Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Levesque | Navy Region Korea’s Korean National Engineer SangWon Yoo inspects the site of a...... read more read more
During the insurgent "Boxer Rebellion" in 1900, 9th Infantry Regiment Soldiers marched 85 miles on foot across China to help coalition forces win battles and rescue besieged foreign diplomats and missionaries in Tientsin, Yang-tsun, and Peking, China. This famous ruck march earned the regiment its distinct honorary title of “Manchu.”
The modern-day Manchu Mile, a grueling 25-mile trek, was born to cement and commemorate “Keep up the Fire” legacy, the regimental motto that is attributed to Col. Emerson Liscum, the regimental commander who was killed in action at Tientsin on July 13, 1900. Completing the Manchu Mile march would earn you a Manchu Belt Buckle and the forever bragging rights.
One of Navy Region Korea’s (CNRK’s) Korean National (KN) engineers completed not just one or even two, but three Manchu Mile marches consecutively. Then-Sergeant SangWon Yoo, who was assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 9th Infantry Regiment as a Korean augmentee to the U.S. Army (KATUSA), earned the U.S. Army Achievement Medal in June 2000 for this “exceptional achievement… that exemplifies the Manchu Fighting Spirit,” read the award citation.
In keeping up the Manchu Mile legacy, the present-day civil servant Mr. Yoo, an interdisciplinary engineer, having proudly served in three different U.S. armed forces branches - Army, Air Force, and Navy, keeps on lighting a fire under his Korean General Service (KGS) career with the U.S. military in the Republic of Korea (ROK).
A native of the “most beautiful and historical ocean city of Busan,” where he was born, grew up, and graduated from Pusan National University with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering in 2004, Mr. Yoo began his engineering profession in the private sector. As a ROK-licensed architectural and construction safety engineer, he managed several projects, most notably the turnkey $263-million Busan International Port Terminal located in Busan North Port Redevelopment area.
He joined U.S. Air Force’s 607th Materiel Maintenance Squadron as a construction inspector and general engineer in 2015. “My first civilian job with the U.S. military was maintaining the Air Force facilities and managing projects in co-located operating bases (COBs) between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Far East District (USACE/FED) and ROK Air Force,” recalled Mr. Yoo.
While there, he was awarded the Civilian of the Quarter (Category II) from 7th Air Force twice, in 2017 and 2019, when he was a construction inspector and assistant contracting officer representative (ACOR) at Gwangju Air Base. “I was so proud of receiving these awards. They meant so much to me because it was pretty hard to inspect, manage and control the five or six projects across the base with a very small base civil engineering team. But we had a dedicated, hard-working team that completed the projects successfully despite issues and challenges,” he said.
His rewarding stint with the Air Force brought him to Navy Region Korea (CNRK) nine years later in 2024 as a KGS-12. His main duty here is to coordinate and manage ROK’s host nation-funded construction projects at the design and construction phases.
“I coordinate with the major stakeholders, from ROK Ministry of Defense to USACE/FED, from Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Far East (NAVFAC FE) to Commander, Fleet Activities Chinahe (CFAC), and other entities, to match their requirements with construction standards and regulations,” he explained. “I also review the design drawings, specifications, project data and documents. I ensure projects requirements meeting standards and regulations to complete on time and in budget.”
Since the U.S.-ROK alliance continues to be deepened and strengthened, Mr. Yoo has been in high demand. He is managing three projects in various phases of construction with a combined budget exceeding $37 million: the Busan Combined Maritime Operation Center (CMOC), a relocated water treatment plant, and a new magazine storage pad.
The busy work, though, is rewarding. “The most exciting and valuable moments were the technical discussion to improve the project design and correct any deficiency,” exclaimed Mr. Yoo. “It is very important to find the optimal solution for a facility’s functions that also meet mission requirement and regulations. A lack of design review and discussions risks causing a lot of design change and modification during the construction phase and ultimately increasing the budget and time unnecessarily.”
Teamwork is a major theme in his success. “A construction project is a multifaceted, complex, dynamic process and activity that requires teamwork and cooperation,” he stressed. “We face technical, contractual, administrative, or other issues all the time during a project. It is important to spend more time communicating with your team to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunication. Good communication skill makes my life and work so much better.”
Mr. Yoo’s continues to achieve new career milestones that make him a valuable member of the CNRK engineering team. Having already received the Project Management Professional (PMP) license in 2010, he recently passed the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam in civil construction in March this year. Passing this PE exam, administered by the South Carolina-based National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) with a 55-percent pass rate for first-time takers, “successfully demonstrated a level of competence through education, experience, and examination requirements” as part of the “professional engineering and surveying licensure” on which “the safety of buildings, bridges, roads, and other structures and technologies used in our everyday lives depends,” according to NCEES (https://ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/)
He is still keeping up the fire. “I am working on registration of my PE with the Texas Professional Engineer licensing board. I want to continue to develop my engineering skills through tough jobs, perhaps overseas somewhere in the United States before I turn 50. I want to challenge my career and life with something special.”
And so the Manchu spirit lives on.
| Date Taken: | 09.24.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.03.2024 22:56 |
| Story ID: | 481587 |
| Location: | KR |
| Hometown: | BUSAN, BUSAN GWANG'YEOGSI [PUSAN-KWANGYOKSHI], KR |
| Web Views: | 150 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Busan Native Leaves Imprint on Engineering Projects All Over Korea, by LCDR Hien Vu, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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