My experience as a military officer

 Hi. My name is Junghyun Hong and I’m from South Korea. In my country, almost of all men are subject to almost 2 years of military service. Many Korean men who fulfilled their military service may have a lot of good or bad memories about it. I also finished my duty and have many memories, too. However, I’m little different with others because I worked in military as an officer. I had enrolled ROTC in my Korean university and done a lot of tough training during junior and senior. So, I have many unique undergraduate memories like wearing military uniforms in classes or saluting to seniors with very loud shouting. After two years horrible training, I could become a second lieutenant and my duty was a battery leader who leads more than 70 soldiers in the artillery. I worked near the northern boundary which is called as military demarcation line. I could watch North Korea territory and North Korean soldiers who are enemies of our country in my base. Many people asked to me that it isn’t scary to work near the boundary. However, I never felt danger or fear during my service. I had responsibilities to train my soldiers and manage our military bases, field bases and cannons. My battery had 6 cannons which need 8 soldiers to operate each cannon. In the field, I had to control the time to shoot cannonballs and location where we should aim our cannons. During my military service as an officer, it was the most valuable and helpful for me to have many opportunities to improve my leadership. When I talk to many people, I feel less tension than others because I had a lot of experience to speech to more than 70 soldiers. Also, I learned how to manage team members and improve teamwork. Even though I had to do a lot of hard training and work in military 4 more months than common soldiers, my decision to become an officer was the best decision in my life.