Courageous Channel

One of the downsides of working among a military community is that we sometimes have to play those military games. No, Kristie is not forced to wear an olive-drab uniform while twirling a machine gun synchronistically with tank commanders and infantrymen. Rather, we have to take part in a peninsula-wide exercise to prepare us to be evacuated in case of an attack of North Korea or a natural disaster. If there is an attack, they will start the processing and send us teachers, spouses, children, etc. to either Japan or Hawaii to be averted from danger.

Like everything else in Military Land, the exercise is labeled with an acronym. NEO stands for Noncombatant Evacuation Operation. I’m not sure which is more disturbing, the fact of an attack from the north, or that I’m now labeled as a noncombatant. I can wield a weapon just as good as the next guy. I juggle knives, you know.

We do this twice a year, in October and April. This one is called Courageous Channel, which is a bit of a misnomer. Evacuating when trouble comes seems to be the exact opposite of courageous. Perhaps they call it that to avoid making us pathetic, not-up-to-snuff-for-fighting-the-communists teachers feel lower than the airmen. That’s mighty considerate.

The entire exercise took about an hour. When I see Kim Jung Il, I’m going to tell him how he has inconvenienced me.