GIs in S. Korea unfazed by crisis

Late-winter dawn in Seoul brings a sharp chill. But only 40 miles north, in a tight valley that loops and finger-hooks along the Imjin River, it is positively frigid.

GIs on military exercise trek through a brown goulash of freezing mud and snow. Tank columns jerk along a foggy ridge, ready to cross the river whose bank was "cleared" at 2 a.m. of a mock enemy by Apache helicopters and night-vision troops.

Iowa-born Sgt. Joseph Oakes has been up for 12 hours. He nudges a pontoon bridge into position from a river craft whose V-8 engines give it a shallow draft. "It will be 30 hours before I get any sleep," he says as the first arrivals in a series of Bradley vehicles and M-48 tanks lumber up. "Korea is cold, man.

"Will there be a war? I don't know. I hope not."

For 50 years, this patch of rugged terrain near the DMZ has been a choice training ground for US and South Korean forces. Now, a nuclear standoff with North Korea brings an edge to the exercises. The US last month sent 12 B-1 and 12 B-52 bombers to Guam, and the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier is tying up in Japan.

Across the border Monday, North Korean media accused the US of planning a tactical nuclear attack, stated again that US military exercises are evidence of coming US military aggression, and launched a short-range test missile into the Sea of Japan, the second in as many weeks. At this point, Kim Jong Il's provocations and threats are coming every few days as the North Korean leader attempts to force direct talks with the United States.

US brass who plan these drills do not name North Korea as the enemy. This is a showdown between the Republic of Blue Land and the Republic of Orange Land. Officially, GIs must be alert and concentrate on their jobs, and ignore speculation about the North. Still, everyone here knows of the nuclear crisis. "We are always ready, but there is more focus in recent weeks, with the international situation," says Col. Tony Ierardi.

Many GIs, some of whom are posted only for a year, get more of a sense of the crisis from e-mails by friends or phone calls from parents. "My mom keeps phoning and asking, 'What is going on over there?' I just say, 'I don't know,' " offers James Roy, a wheel-well mechanic from a small town near Yosemite, Calif., who has been sleeping on the ground, or trying to, for five days. "It's true. Most of us don't talk about war. We talk about the weekend, where we are going, how we plan to chill, stuff like that."

"The biggest thing is being ready," says Sgt. Stephen Willey, a boat mate of Sergeant Oakes. "We don't think it's war. But you never know."

Mountain ranges along the Korean peninsula run north to south, and this valley is one of two major invasion routes. In August 1951, the Chinese crossed the Imjin here at night, starting a two-week offensive on their way to Seoul. It was a see-saw battle, and the British 1st Gloucester Regiment was trapped here, says David Bolger, the 2nd Division chief of staff. "The British held, but it was pretty tough."

When the Korean War ended in 1953, US and South Korean forces set up some 100 "installations" between the armistice line and Seoul, in a "fixed position" defense. But today's exercises are all about "mobility ops" - practicing the kind of high-speed coordinated warfare the US military conducts now.

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