Sgt. Jeon, Korean Army Tank Commander, Mountaineer

I’m serving in the Republic of Korea Army as a Tank Commander in the mountaineous region of Inje, Korea.

-30°C winters are commonplace.

The pursuit of Excellence

Since young, I was attracted to the idea of excellence. Why do anything at all, if it’s not going to be in the best effort? The result isn’t important to me. The idea of keeping my head down and pushing forward. Leadership, standards, standards, standards above all.

Out of 216 people, there were 7 shortlisted to lead the company through drills and training in bootcamp.

I was eventually selected to represent the 27th Regiment, 9th Company.

Standing in front of 1000+ people shouting commands every single day was harder than I thought it would be. Still, when duty called, I always delivered. I held myself together for 5 weeks and performed my duties well.

Artillery School, Squad Leader, Commander

After only about 6 months, I was appointed a Squad Leader. Lots of new responsibilities. Maintenance, executing missions, ensuring the safety of my crew.

Eventually I was notified that I was going on deployment to Artillery School. There, I learned everything about artillery - how to execute missions successfully, how to be an effective leader, how to fire ‘well’.

I found myself studying from 8am to 12am, on the A to Zs of artillery.

I graduated top 5% of the class of 25-7, and was ranked #1 in my battallion.

Since I was the only squad leader from my company to be sent to artillery school, I was naturally promoted to a commander. Fun stuff.

My First Successful TV Appearance!

Every year, there’s a music talent contest held by the National TV station. There was an officer who played Bass in our battallion, and he was pretty good. Together, we recruited a drummer, guitarist, and a singer to form a little band.

The army is a very mundane place. Repetitive tasks, hard labour every day, unhappy superiors. There’s little room for emotional expression. But when this opportunity came, we immediately jumped on it.

Despite our immensely busy schedules, we squeezed out time to practice at least once a week, for about 2 months.

Here’s me shredding it out on the keyboard. Had an insane amount of fun.

And can you believe it? We won 1st place! 95/100 points.

We each took home 5 days of leave as the 1st place prize. It was totally awesome.

Thank you friends

I’ve had the pleasure of my friends from Singapore visit me while I was on leave. Huge thanks to these bunch for always being there.

See you guys in RC4!