"Cost of living" in Korea

If you can't get deployed, the next best thing is Korea. If you leave your family back in the United States, it counts as a "dependent restricted tour" and resets your dwell time. And unlike a combat environment, you can go "outside the wire" when the on-post environment becomes too oppressive.

Bringing your family to Korea is a double-edged sword, though. Depending on how you look at it, it will either be about the nicest overseas "deployment" you can get, or it will be the worst accompanied tour ever. Although the official marketing wants to make Korea the "assignment of choice," there are a lot of operational exercises which require you to be away from your family.

Take the recent CJLOTS logistics exercise, for example. Elements from my brigade were involved in this, and it took the better part of two months from start to finish. I can just imagine how someone would feel if they were stuck down in Pohang, away from their family, for two months. Bringing your family to Korea requires you to commit two years here instead of just one, but I wouldn't want to bring my family here just to have them waiting around while I spend months away from them.

Of course, being Korean, I don't think my wife would mind as much as someone else's, but -- generally speaking -- soldiers don't bring their families here just to see them during low OPTEMPO moments.

This is a particular bind for captains with dependents. Should we leave our families behind and stay here for only one year, hoping to get command at our next location? Or should we bring our families, knowing that we may have to move them during the school year to get the right job?

If you're really gung-ho about it, you may want to come here just to get a chance at a unit with an important mission. If not, though, I think it may be better just to wait until you reach major.