In November of 2000 I went to Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is arguably the most isolated nation in the world, and I’ve been there – for about ten minutes.

My final year in the Army was spent in Seoul, South Korea as part of the United Nations Command Honor Guard.  We served as armed guards for several high-level intelligence facilities as well as the home of a four star general.  We also raised and lowered the post flag each day and performed various ceremonies while wearing the sharp “dress blue” uniforms.

The most memorable ceremony I was part of was a repatriation ceremony.  We got on board a C-130 aircraft in our dress blues and flew from Seoul to Tokyo to Pyongyang, to pick up remains of American servicemen from the Korean War.  Hitting the runway in Pyongyang was eerie… there was a huge mural of their leader, Kim Jong Il, and we were under strict orders to not take any photographs.

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