IamA South Korean Male who served in the Korean Army. Notably, I served in the GOP, which is the area bordering the DMZ. AMA!

That is very true. They are quite delicious as well.

I am guessing you are asking my shift in the GOP/DMZ. I can actually tell you two shifts since I experienced both field work and HQ work. Fundamentally, the field duty heavily relies on ET and BT. (If anybody can identify these acronyms, that would be great. Not exactly sunrise or sunset, but I just forgot what they meant.) Anyways, the field duty is mainly divided into 3 time zones. Daily-Early night-Late night. I will describe this by using clock time. Also, do know that the duty is heavily dependent on moonlight luminosity and sunrise/sunset(ET/BT). So, Daily shift is pretty much from sunrise to sunset. There are two teams that work the daily shift, and the two go back and forth in 2 hour shifts. In my operation area, we only occupy one outpost during the day. Now, imagine almost being sunset. 90 minutes before sunset, 8 teams prepare themselves to scan the area before turning the lights on. Each team is 2 people. The 8 teams include the platoon leader team, and platoon vice-leader team. Every operation area in the DMZ is divided into A zone and B zone. 4 teams go to A zone, and 4 teams go to B zone. At this point, the daily outpost is still being occupied by the daily team. Now, 30 minutes prior to sunset, everybody that are currently out in the field must get into their designated positions, equip the claymores, and make any other preparation. The HQ or the platoon leader will then use the walky talky to make the countdown so that the lights can be turned on in time. After turning the lights on, the teams will then retreat back to base, while leaving two teams for the early-night shift. In my area, two outposts must be occupied during night. From here on, the early night teams will be in the field until 12:00 a.m. During the early night shift one of the officer teams will go out side and 'push' the teams that are in the outpost so that they can walk around, warm-up(since it is cold), and scan the area. After the early night shift, here begins the late night shift. Again, when 12:00 a.m. hits, the late night shift teams will separate into A zone and B zone, check the fences, and swap with the early-night teams. The late night teams will then take over, occupying the two designated outposts for the rest of the night. Now, when the sun rises, we need to turn off the lights. This time, however, the lights must stay on until after 30 minutes of sunlight. Again, 8 teams march out to safely turn off the lights, check the fences, and perform the swap between late night teams and daily teams.

As of the HQ shift, it is rather more simple. The mental pressure which the duty gives, however, is crazy. Anyways, the HQ office shift is pretty much a 6 hour shift. There are 3 main positions within the 6 hours. Left-monitoring, Situation, and right-monitoring. If you read one of my replies in the above, you will learn that two soldiers are constantly taking care of the camera systems from the HQ office. The remaining position, is in charge of overall communication within the given time, filing reports, unlocking keys for ammunition(the armory is in the HQ office), spreading announcements, ETC. So, the HQ office shift in short, is the following: 2 hours in the left-monitoring, 2 hours as Situation, and 2 hours as right-monitoring. Now, the HQ squad can be rather unburdening since the amount of sleep which we can get really depends on the number of the squad members. I remember one time where I could only get 4 hours of sleep since we were so short. It was more like 2-3 since I had to get up at least an hour before my shift so I can shower, get ready and shit.

And the cycle repeats until the North and South are unified..

/r/IAmA Thread Parent