Why do US forces recruit 'part-time assistants' for drill?

The U.S. soldiers from the Stryker unit have lined up in front of an armored car at the Seungjin Training Camp, Yeongbuk-myeon, Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, after carrying out a fire exercise in the Key Resolve drill on March 7, 2011. / Korea Times file

By Lee Jin-a, Park Si-soo

A military drill and part-time assistants. It is hard to imagine a correlation of the two words under any circumstances. But U.S. forces in Korea have made it — and it has left many people scratching their heads over an “unthinkable” matchup.

According to a post on the recruiting information website of a Korean university, United Sates Forces Korea is recruiting part-time assistants for the Key Resolve drill in February, an annual joint military exercise conducted by U.S. troops and Korean armed forces. It plans to hire 39 temporary assistants among Korean university students — 30 will be assigned to PC maintenance services, eight to help desk support services and one to audio-visual fabrication engineering.

Requirements are the ability to communicate in English and basic knowledge of computers. Those who have a driver’s license are preferred. Successful candidates will assume the role of assisting U.S. troops from Feb. 17 to March 17, including a pre-exercise training period. They will be paid 10,000 won ($8.34) an hour.

It is unknown what exactly their duties are and why the U.S. forces are recruiting part-time workers for the military drill. U.S. Forces Korea has refused to reveal anything related to the recruiting. Its spokesman told The Korea Times that it will release detailed information next week.

The post reads: “The temporary workers will support the military staff to solve the problems related to the electrical devices at the base during the drill. Since the workers will receive a two-week training program before they start their job and get help from the existing staff during the drill, they will have no difficulties to operate the task.”