Somebody Had to Do It
updated 11/14/2010
In 1954, 2Lt Robert (Bob) Furrer completed communications officer training at Scott AFB, Illinois and was assigned to Korea.
Bob recorded much of his experience, from graduation to his assignment to Korea, his brief time at K-55, and then the time he spent at mountaintop communications sites around Korea. In June 1955, he returned to the U.S. for separation.
(4/25/04 update) The site names shown are actually the callsigns used by the sites. Bob has provided the actual site names and these have been added to the first slide of Officer Living at K-55, Respond, Highpoint and Hillbilly.
(5/2/04 update) Bob has also provided very professional site drawings of the layout of Respond and Highpoint that are accessible from the first slide of each site.
Working the mountaintop sites was no easy task, but somebody had to do it because communications are critical to military command and control. You can see pictures of 2Lt Furrer and what Mr. Bob looks like now.
Because Bob provided so many slides, they have been divided into a roughly chronological sequence of his tours of military sites, and then a compilation of images of Korea and the Koreans not specifically associated with the military sites.
(11/7/10 update) Fifty-five years after serving as the Paris site commander, Bob returned to Highpoint (formerly Paris) on Oct 14, 2010. With the assistance of the Commander of the 501st Signal Company, he was able to accompany the unit on a training mission to the site and accomplish his goal of returning to Highpoint (see Highpoint Revisited below). Bob kept details of his trip and that report can be read here. As a bonus, Bob's report includes a description of the ease with which he used Space Available travel both ways.
| Title/Nr of Slides | Location | Last Update | Description/Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment Korea/14 | US to Korea | 11/08/03 | From school to K-55, hopping across the Pacific |
| Officer Living at K-55/14 | Osan AB | 4/25/04 | The living and working environment at K-55 |
| Comm Site Respond/18 | near Toksan Village | 4/25/04 | Nothing's easy when a narrow dirt road up a mountain is your lifeline |
| Comm Site Highpoint/50 | near Cheonan | 4/25/04 | Wintering over on a mountaintop is no fun, but R&R to Japan helps |
 Highpoint Revisited/26 |
near Cheonan | 11/14/10 | Fifty-five years after serving as Site Commander, Bob revisited Highpoint |
| Comm Site Hillbilly/12 | near Seoul | 4/25/04 | Visits for weapons training and site indoctrination |
| Korea after the War/38 | various | 11/08/03 | Recovering from the war |
| Koreans after the War/20 | various | 11/08/03 | Determined people rebuilding a nation |
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