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    Korea less traveled program shows promise

    Banging the bell

    Photo By Master Sgt. Victor Gardner | Koo Sung Mo, college student at Kyungpook National University, center, prepares to...... read more read more

    DAEGU, 27, SOUTH KOREA

    08.03.2015

    Story by Sgt. 1st Class Victor Gardner 

    AFN Pacific

    DAEGU, South Korea – Getting out and seeing the world was a recruiting campaign the U.S. Army advertised in the early 1980’s. U.S. troops stationed in South Korea celebrated an opportunity to partner with college students from the Kyungpook National University (KNU) Aug. 3 through a new initiative called the Korea Less Traveled Program (KLTP) sponsored by Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers (BOSS) at the university.

    According to Col. Kelly Lawler, 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC) deputy commander, KLTP is a new program designed to couple Soldiers with students of South Korea in order to learn, and experience the Korean culture. KLTP just concluded its second session and is still in the developmental stages.

    Five Soldiers were able to spend six weeks with a host nation student from KNU. A lot of the paired groups attended festivals or celebrations happening in South Korea. But one group faced a different kind of challenge.

    Pfc. Joshua Dugan, who is assigned to Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, partnered with KNU student Koo Sung Mo. The two faced a small challenge when attempting to figure out how to expose Dugan to the South Korean culture. One would think language was a barrier. It was not.

    Accepting the customs and ways of the South Korean culture might be an issue for Dugan. It was not. A concern Mo faced was that Dugan had been in country for six months and had already immersed himself into the South Korean way of life. Mo, who also served in the South Korean army as a Korean Augmentee to the U.S. Army (KATUSA), had also experienced some of the events U.S. Soldiers take part in while in South Korea through the BOSS program.

    Dugan and Mo decided to do something no other group had done, or might not want to do. The two spent the night at a Monk Temple where they both learned, and experienced, the reasoning behind 108 bows and prayers each monk must do three times a day.

    “You bow one time and put a bead on the string,” said Mo. “The first bow represents knowing where you came from and what you are going to live up to. The last of the 108 bows and beads means you thank everyone for being here and that I am leaving peacefully.”

    “We thought no one else would know how to do it or want to do it,” said Dugan. “I thought this would be a once in lifetime thing.”

    Dugan and Mo wanted to try something new that would enlighten them both. Mo said he felt an obligation to show Dugan something most Americans don’t get to see of experience.

    “As a guy that lives in Korea to introduce some of the Korean culture to the U.S. Soldiers, I tried to find out what he may have not done by himself,” said Mo.

    The two learned the meaning behind the 108 bows by actually doing the bows for one setting while making a monk bead bracelet.

    Mo expressed that the teaching of the 108 bows shows the humbleness of the individual. Mo also said the KLTP experience was something he would love to do again and help recruit others to take part in.

    “It was an amazing time for the both of us,” said Mo. “I had to find a lot of stuff that is related to the Korean culture and it was really fun. Josh was really helpful and he actually tried to learn and accept the Korean traditions.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 08.03.2015
    Date Posted: 08.09.2015 22:52
    Story ID: 172611
    Location: DAEGU, 27, KR
    Hometown: DAEGU, 27, KR
    Hometown: CLEVELAND, OH, US
    Hometown: WASHINGTON, DC, US

    Web Views: 133
    Downloads: 0

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