Feedback contains information on updates and some background information that might be of interest to some readers. It also has comments from web site readers that might have wider interest than just to me. To that end, and to possibly prevent having to respond to the same questions and comments again and again, this page provides responses that answer some of your questions, even some you've not yet asked. Be forewarned that I write for enjoyment as well as for enlightenment, and hope that you'll appreciate my humor. If not, then send me a comment and maybe I'll post it here. Or maybe not.

As with other areas where I post items of interest, I'll include dates and have the newest first so you don't have to go scrolling through a lot of "old news" (is that an oxymoron?). To speed up page loading, entries have been divided by year, with larger years' entries split.

Jack Terwiel     

2002	2003	2004	2005: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec
2006: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2007: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2008: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2009: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec

December 24, 2004 – Lots of Updates
Sorry for the delay in updating, but it's been a busy month. Here's the Osan AB main gate sign corrected to change from Osan Air Force Base. On Dec 4, I attended and presented a briefing at the U.S. Military Retirees Association Korea. The turnout was not great. On Dec 11, I attended the Osan AB quarterly Retiree Appreciation Day hosted by the Challenger Club. The turnout was gratifying as evidenced by this photo and this photo. What's the difference? The Association is a dues-free organization of Korea retirees with no budget. The Challenger Club, on the other hand, puts out a great meal for free. This time it was Prime Rib, baked potato, corn on the cob, roll, salad and a special retiree cake for dessert. In addition, MWR provided door prizes. (Not shown in the Osan photos are Jim Price and his fan club, who were out of view seated in the ballroom.)

New construction update photos have been added for the TMO construction, Chili's Restaurant, the new post office and an officers dorm upgrade.

November 24, 2004 – Grand Opening of the Osan Shopping Center
The Osan Shopping Center opened for business on November 20, a foggy day at Osan. Due to illness, I was unable to create the slide show of photos until today.

November 13, 2004 – The Final Series of Shopping Mall Construction Photos; and What's With the New Sign:
The final series of (slightly fuzzy) photos of the shopping mall construction have been posted. One set of photos shows the post office and parking construction, plus the mall and concessions. A second set of photos takes a tour of the main store, much changed (obviously) since the November 2 photos. Future photos will show the Phase 2 post office and additional mall parking lot (replacing temporary mini-mall that used to be the MacPherson Rec Center). Phase 2 construction will be displayed separately from this series.

Well, the new sign noted below has been completed and is functioning. But with the vanilla message being displayed, it's hard to tell who it belongs to. I could ask, but trying to guess the ownership is more fun.

October 28, 2004 – E-mail Newsletter Glitch; New Shopping Mall Photos; and the New Sign
The HTML version of the newsletter that was posted on the web site two days ago has become the default e-mail version. When I reformatted it to be accepted by the e-mail server, it ended up too large and the server "burped." So 12 hours of work was wasted and I was forced to send subscribers an e-mail with a link to the web site version. (On the positive side, the clickable index works properly in this version.) This may have to do for now, maybe even longer. For me, it's back to the drawing board.

I wandered into the shopping mall today with the camera and have 16 photos from inside the main store and the concessions area. The AAFES employees who are preparing the store have a lot of hard work ahead of them and the November 20 Grand Opening date for the main store is firm, according to Store Manager Yi, Mi Sook.

Well, the new sign inside the main gate is nearing completion and it turns out to be an electronic sign (photo 1 and photo 2). So that means it won't be a replacement for the old Osan AB sign. Wondering now if the new sign will be for MWR or AAFES, since these two seem to be the fastest growing entities at Osan.

October 26, 2004 – HTML Newsletter Posted to Web Site; Pop-Up Blocker Won't Let You Sign Up for E-mail Newsletter?
The HTML version of the newsletter has been posted and the e-mail version should go out tomorrow. The e-mail server is very picky about formatting and I won't know, just like you, until I receive the newsletter in my mailbox whether the internal hyperlink problem is fixed.

I recently added a pop-up blocker to my home computer and discovered while testing the HTML newsletter that the subscribe-unsubscribe pop-up is blocked. If you have that problem and would like to unblock it, the URL is http://promo.ipowerweb.com/app/newsltr/subscribe.html?no=5530. Your blocker software should have a configuration option to unblock certain sites. Find that, copy and paste the above into it, and you should be good to go.

I took a brief trip into the shopping mall today and it's even bigger from the inside than from the outside. I hope to be able to get some photos to post by this weekend.

October 10, 2004 – Photo Updates of Shopping Mall and Ballfield Dorm; and a New Sign
Shopping Mall Status: The Community Bank is now operational in its new home with functional ATMs and the old bank building is pretty much gone already. One of my unasked questions was why the front of the mall was left unfinished as shown in the old bank building photo. When I saw the old bank building gone, I realized that the new post office will be constructed where the old bank building was and it will actually be connected to the mall at that end (as shown in the artist's drawing). While still on the mall, here's another photo taken from Broadway with the morning sun peeking over the building.

After looking at the small changes in the pan photos taken of the exterior mall recently, I've decided to discontinue the pan photos and go with standard-sized one reflecting the interior work progress and individual outside improvements. That's what's reflected in today's shopping mall update.

Other Construction Updates: The ballfield dormitory looks finished on the outside. And there's another bit of construction going on inside the main gate. Looks like they're building a new sign to replace the old one that was forced to make way for the gate reconstruction. Off base, the Asia Hotel has completed the renovation and incorporation of the Chun-il Hotel into the Asia Hotel. Here's an early morning photo of the new parking area, looking more like a park and even including a waterfall cascading down the rocks at the right.

October 5, 2004 – Update to Social Security Forms
After a grueling weekend creating the forms, it took a day to recover before I could bear to look at them again. I did a test today and found some errors. And in the course of exploring Adobe Acrobat Professional, I discovered an option called "Reduce File Size." So I corrected all the errors I could find in the forms and reduced their size. File size reductions of up to 70% were achieved for the larger files, so they should download faster with no penalty in using the forms.

October 3, 2004 – Major Change to Social Security Forms
Most of the Social Security forms used to file claims in "Applying For" and "Korea Casualty" (Casualty Checklist) are now fillable. There's a price to pay and that is the very large size of the fillable forms. Each time a field is specified as fillable, additional information must be entered to specify field title, size and type, font size and type, pop-up instructions for completing the field, default information (if appropriate) and any unique properties such a format for a social security number field. Because these files are so large, non-fillable forms are provided that are more easily downloaded for completion by hand. This change eliminates the overprinted sample forms, so you can now prepare your own Social Security claim forms either on the computer or on the kitchen table.

Some fields such as dates must be completed in a specific format to be acceptable, and this format is described in the pop-up that appears when the mouse cursor is over that field.

Keep in mind that the fillable forms cannot be saved with the filled-in information if you are using Adobe Acrobat Reader. "Save" will only save the blank form in Reader.

If you use any of the forms and have corrections or suggestions to improve their functionality, please send your comments to jack@rao-osan.com or Jack.Terwiel@osan.af.mil. And if you want to see an example of how flexible Adobe Acrobat Professional (used to create the fillable format) is, check out the Application for Disability Insurance Benefits (529kb), go to page 2, block 8 (at the top) and move the mouse cursor over the "Other" option after reading the instructions for this option.

RAO Office Update: There is no change from the situation reported below for Sep 25. The space is cramped and there is no visitor seating available at the RAO desk. As a reminder, the RAO will be closed for Columbus Day on Oct 11 and in Seoul for the normal monthly visit on Oct 12

September 25, 2004 – RAO Office Closure Update
The RAO resumed somewhat normal operation this week, with the phone and fax reconnected and normal hours (0800-1500, Mon-Fri) restored. The RAO is closed for the Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving or Harvest Festival) holiday Sep 27-29.

Shopping Mall Update: New photos have posted to complement last week's "left-right" photos, to show other aspects of the mall construction. One of the photos shows the entrance to the new Community Bank location in the mall, another shows the immense warehouse area.

TMO Construction Update: Two new photos have been posted to show the current status of construction of the Traffic Management Office.

September 4, 2004 – RAO Office Closure Update
I completed the move of the RAO from the temporary location into the "permanent" location in Room 103, connected the computer to the network and plugged the telephone into a dead wall outlet. There are three workstations (not real desks with drawers) in the room, one for Passports, one for a non-existent AF Reserve recruiter and one for the RAO, so the actual RAO floor space is more like 60 sq ft (6'x10'). I made up some photo montages so you can see the RAO office before (PDF, 204KB) building renovation and the RAO space (can't call it an office) after (PDF, 299KB) building renovation. (The plastic commissary bags with labels spread around the desk hold the contents of each of the six desk drawers that I no longer have.) As is plain to see, there is no way I can conduct a customer service operation is this "storage area," so I go in once a day to check e-mails. The RAO remains closed until further notice.

Unless something changes soon, there will also probably not be a hardcopy retiree newsletter in early October, as I have typically processed the printed newsletters by labeling, sorting and bundling them at my desk using considerable surrounding floorspace to stack the bundles. I will press on with the print version for PDF posting to the web site and, of course, for the new e-mail version of the newsletter. (By the way, have you signed up for it on the home page?)

I am hoping to know more about the future of the RAO after the Labor Day holiday. Now that Exercise Ulchi/Focus Lens has ended, the senior leadership should be more accessible.

August 31 2004 – New Mall Photos, September Tour Schedule, and RAO Closure
Shopping Mall Update: New construction photos are now available as of August 29. The grand opening of the main store is now scheduled for November 20. The bank, concessions and food court will open ahead of the main store, which is awaiting offshore materials that are causing the delayed opening.

TTC Update: The Tour and Travel Center September schedule of tours (PDF format) is now available.

RAO Closure: The Osan AB Retiree Activities Office is closed awaiting suitable office space to reopen. The planned private office space in Building 936 was suddenly reduced by one third with the addition of a second and unrelated function, leaving insufficient space (approximately 10'x12' with two workstation desks) to accommodate RAO files, equipment and customer seating. As a result, the RAO, which I packed up and moved (at least what would fit) into the new space, cannot unpack and operate. Rather than attempt to operate with most items left in boxes because of lack of space and without the two five-drawer file cabinets (which didn't fit) containing forms, customer files and administrative files, I have opted to remain closed until a suitable location is found.

I owe Korea retirees and widows an explanation on why I will not open in a "shoebox." I conduct considerable personal business for the widows and some retirees, and I serve as the primary support agency in many retiree casualty cases. These functions require privacy. I cannot in good conscience provide service where neither privacy nor even the most basic customer service such as a chair to sit in are available. Over nearly seven years as RAO Director, I have established a standard of service of which I am very proud, despite having lost a private office and having to operate in shared spaces during the 19 months of renovation. I cannot further compromise that standard and let retiree and widow support be shortchanged for the convenience of others.

I apologize for the lack of notice, but did not realize that another function was to be colocated with the RAO until it showed up on Saturday morning after I had shut down and packed up the office as I prepared to move. I had no advance notification of this plan and was shocked to discover it as a fait accompli. Again, I apologize and sincerely hope for a quick resolution to the situation.

August 15, 2004 – E-Mailed Newsletter, New Mall Photos, & etc
E-Mail Newsletter: This morning at approximately 0630, the first e-mail version of Still Serving in Korea was mailed to 70 subscribers who had signed up. The clickable index and return to index, which didn't work in early testing, worked fine in the test e-mail I sent immediately prior to mailing to subscribers. Apparently the subscriber mailing software is still not working properly and clicking on an internal link takes you to the provider's Marketing Center web site. I have contacted tech support and reported the problem (again).

For those who opted for the TXT version of the newsletter, there's a lot of white space and the index titles have been run together. I will try to reformat the newsletter coding to correct these problems; however, the HTML version of the newsletter is first priority and any reformatting cannot affect that version. And the HTML version will always be available on the web site for those who need it.

Shopping Mall Update: New photos of the shopping mall construction are available and include a photo of the main entrance and photos along the Broadway side.

Other Stuff: I had the opportunity to see the Area Retiree Council scrolling news operating on a slow computer. I was not impressed, but there's not much I can do to speed up my end. Sorry 'bout that. And for those who might remember a movie entitled, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," here's my title ripoff called, "A Sunflower Grows in Songtan" from my roof garden, just to brighten your day.

August 8, 2004: – How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Korea Area Council News and Information: Today's big surprise at rao-osan.com is the addition of news and information for each of the four retiree councils that were activated in Korea. The councils represent Areas I, II, III and IV. The Osan Info page has been modified to delete "Retiree Calendar" and the four clocks below it in order to accommodate the Area Retiree Council information blocks. If you're adventurous, you can go straight here and check it out.

For the rest of us, some instructions on use are in order. First, the program is based on scrolling, so don't be surprised if something suddenly starts scrolling upward. For example, the prompt at the bottom of each area's title block is timed to scroll every 1 minute and 40 seconds. Why? Because that's just the way I set it as a visual reminder. It also provides ample opportunity for playing around, as each time you exit one of the blocks, it restarts the timer. Clicking on each prompt in sequence will bring up the menus. Returning to the title pages in sequence results in the prompts, after 1:40, suddenly starting to move upward in sequence and reminding me of a precision drill team.

Clicking on the prompt brings up a four-item menu. Each item can be accessed by clicking on it. To return to the title page, click on the fourth item.

The first menu item brings you the current news and scheduled events for the selected area. This is a continuous scroll that stops when you move the cursor over it. Pressing and holding the mouse button (click-drag) allows you to drag the text up and down. After you do this, the scroll will restart and you must move the cursor out and back in to reactivate the auto-stop. Each item has a prompt at the bottom to return to the menu. (Note: Remember if the cursor is over this display after you have, for example, selected News and Events from the menu, the display will not start until you move the cursor out of this block.) When appropriate, news items will have embedded links displayed in black to show "hot spots," so you can click and go to external web sites or internal web pages on rao-osan.com.

The second menu item provides you with information on each of the retiree council members for that area. This display stops as each person's information appears, and it displays the information for six (6) seconds before automatically scrolling to the next member. Moving the cursor over the information will not stop the scroll. To stop the scroll, press and hold the mouse button, which also allows you to drag the information block up and down. Clicking anywhere but on "hot spots" will cause it to move on to the next person. Each member has an e-mail address, and clicking on the highlighted address will bring up a blank e-mail form (if your browser allows it). Each member's information block ends with a prompt to return to the menu. The final item on each council listing is a brief description of the geographical scope of the council's area of responsibility.

The third menu item is just for fun and I put it there because it provides some interesting options for people who have too much time on their hand (not like us, right?). When you start the display, the prompt moves from bottom to top and stops. It will also rotate after 1:40. Why 1:40? Well, the timer ticks in tenths of seconds and 1:40 comes as the result of a nice round number like 1,000. (FYI, the news and council timers are set to 100,000, so if you're patient enough to wait roughly 27 hours and 46.7777776 minutes, they will scroll.) The cursor will probably be inside the box when the display starts, so invert colors will not start automatically. You have to move the cursor out then back in to invert the colors. Click on the "invert info" prompt to return to the menu.

The fourth menu item brings you back to the title page. Okay, now you're ready to tackle the new Osan Info page.

Subscribers to the E-Mail Newsletter: I'm surprised by the small number of retirees in Korea who have signed up for the e-mail newsletter to date. It will be mailed one week from today to everyone who's signed up. It's particularly important for those with systems that run other than Windows and Internet Explorer to receive this sample newsletter and report any problems. Also, those who opt to receive the non-HTML version of the newsletter may find the automatic formatting of a TXT message to be less than ideal. Not much I can do about that until I learn how the host system converter works and try to adjust my newsletter internal format wherever possible.

What's a Vacation For? The above two items plus a slide show of Osan-Songtan 1959 are the main products of how I spent my summer vacation. The primary purpose of a vacation is to enjoy yourself, and projects like these give me great pleasure. I hope that, as a side benefit, they do the same for you.

And Finally: Some of you may have contacted the RAO during this two-week period. If so, it's quite likely you encountered Mike Iles who was sitting in for me a lot of the time between taking care of his personal business. I want to take the opportunity to publicly thank Mike for the great job he did, particularly since he was "thrown in the pool" and left to "sink or swim." He helped get the retiree newsletter mailed out before I left, then took care of the widow newsletter himself. He handled questions and visitors with aplomb and, to continue the analogy, did "swimmingly" (adverb: With great ease and a high degree of success). Thanks, Mike.

July 14, 2004: – Construction Updates, New Photos, Veterans and More
Foggy Day Shopping Mall and TMO Updates: Shopping mall and TMO updates taken on a foggy Saturday morning. Also, the main gate sign was uncovered, but there are a few small problems with the wording. The signmaker apparently didn't use a straight edge in lining up the letters. If you're familiar with AF designations, you don't usually see the word "Force" used in overseas Air Force installations. So it should be "Osan Air Base," right?

New Photos Expected: I received some photos of Osan AB and Songtan from Ed Stirling who was at Osan in 1959-60. Here are just a few of the photos: runway view from Hill 180; main gate; main street; and one Ed calls "Moving Day." It will probably take a while to receive and organize the photos, but I thought you'd like to see a few of what's coming.

Veterans With a Mission: I received an e-mail about an organization called Veterans for a Change, dedicated to introducing students to the meaning of veterans and patriotism. It all started in school as a result of the following:

In May of 1993, students were asked, "Why do we have Memorial Day off school?"
The class was silent. Finally, one seventh grade child, raised his hand and said,
"Because that is the day the pool opens for summer?"
The class was given the homework assignment of defining the word "veteran."

Now check out the e-mail to get more information and links to a couple of sites.

What Would Walt Do: Here's an interesting toy store with a rather well-known name.

June 26, 2004: – Construction Updates and More
Shopping Mall Update and Other Construction Updates: Shopping mall, dormitories and other building construction updates; the main gate is open and here's a photo. The new sign is still covered, but a peek before it was covered reveals the new AF logo.

In case you don't check out the construction photos, there's an interesting sign in the parking lot of the new officers dormitory. Hmmm!

June 13, 2004: – Construction Updates and More
Another beautiful day at Osan and some more construction updates, including the shopping mall, enlisted dorms, Transportation and TMO and the Hill 180 parking lot.

I got a better photo of the pheasant on Hill 180 today, and a quiet Sunday morning view of Songtan Blvd.

There has been no further progress on construction of Chili's Restaurant. It may be awaiting completion of the work being done on the theater renovation.

May 22, 2004 – Construction Updates and More
Shopping Mall Update and Other Construction Updates: A beautiful spring day at Osan and a light workload of other stuff allowed for a lot more update photos than normal. The Shopping Mall shows the normal update shots, plus some others that are of interest (to me, at least). The Current Construction page has been redesigned to allow you to go directly to the construction area of interest. It is now divided into three areas: dormitories, new/replacement buildings and upgrade/repair/other. Just click on the title at the upper left to go directly to that area. And navigations options have been added at the upper right, if nothing else than just to balance the page header.

Speaking of construction, you have to feel bad for the occupants of the airmen's dormitories in the vicinity of the Mustang Club. Construction is all around them and the Korean workmen are out early seven days a week when the weather allows. Here are three photos taken from the same spot next to a dormitory: the Ballfield Dorm construction, the Golf Course dorm construction and the new Transportation building construction (with the Osan-ni dorm being constructed to the left, but not visible in this photo) are all within earshot.

In wandering around, I took some more photos of miscellaneous things of interest. For example, did you know that we have pheasants at Osan AB? Here's one shot, and here's another. Why are the visible birds to the right? Because the three or four female pheasants accompanying the visible male flew off before I could snap it, although what looks like the head of a female appears at the left in the first photo. The other bird in the second photo is a dove, of which I've counted up to fourteen in one walking tour. Here's a better shot of a dove at a different location. The beautiful weather brought out the golfers, and here's a postal delivery of a different sort. The Osan cuckoo birds (no, real ones) were also out and here's a recording of one of them on Hill 180 (MPG file with accompanying photo).

April 20, 2004 – Construction Updates
Shopping Mall Update and EE Completion: New photos have been added to show the current stage of construction on the shopping mall. Also, the EE (elegant entrance) of Building 936 renovation, reported below in the Feb 28 update to the Feb 25 entry, has been completed.

March 28, 2004 – Construction Updates
Shopping Mall Update and New Restaurant: New photos have been added to show the current stage of Osan Shopping Mall construction. And the very convenient site of the new Chili's Restaurant has gone through one more step in preparation. The new asphalt patch in the road at the right edge of the photo is where the water service was extended to the construction site this past week. For those vaguely familiar with Osan AB, the structure at the right is the rear of the theater, directly in front is the fence surrounding the "plant" containing heating and air conditioning equipment for the Turumi Lodge, and the Lodge itself can be seen at the upper right of the photo.

February 25, 2004 – On-base and Off-base Updates
New Construction Completion Estimates: The AAFES Main Store manager now estimates that the shopping mall will open in October. And the completion of Building 936 is now projected for April (or possibly May or maybe even June, depending on who's talking). When it's done, the RAO will be able to move back "home." (2/28/04 update) Contractor planned completion date for 936 remains at March 21, according to the signboard. And here's a photo of the EE (elegant entrance) being added to 936.

Beemer Bounces Back: On the way to the Korean post office today, I noted that the BMW dealership has reopened in the same location and there's a beautiful red convertible on the showroom floor. Sorry, no photo (yet). The closing was reported in the November 10 entry below. Would the reopening have something to do with the projected relocation of thousands of potential customers from Seoul and the northern bases/posts to the Osan AB and Camp Humphreys area?

February 15, 2004 – Driving in Korea
Speeding Can Get You in Trouble: One of the additions to the roadways of Korea are radar-controlled cameras. Being budget conscious, the Korean government decided that rather than installing these devices everywhere, they would install the mounts and boxes, but put the expensive equipment into only some of the boxes. So if you speed in Korea, you play highway roulette with the boxes.

But there's another type of roulette that Korean drivers play. Some (or maybe more) Korean men have girlfriends that they hook up with during the business day. They go driving off to a convenient place for an encounter. However, if they're not careful, they could end up with a radar-controlled camera taking a picture of the front of the car to include driver and any front seat passenger. The photo is then mailed to the offender's home with a traffic citation. Oftentimes, the mail is opened by the wife ... and ....

Gas in Korea: Gasoline in Korea costs about $4.00 a gallon so some enterprising individuals have figured out a way around the high taxes on gasoline. They create a concoction of 1/3 gasoline, 1/3 acetone and 1/3 solvent so it's not subject to the gasoline tax. Unfortunately, this is not good for the health of the engine, but some drivers are short sighted and ignore the warnings. So if you're buying a used car in Korea that has a really low sale price, it may end up not such a good deal.

Mud Rain: China has diverted a number of rivers to support expanding agriculture. As a result, the Gobi Desert is growing larger and winds from the desert blow more and more frequent dust and sand (knows in Korea as the Yellow Wind) across the peninsula. If it rains while the dust is blowing, it results in mud rain. On Friday, I had my car washed. Friday evening there was a light rain, and on Saturday the car looked like this.

January 21, 2004 – Unadvertised Special
You may have seen the new RAO Osan logo at the upper right corner of the home page. Here's the large version of the logo, which represents the Osan AB Retiree Activities Office. And if you'd like to see the logo that represents the activities of retirees in Korea, check out this one. (Just kidding, fellas!)

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