Soldier again, mother always

This undated photo shows Army Staff Sgt. Choi Woo-ri, a long-term standing reservist with the Army's 60th Infantry Division, smiling as she responds to interview questions. Courtesy of ROK Army

It took years for former Army Staff Sgt. Choi Woo-ri to return to uniform.

Leaving the military was never about giving up her dream. It was a decision she made for her family after she and her husband, both career soldiers, struggled to balance military service with raising their three young children.

“My discharge wasn’t giving up on my dream. It was simply putting it on hold,” Choi said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Choi, who now serves as a long-term standing reservist with the Army’s 60th Infantry Division, said she had wanted to be a soldier since childhood.

Her father, a former reconnaissance battalion soldier, was her biggest role model, while lessons from an elementary school teacher about serving the nation left a lasting impression.

Learning about the 2010 sinking of ROKS Cheonan while working as a security officer in her early 20s cemented her decision to enlist.

Becoming an Army noncommissioned officer in 2011, Choi spent years doing what she had always dreamed of before stepping away from military service to focus on her family.

Even after leaving the Army, however, she never stopped thinking about returning.

One encounter remained vivid in her memory. While taking her children to day care one day, she saw another mother in uniform, which reminded her of the identity she had left behind.

“I wasn’t jealous,” she recalled. “I simply realized how much I wanted to wear the uniform again.”

That opportunity came through the military’s long-term standing reservist program.

After learning that former career service members could apply under a newly introduced system allowing retired officers and noncommissioned officers to return as reservists, Choi immediately submitted her application.

Receiving the acceptance notice, she said, brought back the excitement she had felt when she was first commissioned as an Army staff sergeant.

Her husband celebrated the news even more than she did, encouraging her to pursue the dream she had temporarily set aside. Their eldest child proudly told friends that “Mom is a soldier again,” while her two younger children worried she might get hurt.

Today, Choi says she no longer sees being a mother and a soldier as competing roles.

“I used to think I had to choose one or the other,” she said. “Now I know they can exist together.”

Choi hopes her experience will encourage other former service members who left the military because of family or personal circumstances.

“What matters isn’t where you stand,” she said. “It’s the mindset you bring to where you are.”