The G.I.s: 60,000 Miles to Breakfast

To earn their breakfast, the 15,000 G.l.s of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division collectively run some 60,000 miles every morning--4 miles per man (including officers) in at least 32 minutes. The division has good reason for keeping its men in top shape: it defends a 500-sq.-mi. area bestriding the Uijongbu Corridor, traditional invasion route to Seoul and a mere 15 miles from the DMZ.

The men of the 2nd account for roughly one-third of the 42,000 U.S. servicemen still stationed in South Korea. Strung out across 159 installations, exposed to sub-zero cold and vulnerable to blitz attack from crack North Korean units, they are probably the toughest, best-trained and most combat-ready American forces anywhere. They are also among the most important politically. On the one hand, Pyongyang views them as the major obstacle to its unifying the Korean peninsula under Communist rule; on the other, Seoul sees the American presence (although reduced considerably from its 1953 peak of 325,000 men) as both a deterrent to attack and an earnest demonstration of Washington's commitment to defend South Korea in the event of attack.

The 2nd Division is no longer assigned to guard an extended sector of the 150-mile-long DMZ, as it was until 1971 Still, its location near the oft-used mountain passes at the western edge of the truce line means that its units would be engulfed by the fighting almost immediately if North Korea ever invaded in strength. Moreover, the 2nd Division is counted on to provide a strategic reserve for I Corps Group--a 175,000-man force that includes twelve ROK (Republic of Korea) divisions as well as the U.S. 2nd.

Tactically, the most important American units in South Korea may be the U.S. Air Force units; their supersonic F-4 Phantom fighter-bombers are needed to offset the 3-to-1 superiority in air power that the North boasts over the South. Other key U.S. units provide antiaircraft and surface-to-surface missile support, and field engineering, trucking and logistics battalions.

Much of South Korea's military command and control functions are in U.S. hands. All 18 ROK army divisions, for example, are under the operational control of General Richard G. Stilwell, 58 (no kin to World War II's "Vinegar Joe"). Stilwell wears the hats of commanding general of the U.S. Eighth Army, commander in chief of the United Nations Command and commander of U.S. Forces-Korea. The crucial I Corps Group forces are commanded by Lieut. General James P. ("Holly") Hollingsworth, 57, a veteran of World War II and Viet Nam; packing a pearl-handled revolver and generously salting his vocabulary, he frequently boasts that, if challenged, his men will "destroy the North Koreans with violence." The U.S. also controls all of Korea's air defenses and the sophisticated, countrywide military-communications network.

To keep U.S. combat forces in top shape, Stilwell has ordered an exhausting training regimen, and no outfit has carried his orders further than the 2nd Division. Each quarter, every unit of the 2nd undergoes two weeks of training in night fighting; the men sleep during the day and maneuver at night in rugged terrain to accustom themselves to the night attacks employed by Communist troops 25 years ago. Every six months the division's infantrymen participate in air-mobile exercises complete with artillery support, helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers--and live ammunition.

In addition to their daily four-mile run, all of the division's men attend courses in tae kwon do, a Korean version of karate, for three months, and many volunteer for more. They are also required to play some physically demanding sport like "combat football," a game combining the most crunching elements of soccer, rugby and football.

The G.l.s must also devote at least 18 hours of duty time each month to some kind of formal education. Observes Sergeant Dale McLaughlin at Camp Casey, headquarters of the 2nd Division: "A man here is almost forced to get educated. You're hounded until you take something." Courses include high school subjects leading to a diploma and college-level studies.

When it comes to relaxing, U.S. troops in Korea are the beneficiaries of 22 years of peacetime--or at least, trucetime--refinements. Officers' clubs and enlisted men's recreational facilities have been continually improved and some now boast bowling alleys, photography darkrooms, and gem-polishing workshops. Camp Casey has carefully trimmed lawns, a well-stocked trout pond, a nine-hole golf course with green fees at a pre-inflation $5 per month, two swimming pools and a huge gymnasium.

Some of the enlisted men are still barracked in cramped, 20-year-old, dormitory-style metal quonset huts. But there are growing numbers of new three-story "super hooches," which bunk only three men to a room. BOQS, or Bachelor Officer Quarters, bear whimsical names like "Teahouse of the Anxious Moose"--moose being a corruption of the Japanese musume or girl. A recreation center has been developed to accompany the "spartan training" facility on Cheju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea; it offers sailing, scuba diving and duck and pheasant shooting. The division has even sponsored occasional all-night rock concerts, quaintly called "Gunstocks."

The time-killing formula of training, education and recreation seems to have significantly reduced the racial tensions and drug problems that plagued U.S. forces in Korea and elsewhere in the 1960s and early 1970s. (Nearly half the 2nd Division's G.l.s are black and other minorities.) Morale also seems high in most places. A young lieutenant compared his life at Camp Casey with that at a "jock college." Closer to the DMZ, soldiers suffer from isolation, primitive facilities (hot baths once a week) and sheer boredom. It is at these bleak forward outposts that the U.S. would suffer its first casualties if North Korea were ever to launch a major attack. Thus, for the G.l.s based there, the boredom of a seemingly interminable truce may well be a blessing.

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