Understanding Our Involvement with North Korea through the Eyes of Hudson Valley Locals
As of now approximately 37,500 soldiers are currently stationed on bases all across the border of South and North Korea as part of the United States Force Korea or USFK for short. More men and women are getting the call to be sent overseas as part of Trump’s response to Kim Jung Un, the leader of North Korea, and his threats against the United States, and some of these personnel happen to live and work in the Hudson Valley region. As more troops from this region and other regions across the country are being sent to South Korea as the main frontline for defense, the problem of how well civilians (and even reservists) understand the state of current affairs with North Korea is becoming increasingly clear. Just how well do civilians understand what’s going on with North Korea?
Take Melanie Bolstad for instance, a coach for the women’s diving team at Marist College whose son, a nuclear engineer in the Navy, happens to be deploying to South Korea in the coming weeks via submarine. She is frightened for her son’s life like any mother would be, but understands the duty that her son has to his job and to his country. “My husband and I are very proud of all his accomplishments and realize that this is his dream,” she said. “It is our hope that when he comes back to Pearl Harbor after his deployment we will be on the pier to welcome him and his fellow sailors home back to the U.S.”
The communication between families at home and the men deployed overseas is a tricky orchestra that is not uniform throughout all branches of the military. Take Melanie Bolstad’s eldest son, who is an F-18 pilot with the United States Air Force. “We had e-mail, regular snail mail, and even phone calls from him,” said Bolstad. Submarines, on the other hand, are very different from other Naval ships and aircraft carriers for one big reason: they’re hidden. “When they [submarines] are ‘black’ they have no communication with the outside world,” said Bolstad. “It is much harder on family members than any other ship deployment. We have no idea where he’s being sent, could be Korea or the Sea of Japan.”
Thankfully, every military member has an ombudsman assigned to their squadron, and the ombudsman act as a liason between the military personnel and their families, updating them on their loved one’s whereabouts whilst keeping their locations unknown. “I appreciated the pictures they sent to us of our son Scott and of the sub leaving the port on its way to where they are going,” said Bolstad. “They are a great resource for the sailors and the families, and they told us they would even help plan Christmas and other celebrations while the sub is in no communication under water.”
Luis Santana, a reservist for the army who’s a former resident of Chatham, a tiny hamlet of Hudson, chimed in with his take on the increased presence in South Korea. “I think honestly North Korea has always been wanting war with the U.S. so it is nothing new, and troops have always been in Korea since the armistice.” He added on, “lately tensions have been high and I honestly don’t think we can economically hold another war- it would be bloody.”
John Indergaard, a political science graduate from Cornell University and resident of New Paltz had a different take. “For North Korea much of the conflict has to do with how the United States and NATO has treated similar regimes in the past. For example, looking at how the United States bombed Libya after Qaddafi gave up his weapons per the request of the Western powers, North Korea would probably be much more hesitant to any diplomacy regarding their WMDs (weapons of mass destruction).” He added, “this sort of relationship is fostered because of the United States’ brazen behavior against similar regimes in the past.”
Iraq War Veteran Allen Vergel Baysa had a different interpretation of North Korea’s hostility, and juxtaposed it against the U.S.’s reaction to Saddam’s threats of WMD’s back when he was a commissioned airman of the Air Force. “What most people don’t understand about our involvement in Iraq is that our involvement was not reactionary like it is with North Korea right now. It [the invasion] was a multilateral and not a unilateral decision that was legally within our bounds as stated in the UN resolutions (unilateral meaning the U.S. solely decided to invade Iraq, as opposed to multilateral entailing other nations were in on the decision making as well).”
When asked about civilians current understanding of military affairs, he remarked “I think it’s understandable that a lot of civilians may not know what is going on with North Korea, especially with what’s getting the most reporting on the news, such as the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida. No one’s really thinking about what’s going on in North Korea when there’s breaking news right at their front door.” He added, “Despite this, I do not agree with how the media continues to portray the United States as the aggressor, and fails to report on the intricacies behind war. There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, and for civilians to not understand how long these things take to develop and the players involved is not beneficial for our country at all.”
As we can see many people are involved or are aware of this military showmanship with North Korea, but the understandings of why we are overseas is not exactly clear. What is clear is that civilians need to better understand what is going on so that their voices can have an impact on future military endeavors. “Right after 9/11 about 95% of Americans were ready for us to go to war with Iraq,” said Mr. Baysa said. “If Americans knew then what they know now I can almost guarantee that I would not have had to do three tours during that span of time.” He ended, “public opinion, whether you believe it or not, is important, especially now more than ever.”
