“Thank you. Thank you. No, thank you…” Caroline Middle School history teacher Sara Gibson and Major General Kyoung Soo Shin, share a laugh as they express gratitude for the efforts on both sides to bring a very special event to CMS students. The Republic of Korea’s highest-ranking military officer stationed in the U.S., and defense attaché for his nation’s Washington embassy, addressed the assembly of History Club members and seventh- and eighth-graders in the school’s auditorium. (CP photo by Kenneth Snow)
Caroline Middle School History Club hosts S. Korean top brass
Caroline Middle School students have once again been honored by a visit from Maj. Gen. Kyoung Soo Shin, the Republic of Korea’s highest-ranking military officer stationed in the U.S., and defense attaché at his nation’s Washington embassy.
CMS History Club members, the eighth grade world history class and the entire seventh grade nearly filled the school’s auditorium for this unique learning experience.
Local students and a nation nearly 7,000 miles away have been brought together by 38th parallel, the navigational line that passes through Caroline County and also serves as the boundary between North and South Korea.
Last May Shin visited the brick-unveiling ceremony at the CMS Korean War Memorial Garden, purchasing bricks that were later engraved with “ROK-US We Go Together.” Shin then indicated that he wanted to keep the relationship between the Korean Embassy and the school alive.
“They (bricks) now adorn the top of the engraved bricks in the memorial garden,” said CMS history teacher Sara Gibson, a co-faculty sponsor of the history club.
Though it often seems that America’s international generosity is received by thankless hands, that is not the case with the Republic of Korea. Shin said that, beginning in 1983, the war-torn country’s economy had grown enough to start paying the U.S. for the defense it provides. (Today it is one of the 10 largest economies in the world.)
Wedged between World War II and Vietnam, it has often been called the “forgotten war,” but not by the government of South Korea. The nation has sought out veterans to present “Ambassador of Peace” medals to those who helped save it from being forced under communist rule.
“We see it as the forgotten victory,” Shin said.
He gave the students details of many strong bonds that tie our two nations together, beginning with the Mutual Defense Treaty at the end of the war, to the free-trade agreement that went into effect in 2012. Shin also spent time explaining our shared values: democracy, market economy and human rights.
“[Speaking] English is mandatory to get into a good university in Korea,” he said, adding that many thousands of Korean students attend universities in the U.S. and England each year.
Shin challenged the students to become liaisons between the two countries and said he hoped to see some of them in Seoul in the future.
Gibson said some of her students are already writing thank you letters to the general, and some of them include plans to visit Seoul someday.
By Kenneth Snow
CP Correspondent
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