handed out a serious kicking then apologised to the Aussies. They all went on to Thailand for the final exercise - at the endex smoker the Koreans and Thai’s fell out and it turned into a major Jackie Chan session. The whole concept of mixed patrols was subsequently binned.

 

[Stonker]

Hence the rough terrain jumpers. Rather than jumping into padi fields.

I have another South Korean parachute story. Another colleague of mine, former SASR took part in an ASEAN cross training initiative back in the 90’s. He was part of a mixed patrol - 2xSASR & 2xKorean SF . Aussies were NCO’s, 1x medic, 1x radio operator. One of the 2 x Korean SF was a Lt. Idea being ASEAN/US SF would take part in a mixed patrol exercise spread across the region.
Phase 1 - jump into Hawaii and conduct covert patrols. The 4 x man patrol jumped in, missed the DZ and landed on volcanic rock. One of the Koreans smashed his elbow on landing. SASR medic decided to radio for a medical evac. Korean officer refused and said Koreans stay in the field. SASR refused and called for help. Massive verbal punch up resulted with the Korean injured bloke refusing to disobey orders and leave the field. Korean bloke ended up getting in serious medical trouble later on causing the patrol to end. Next phase they flew to another country: on landing, the remaining three in the patrol (2xSASR + Korean Lt.) stepped off the Herc tailgate to be met by a Korean SF Lt. Col. The Korean Col. verbally beasted the Korean officer then filled him in on the spot. According to the SASR guy, he handed out a serious kicking then apologised to the Aussies. They all went on to Thailand for the final exercise - at the endex smoker the Koreans and Thai’s fell out and it turned into a major Jackie Chan session. The whole concept of mixed patrols was subsequently binned.

I'm not sure how to say this: I have a suspicion that western notions of cooperation (among others) may have been absent from the cultural lexicon of some of the participating nations

I wonder also what cultural shortfalls were ascribed to 'westerners' by their Korean and Thai counterparts

We will never know . . . .

 

[ABNredleg]

Back in the 1990’s I worked with a US chap who’d done an exchange with the South Korean SF. He recalled doing a night time parachute jump with the South Koreans. At the back of the plane were a group of SK ‘rough terrain’ jumpers. He said they were dressed like American football players. Their mission was to jump into the mountainous areas of Korea. According to him their training casualty rates were pretty high, to a level you’d never get away with in a Western military. All were volunteers. He also witnessed a dog and pony show demo at their base with a load of visiting VIPs as part of an ASEAN cross training initiative. One of the Koreans misjudged the fast roping and fell off the roof. No one responded until after that particular phase of the demo was completed, then the medics rushed in.

The US has had a combat engineer rough terrain capacity since WWII - typically used for preparing LZs and DZs.
https://armyengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/jul_aug_17.pdf

 

[riksavage]

I'm not sure how to say this: I have a suspicion that western notions of cooperation (among others) may have been absent from the cultural lexicon of some of the participating nations

I wonder also what cultural shortfalls were ascribed to 'westerners' by their Korean and Thai counterparts

We will never know . . . .

I think the Koreans are pretty nails (the Irish of Asia - they love to drink and fight). All their SF men and women are required to be highly proficient in Taekwondo. The chap who told me about the rough terrain jumpers took part in a demo by a South Korean all female SF unit. He volunteered to play a hostage in a simulated bus terrorist incident. The female team stormed the bus and told everyone to look down and place their hands on the top of seat in front of them. He wanted to see how the Koreans cleared the bus so ignored the order and carried on observing the scene. He said he got a severe slapping by the women, way above and beyond a simple demonstration of authority. He said he almost kicked off because of the physical abuse he received. The idea of an all women SF unit was to use them for covert operations and try and insert them in aircraft hijackings as replacement ‘aircrew’ as part of any ongoing negotiations.
I did ask him if the Korean SF ladies were ‘hot’. He said like most Korean women, they were either absolute stunners or horse frighteners, nothing in between.

 

[par avion]

Hence the rough terrain jumpers. Rather than jumping into padi fields.

I have another South Korean parachute story. Another colleague of mine, former SASR took part in an ASEAN cross training initiative back in the 90’s. He was part of a mixed patrol - 2xSASR & 2xKorean SF . Aussies were NCO’s, 1x medic, 1x radio operator. One of the 2 x Korean SF was a Lt. Idea being ASEAN/US SF would take part in a mixed patrol exercise spread across the region.
Phase 1 - jump into Hawaii and conduct covert patrols. The 4 x man patrol jumped in, missed the DZ and landed on volcanic rock. One of the Koreans smashed his elbow on landing. SASR medic decided to radio for a medical evac. Korean officer refused and said Koreans stay in the field. SASR refused and called for help. Massive verbal punch up resulted with the Korean injured bloke refusing to disobey orders and leave the field. Korean bloke ended up getting in serious medical trouble later on causing the patrol to end. Next phase they flew to another country: on landing, the remaining three in the patrol (2xSASR + Korean Lt.) stepped off the Herc tailgate to be met by a Korean SF Lt. Col. The Korean Col. verbally beasted the Korean officer then filled him in on the spot. According to the SASR guy, he handed out a serious kicking then apologised to the Aussies. They all went on to Thailand for the final exercise - at the endex smoker the Koreans and Thai’s fell out and it turned into a major Jackie Chan session. The whole concept of mixed patrols was subsequently binned.

From when the ROK Army was formed and until the last retired in the early eighties it was dominated by officers who had served in the Imperial Japanese Army and although outwardly their uniforms, equipment and training were American their culture of discipline was very much rooted in the old IJA style with officers and NCO.s disciplining conscripts with physical violence. National Service was for three years and was extremely harsh.

In the early nineties the military handed over to a democratically elected civilian government. The culture changed dramatically as Mrs Kim got onto her local MP pronto to complain about any ill treatment made by her little boy PFC Kim. MP not wishing to incur the ire of Mrs Kim complains to the Defence Minister who gets on to the Generals. Hence things although still tough are a little bit more chilled out now. Violence against OR's will mean the end of your career now. There are also a lot of women in the military now with females in charge of ships and fighter squadrons.

I think the Koreans are pretty nails (the Irish of Asia - they love to drink and fight). All their SF men and women are required to be highly proficient in Taekwondo. The chap who told me about the rough terrain jumpers took part in a demo by a South Korean all female SF unit. He volunteered to play a hostage in a simulated bus terrorist incident. The female team stormed the bus and told everyone to look down and place their hands on the top of seat in front of them. He wanted to see how the Koreans cleared the bus so ignored the order and carried on observing the scene. He said he got a severe slapping by the women, way above and beyond a simple demonstration of authority. He said he almost kicked off because of the physical abuse he received. The idea of an all women SF unit was to use them for covert operations and try and insert them in aircraft hijackings as replacement ‘aircrew’ as part of any ongoing negotiations.
I did ask him if the Korean SF ladies were ‘hot’. He said like most Korean women, they were either absolute stunners or horse frighteners, nothing in between.

707th Special Mission Group

707th Special Mission Group first formed for the 1988 Seoul olympics. There are far more stunners than horse frighteners but sadly with all the western fast food available now like any developed country they have a small but growing number of chubby chicks.

Apoligies for thread drift.

 

[medwaymud]

I'm not sure how to say this: I have a suspicion that western notions of cooperation (among others) may have been absent from the cultural lexicon of some of the participating nations

I wonder also what cultural shortfalls were ascribed to 'westerners' by their Korean and Thai counterparts

We will never know . . . .

And then again, we recently saw that wonderful co- operation between almost the same groupings to rescue those kids from the flooded cave system.

The occaisions when common humanity and cultural differences sometimes converge, sometimes diverge, is an intriguing conundrum.

 

[Cutaway]

And then again, we recently saw that wonderful co- operation between almost the same groupings to rescue those kids from the flooded cave system.

The occaisions when common humanity and cultural differences sometimes converge, sometimes diverge, is an intriguing conundrum.

But Elon Musk was on the fringe to ensure some continuity of stupidity and hatred.

 

[medwaymud]

But Elon Musk was on the fringe to ensure some continuity of stupidity and hatred.

That really was a bizarre intervention !

A bit like someone turning up at a wedding ceremony and deliberately farting loudly during the marriage vows.
He can shove his cars and rockets up his ego.

 

[Cutaway]

That really was a bizarre intervention !

A bit like someone turning up at a wedding ceremony and deliberately farting loudly during the marriage vows.
He can shove his cars and rockets up his ego.

A better attitude cannot be expected from an ungrateful, middle-class, draft-dodger with amore chips on his shoulder than Sun City could provide.

 

[Lardbeast]

A better attitude cannot be expected from an ungrateful, middle-class, draft-dodger with amore chips on his shoulder than Sun City could provide.

Ah, but the terminally right on think he's lovely, so that's OK then...

 

[par avion]

A better attitude cannot be expected from an ungrateful, middle-class, draft-dodger with amore chips on his shoulder than Sun City could provide.

He was a Saffer. I thought that he was a bit young to dodge Vietnam.

 

[Cutaway]

He was a Saffer. I thought that he was a bit young to dodge Vietnam.

Two years National Service was compulsory for all whites in RSA, with the second year of that active, then Citizen Force camps.
All other Defence Force members were PF volunteers.