Creative Dispute Mediation

Gratitude -- Two Situations

The Transforming Wisdom of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions As You Negotiate - Leading to An Attitude of Gratitude, by Charlie Hogge

An Earlier Occasion for Gratitude

I arrived in Korea in July 1953 on the last troop ship to arrive the morning that the truce went into effect. (Gratitude!!!) My assignment was as an Artillery air observer. Since combat had ceased, that assignment only required four hours a month of my time, so I was also assigned as Korean Labor Officer for X Corp Artillery Headquarters. Because of that assignment, I had the wonderful experience of participating in Gen. Maxwell Taylor's Armed Forces Aid to Korea (AFAK) Program. I was assigned the task of building a school or church or community center within a designated area. When I found a small congregation that longed for a church building, my decision was easy. Based only on our promise to provide the material and supervision, the congregation purchased a plot of land and waited for us to arrive from two mountain ranges away. The material finally arrived from Japan, two months late. (All of our shipping had been diverted in aiding the French as they vacated Vietnam.)

We set up camp in the little village and were there four weeks. When my Army unit was disbanded before construction was completed, I went to headquarters and persuaded a high ranking officer to break all precedent and to transfer the project, along with me, to my new division. That decision meant that a truck load of plywood had to be safely stored until the construction could be completed. Some time after I had been rotated home, my unit completed the construction. As I recall, only two pieces of that like-gold plywood were missing!

I am grateful that General Taylor was inspired to create the AFAK program; to Captain Richard Tuck, my commander, for his encouragement and support; for the three enlisted men and the four Korean employees who made up our team; to the congregation who had the faith to sacrifice financially to make it possible; to Lt. Larkin who completed the construction; to my home church in Farmville, Va. for contributing hymnals and a portable chaplain's organ; to the dear young girls who brought me the most beautiful bouquet of wild azaleas on Easter Sunday; to The Rev. Finis Jeffrey, the local missionary, who kept me posted for a year or so; and for the American tax payers who provided the finances for the AFAK program. As you can see, my thirteen months in Korea were filled with many blessings and reasons for lifelong gratitude.