Escaping Korea

(Forgot to post this one a year ago when we left Korea.)

We did it! We escaped from Korea, not without some challenges though. On 24 February we began the planned escape. A friend waited until the appointed time and then pulled up outside where we quickly loaded De'Dee's luggage and Beaux, her escape partner, and made a run for the Daegu airport. We had rehersed the plan over and over for months. Confirmed all equipment was secured and in place.

When De'Dee went to check in on the first leg of a three leg escape route we learned that there was a snag in the escape plan that would prevent her from escaping from Korea to the states. The second leg, though flight and ticket were confirmed there was a challenge. We depended on someone outside our network to make sure that the second leg of her escape plan was complete and secure. There was a flaw in the escape plan. De'Dee went a head and climbed on the flight from Daegu to Incheon as I went to secure the next leg of her escape plan.

After almost two hours of talking back and forth between airlines and agents at ticket counters in Incheon I was able to finally work out the issue with the second leg of her escape from Korea. Just shortly after De'Dee's plane landed from Daegu I had fixed the issue and left a message for her to call. De'Dee was going to be able to escape Korea and get to the safe house of our daughter and son-in-love, Cherish and Kevin, in Fort Belvoir.

To reduce suspension of the escape plan (actually because the airlines messed with De'Dee's ticket) I planned to escape two days later. In order to throw those who had designs for us to remain captive in Korea instead of flying out of Daegu I took a less conspicuious route and road by bus up to Incheon (Actually my flight was not until 1800 and there is one flight at 0700 from Daegu to Incheon and 12 hours in a airport with a dog is not a good thing).

Things were going well until my bus driver suddenly pulls over to the side of the road says something in Hungal (Korean) and runs off the bus. Everyone remains on the bus so I just observe as my driver runs down the hill to a culvert and drops trousers and spends the next 15 to 20 minutes in what we have come to call the Kimchi squat. I am watching the time tick by and getting close to being past the time I should be at the airport. A glitch in my escape plan. One should always interview the driver of their get away vehicle to ensure they a quality professional get away driver.

The driver finally gets back on the bus and we zoom down the highway to the Airport. I exit the bus gather my things and rush into the airport. Get through the checkin and head down to my gate. I arrive with a few minutes to spare. While waiting I am waiting for the boarding call I am in formed that the U.S. Embassy wants to talk to me. The funny thing my battalion commander did not want me to leave and he spent time in Special Ops. I was sure he found away to keep me. The boarding call comes and I am waiting. Finally the embassy people show up and ask me a few questions, it seems that my name matches a person of intrest.

So after taking my ID making some phone calls it is determined that I was not a terror threat. Me, a chaplain in the U.S. Army, the worse I would do is cause an international incident while deployed to Iraq with Soldiers from the Repubic of Georgia (if you want more on that story read House to House by David Bellavia.). They finally release me and I barely make it on the plane to my freedom of the U.S.