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

June 25, 2006 – Sunrise Over Songtan; Temporary Camouflage
Sunrise Over Songtan: Took an early morning walk while it was still cool and on Hill 170 I got this very nice sunrise over Songtan.

Temporary Camouflage: I've been showing you the comm tower construction on Hill 170. Here's what it looks like from Burger King with some temporary camouflage, effective only until the leaves fall in autumn.

June 3, 2006 – Spring Has Sprung ; One Man's Trash; Speaking of Signs
Spring Has Sprung: On a beautiful Saturday morning the walk around base was rewarding. Check out, for example, the grass at the ballfield. At the nearby picnic area, the roses were in full bloom.

One Man's Trash... : ... is another man's treasure. Well, I found a similar circumstance where one man's litter is for many bugs lunch.

Speaking of Signs: There's one store near the main gate that has no problem with trademark restrictions on another's name. But then there's the guy who follows the law, but can't come up with a catchy name, so he settles for this. This is similar to the canned coffee named Let's Be and the high rise luxury apartment complex called We've.

May 28, 2006 – Hill 170 Construction; Checking Your Commissary Dollars Spent
Hill 170 Construction: The communications tower appears to be nearing completion. Updates include a vertical panoramic photo taken from the base of the tower, and a long view taken from the parking area across from the hospital parking lot.

Checking Your Commissary Dollars Spent: The May 28 (Sunday) issue (PDF, 8.54MB) of Pacific Stars and Stripes had a page 3 story about black marketing in Korea. This is a good time to remind Korea ration card holders that they can easily check the up-to-date amount of dollars spent in the Commissary by going to https://pimsk.korea.army.mil at any time during the month. With this tool, there should be no excuse for busting your monthly dollar limit.

If you need to make purchase for a special occasion and the amount could take you over your monthly dollar limit, check with your local Ration Control folks to learn how to submit an exemption request letter. Be sure to submit the request well in advance because you'll need the approved letter back to provide when making the purchase.

May 13, 2006 – MVV Tower Correction; Indoor Pool; Hill 170 Construction; What's in a Name?
MVV Tower Correction: In the Apr 17 What's New scroll I mentioned that the MVV Tower opening was being delayed due to a low water pressure problem. The actual problem was that water pressure was too high and it was blowing gasket seals. The problem was quickly corrected and as of today, 23 apartments are occupied. As I walked by, there were folks moving in.

Indoor Pool: The new indoor Mustang Pool is scheduled to open to the public on May 22. Here's a look at the beautiful front of the building and here's another view of the building from the MVV Tower parking lot. The May 10 issue of the Osan Base Bulletin contained the following schedule:

Mustang Indoor Pool Complex Ribbon Cutting
- 22 May – 1030
- Regular Hours from then on will be:
-- Monday – Friday 0530-0730
-- Lap swim 1100-1800
-- Saturday – Sunday & US holidays 1100-1800
- Free till 31 May
- Call 784-4007 for more info

Hill 170 Construction: Construction has resumed at the Hill 170 construction site to build a communications tower. A crane is moving pieces from the storage area to the tower being built on the concrete pad. From the area of the hospital, the tower looks like this.

What's in a (Street) Name?: The name of the road leading from the back of the Wing Headquarters has a most unusual name. Yes, I know, the 51st Fighter Wing nickname is "The Mustangs", but wouldn't something like "Standfast Drive" sound a bit more macho for warfighters?

April 23, 2006 – Osan's 8-Pump Service Station; Virus Threat
AAFES Service Station: The weather was nice yesterday and folks were out in force. As I was returning from my picture-taking walkaround, I noted that the AAFES service station was busy. Realizing that I hadn't provided a "completed" photo of the expansion, here it is. In the background, by the way, is the newest ROK Air Force family housing.

Virus Threat: I received an e-mail from yahoo.com that a card had been sent to me. So I clicked on the link and was taken to a web site in the UK. Then my Avast anti-virus program alerted me that a virus attempt had been made from the link I'd clicked on, and I was able to delete the offending mail without getting infected. The originator used Yahoo as an alias. They're getting slimier!

April 17, 2006 – Cherry Blossoms and a Boat Ride
During the weekend of 8-9 April, we took a trip with the Osan Tour and Travel Center to see the Cherry Blossoms at Chinhae. Being the last weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival, it seemed like half the population of Korea decided to see the festival before it ended.

I thought some folks would like to see a few of the photos.

Link	Description of Photo
01	The main reason we came to Chinhae was to see the cherry blossoms, like these.
02	Some of the trees were awesome, decorated with the beautiful white blossoms.
03	The old men lounging beneath the trees enjoyed the beautiful weather.
04	Among the sights was this unusual walkway in a small corner park.
05	The stones are arranged to massage the feet, so just remove your shoes and walk here.
06	Among the many decorations as part of the festival, this was the most unusual.
07	Festivals and other attractions like this lure a wide assortment of entertainers and vendors.
08	If you have a fast connection, this large 27MB file is a brief hi-rez movie (with sound) of their show.
09	From the bus, here's a view of a distant observation tower.
10	Zooming in lets us take a closer look at the folks doing the observing.
11	We also visited the ROK Naval Academy, with the entrance as seen through the back window of the bus.
12	The Naval Academy has a beautiful Turtle Ship docked here.
13	However, the line (in the background) waiting to walk through the Turtle Ship was daunting.
14	One of the main buildings located amid the beautiful cherry blossoms.
15	The pavilion in front of the building is an ideal place to meet and eat, picnic style.
16	The next day, at Pusan, we had a chance to visit the United Nations Cemetery.
17	The groundskeepers here must be a special breed to keep it so immaculate in honor of those who died for Korea.
18	One of the more impressive walkways had some very artistically sculptured trees.
19	Then we went up a mountain (or high hill) overlooking the East Sea/Sea of Japan, with a tour boat below.
20	After arriving at the parking area, we walked down a lot of uneven stone steps to board the boat.
21	After exiting the inlet where we boarded, we encountered another tour boat.
22	Looking up the side of the mountain, the road we had come in on was visible.
23	On another tour boat we encountered was a man feeding the seagulls from the back.
24	At the base of a steep cliff, hidden among the rocks, was a hardy fisherman.
25	When we returned to the ?dock? where we had boarded, another boat was loading last-minute passengers.

Although it was very windy and choppy on the boat, the weather overall was good and it was an enjoyable trip, well worth the $145 per person. The price included all admission fees, an overnight at the Marriott Hotel at Haeundae Beach and free breakfast.

March 18, 2006 – Osan Retiree Appreciation Day; New TRICARE Standard Newsletter
Osan Retiree Appreciation Day: On Mar 11, the quarterly Osan Retiree Appreciation Day was held at the Challenger Club. About 100 retirees and their wives attended. A briefing was presented by Dr. (LtCol) Ben Affleck of the Osan Hospital. Photos are here, here and here. A briefing was given by Tiffany Lassen of the VA BDD (Benefits Delivery at Discharge) Office at Yongsan. (I was her slide changer, so no photos.) I presented a short update for retirees, and that was followed by the assault on the food, with photos here and here.

Osan area retirees are very appreciative of the 51st Services Squadron and Challenger Club for supporting the RAD, and of the agencies such as the hospital and VA who support us with briefings on topics of interest and importance to the retiree community.

New TRICARE Standard Newsletter: The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and other members of the The Military Coalition send out weekly updates on military news. One item this week should be of interest to all retirees. TRICARE has started a new annual TRICARE Standard Newsletter. The newsletter is chock full of good information and includes information on TRICARE for Life.

You can also sign up for other TRICARE e-mail updates on various topics by going to http://www.tricare.osd.mil/tricaresubscriptions.

Mar 19 Update: Here's a wide photo of the Hill 170 construction. It looks like they've finished, but then again .... And here's an update photo of the finishing paint touches to the upgraded pump islands. Each island can now accommodate four vehicles simultaneously, double what it was before. Looks like they should paint around the island on the right once the paint's dry on the left.

March 5, 2006 – Print Newsletter; Hill 170 Construction; AAFES Service Station; E-Mail Newsletter Glitches; Flags
Print Newsletter: The print version of the Still Serving in Korea newsletter future is in question due to lack of funding, as described in the Notices section of the March e-mail newsletter. At this point, it appears that future issues of the print newsletter, which is distributed only to retirees living in Korea, are uncertain, and maybe unlikely. Although I print the widow newsletter at home (because that funding dried up or became available too late to be practical), there's a big cost difference. The widow newsletter normally consists of one sheet printed on both sides and there are 165-175 copies per run. I can't do that with the retiree newsletter.

Hill 170 Construction: The construction on Hill 170 appears comm related, and here are some photos of the site overview, the backup power generator, the electric power panel, the concrete pad, and the ground wires. The improving weather has allowed construction speed up.

AAFES Service Station: The AAFES Service Station is nearing the completion of construction, upgrading from four pumps to eight pumps, as shown in this photo.

E-Mail Newsletter Glitches: The e-mail newsletter distributed yesterday had a couple of glitches that required sending a "corrected" copy. Unfortunately, in addition to sending the HTML version, the mailing service also generated a TXT version, which I didn't request. For the few who receive the TXT version, the original copy is the one to retain (if you retain the newsletters). In the course of editing the TXT version, I changed a setting in the Text Editor that briefly caused a screwed-up "What's New" scroll. I found and fixed the error within an hour, so most of you (thankfully) didn't see it.

Flags: At the end of December, I created a post of three flags but I'm not sure I posted it. So here it is. The reason I decided to post it is because of this new one showing the middle flag all wrapped up in itself. Is this a metaphor of some kind?

February 26, 2006 – Smaller AMC Terminal; Hill 170 Construction; Another Apology; Plug Nickel
AMC Terminal Photo: As noted in the previous post, the Passenger Terminal has relocated to the AMC Passenger Terminal, Building 884. However, it's a much smaller building now. The large empty space used to house the snack bar, USO lounge and restrooms.

Hill 170 Construction: The unidentifiable construction on Hill 170 was in full force yesterday, and here are some photos of the left side and the right side. The left side has what looks like a frame to mount an old-style fuel tank, whereas most other places have a newer style that's environmentally safer.

Another Apology: In the Dec 24 entry below, I included an apology to AAFES for having carried the Base Theater under MWR when it really is an AAFES operation. Now it time to issue an apology to MWR for carrying the Chili's construction as an AAFES project. It is an MWR operation and has now been transferred to the MWR projects list on the construction menu. Sorry, MWR.

(A) Plug (for the new) Nickel: Have you seen the newly-redesigned nickel (aka 5¢ piece)? The back now contains a historic scene, but the detail is hard to make out with aging eyes. As a public service, I've provided a blow-up to let you appreciate the detailed imagery.

February 21, 2006 – AMC Terminal Reopens; Osan's Snowfall and My Fall; Parking Enforcement
AMC Terminal Reopens: As of Feb 22, the Passenger Terminal operations are relocated back to the AMC Passenger Terminal, Building 884 on the flightline.

Osan's Snowfall and My Fall: On Feb 7, Osan had about 6 inches of snowfall. As a result, the base was closed to all vehicle operations except emergency vehicles. I decided to walk to work, which turned out to be not a good idea. Just starting down the hill past the AAFES Service Station, my feet when straight out from under me and I slammed down on my back. That explains why you haven't seen anything before today. Today I learned why the healing is so slow: I cracked three ribs on the right side. So web site updates may be slower for awhile. However, I expect to get the March e-mail newsletter out on schedule next week.

Parking Enforcement: A number of parking areas at Osan have been designated as time-limited. For example, the upper parking area for the shopping mall has a two-hour, but that has been ignored (Word DOC) and the lot has always been full of all-day parked cars. To allow parking by mall shoppers, the two-hour limit is now being strictly enforced with ticketing and towing. The Military Personnel Flight building (Bldg 936) where I work has a designated 30-minute parking limit.

January 13, 2006 – More on Parking; Osan Wildlife
More on Parking: In a November 20 entry I noted an area of the Hill 180 parking lot that wasn't being used. Last Friday, I took a day off and visited the parking lot. Suspicions confirmed and more. I took some photos on Friday, then took photos of the same areas today, a Korean holiday. You can see the side-by-side results here.

Osan Wildlife: Walking down Hill 180, I heard the familiar "tap, tap, tap" of a woodpecker. I found him mining a tree across from the family housing construction area. Here's a closer look as he tried to hide among the leafless branches.

January 8, 2006 – New AAFES Construction Menu; A Little Then and Now
The New AAFES Menu: Under Construction Projects, the AAFES menu has been modified to begin adding a rebuilt history of the construction of the shopping mall. During construction, as new photos were added, old photos were deleted. I've gone back to the original photo archive and retrieved all the photos covering the first phase of the construction. It details the destruction of old buildings and preparation of the site for the start of construction. Three more phases are shown on the menu and they will be activated as time allows. This is a time-consuming process as all panoramic photos are being rebuilt from the original single frame photos. I thought it best to start anew with more experience now in stitching photos together.

A Little Then and Now: In going through the photo archives, I've stumbled upon some photos that might be of recent historical interest. Here's one of the old base billeting office the Osan Inn, taken on April 26, 2002. Here's the same area today, January 8, 2006.

Note: After posting the e-mail newsletter on Dec 31, I got sick and just recovered sufficiently yesterday (Jan 7) to resume web site maintenance. I did manage to get quarterly print newsletter completed on Jan 5, but that was pretty simple cut-and-paste.

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