ROK-US soldiers play ball on joint team
By Kim Hyo-jin
Baseball is strengthening unity among South Korean and U.S. soldiers of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), who have formed a joint team.
“About 20 military personnel working on base formed a joint baseball team last month,” a CFC official said Wednesday. “Its inauguration ceremony will be held soon.”
The team was named “We Go Together,” a phrase that has long been used in the CFC to underline the bond between South Korea and the United States.
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert also tweeted the phrase to offer assurance to concerned South Korean citizens after he was attacked by a knife-wielding man in March.
The idea of forming a joint baseball team was first suggested by a South Korean officer. He wrote a post on the CFC website expressing his hopes of creating a team. It drew the attention of many U.S. officers and soldiers who often played baseball during leisure time. With an active response, they managed to put together the first joint sports team between Korean and U.S. military personnel in CFC history.
The team consists of 20 members from the ROK and U.S. militaries of varying ranks, from commissioned and noncommissioned officers, to ordinary soldiers and also civilians who work on the base.
Kim In-sik, a civilian worker in charge of facility management, is the team’s manager. A rabid baseball fan, he has been a member of a civilian baseball club for the last five years.
The team includes many experienced amateur players, as well as one who used to be a professional baseball player in his teens, while another holds a referee license.
They held their first meeting last month and had uniforms made.
The team plans to practice every weekend on Yongsan Garrison and organize professional games with other amateur baseball teams soon.
The garrison has five ballparks, one of which features high-quality artificial turf, even better than the ballparks used for professional matches in Korea.
Hopes are high among the team members to make use of the ballpark for future matches.
“It’s meaningful to have a joint sports club on the occasion of the 37th anniversary of the establishment of the CFC,” the official said. “The joint activity is expected to help personnel from each side work more smoothly together based on friendship.”
The CFC was established in 1978 based on an agreement between the South Korean and U.S. governments to beef up defense capabilities here against potential armed attacks from the North. It celebrated the 37th anniversary of its founding on Saturday.