Republic of Korea Navy recruit class 693

I served in the Republic of Korea Navy for 20 months from July 17, 2023 to March 16, 2025.

From Jinhae to Pyeongtaek
Coin exchanged with a U.S. sailor on the USS Higgins
Wreckage of the ROKS Cheonan
Hyunsin Living Quarters 11th Class representative seaman

The price of freedom

Letter kept by President Truman for life expressing his regret

Freedom for the Korean people has never been free. The only reason we are free today from the dictatorship of the North is because someone made a sacrifice.

Seventy-five years ago, when the communists invaded the Republic of Korea, countless young people from countries that had hardly heard of us fought on the Korean Peninsula to defend a freedom not their own. They were stripped of their own freedoms and risked their lives to protect a people they had never met. Many of those who carried the torch of freedom never returned home. That is why Koreans can live freely today.

The freedom they protected has continued to this day. Even now, at this very moment, soldiers of the Republic of Korea and our ally the United States stand on this bloody line south of the Demilitarized Zone to safeguard freedom.

I am grateful for the sacrifices of them all.

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