Major David Abrahamson, far right, poses for a picture with his colleagues after cleaning graffiti from a rock on Mt. Sapae in Uijeongbu earlier this month. / Courtesy of David Abrahamson |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
A group of U.S. military personnel have joined hands with Korean hikers to remove graffiti from mountain rocks, taking three trips between June and early this month to clean up the scenic areas.
David Abrahamson, 37, a U.S. Air Force major, led the U.S. cleanup team.
Arriving in January, Abrahamson started the "Hike-and-Scrape Mission," after meeting Jeon Jong-cheon, a clerk at a tailor shop near the Yongsan Army base in Seoul.
Jeon, the leader of a hiking club, saw some English graffiti on rocks at Mt. Sapae in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, and asked Maj. Abrahamson for help.
"Jeon had the idea of mopping off graffiti and suggested I join him. I thought it was a good idea," Abrahamson told The Korea Times. "It would be wonderful to have the U.S. army in the mission."
Soon, the major found other soldiers to join in the campaign.
First, U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Steve Conner joined up.
"We climbed up with air brushes to determine how to best clean off the graffiti," the major said. "We discovered it was not too hard."
Later, Cpls. Scott Flag, Guadalupe Martinez and Blake Flowers of the USMC and Pfcs. Chris Purka and Eli Margolis took part.
They hiked up the mountain with cleaning equipment and together with Korean hikers tackled the graffiti.
Maj. Abrahamson and the mountaineering club will continue their volunteer work on other mountains. Environmental civic groups say that a lot of English graffiti can be found on Mt. Surak, Mt. Soyo and Mt. Cheonggye, all on the outskirts of Seoul.
Though he will return to the United States in 2011, Maj. Abrahamson hopes to continue missions like this when he is assigned to Korea again.
Born in Minnesota, he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned his master's degree in Northeast Asian politics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School where he also learned Korean.
meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr
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