Part of my routine includes grabbing the weekly base paper, The Morning Calm.

It covers all the Army news in Korea & usually it’s filled with stories promoting Army team-building, the Army family covenant and Army-Korean relations – along with the ever-present, full-page ad promoting Korea’s first self-serve frozen yogurt shop, Tuttiyogo.

But this week they covered news we all are anxious to hear more about…the upcoming changes.

So the long & short of it is that in 2012 the Army is turning over protection of South Korea to the South Koreans.

And part of that agreement calls for the Army to pull back into one, nice & neat little area – Humphreys.

Humphreys was one of the original camps established during the war & over the years it’s expanded to meet the needs of the time.

And that need has always been about room for more soldiers – never about needs for families because honestly they weren’t allowed until recently.

So “the Hump” as it’s affectionately called is one great big hodge-podge of post cold war era buildings & bunkers. And ugly as sin.

As of right now there’s around 10,000 of us here – service members, families & contractors.

It’s life in a small town…and it’s all about to change as they squeeze in an estimated additional 52,000 of us.

And this is the image (an artist’s rendering) they’re selling us.

A “downtown-esque” shopping area (on base) complete with wide, expansive & beautifully landscaped walking areas.

They’ve even got a couple of fountains thrown in the middle there.

We’ll have an actual movie theater – not a caf-a-gym-a-torium. They’re going to build a TGI Friday’s and a multi-story PX. From the drawing it would appear we’ll get a Domino’s Pizza. And our existing Starbucks will be relocated in there somewhere. I wonder if the commissary will be here, too.

But as Eric so eloquently pointed out….

Where will we park?

Although it doesn’t matter – they’re estimating another 5 – 6 years before everything’s complete. We’ll be long gone by then but still here to deal with the pinch of extra people without the extra space or resources. Have I mentioned we’ve been out of Pillsbury biscuits & cookie dough for almost a month now? “Shipping problems”…so the sign says.

PS – No news from the doctor yet.