ASCOM facility and Korean wave

By Nam Sang-so

ASCOM is an acronym of Army Service Command XXIV Corps located in Incheon's Bupyeong district since 1945. The Corps facilities have included a dozen U.S. Army installations. Some of the camps ceased to be used by the U.S. military and the sites were returned to the Korean government, including Camp Market.

It was in the summer of 1960 that I participated as a member of the survey teams of an American architect/engineering firm for the topographic surveys of the ASCOM facility.

In early November this year, I visited Camp Market which was opened to the public after some of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) relocated to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek and Camp Carroll in Waegwan, north of Daegu City.

I found an old signpost on the shoulder of the main road that said: “SURVEY MONUMENT, DO NOT DISTURB. Notify local facilities engineers before digging. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District.”

It evoked in me a nostalgia that drove me to want to discover the story behind the fading sign that has endured 60 years of rain and snow. The concrete survey monument was our benchmark ― the terminus a quo of the coordinates, the metes and bounds for the camp's topographic map.

The same engineering firm had also made topographic and boundary surveys on the hill of an apple orchard at Waegwan in 1963 for the construction of a new U.S. Army Logistic Depot, later named Camp Carroll. We also designed some recreational facilities and performed the Title II Project (field quality control services during the construction stage) in 1964-5.

The majority of the U.S. Army facilities that had been located in the ASCOM facility included Camps Adams, Grant, Hayes, Taylor and Harris and the 21st EVAC Hospital, most of which were relocated to Camp Carroll or Camp Humphreys later.

According to the publication issued by the U.S. Army in 1967, “The U.S. Army ASCOM Depot,” the U.S. mi

litary facilities in Bupyeong employed some 8,000 Korean workers, as reported by Han Man-song, the historian and the author of “Camp Market” published in 2013.

Han further emphasizes that the area, known as ASCOM City, provided tremendous amounts of financialhelp ― knowingly or unknowingly ― to the local citizens introducing them to the English language and American culture. It affected the surroundings of ASCOM in unimaginable ways.

The most impressive influence may be that over half the well-known Korean singers and musicians of the time received a shower of applause from the far-from-home and lonesome U.S. service personnel at the club houses of ASCOM City. Some of those famous names are: Yun Bok-hee, Patti Kim, Choi Hee-jun, Jung Hun-hee, Jung Mi-jo and Bae Ho.

It may be safe to say that ASCOM City was one of the headstreams of Korean popular music and dance shows that would eventually flow into what would later become hallyu, or the Korean wave.

The writer (sangsonam@gmail.com) is a retired architect/engineer.