Royal New Zealand Navy resident naval officer
Lieutenant-commander Ian Marshall, of Dunedin, is looking
forward to representing New Zealand during a 12-month
deployment to South Korea. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Lieutenant-Commander Ian Marshall is preparing for his
longest overseas deployment, monitoring the armistice agreement
between North and South Korea in the 60th anniversary year of
its signing.
The Royal New Zealand Navy resident naval officer, of
Dunedin, was one of three New Zealand Defence Force personnel
selected to replace those finishing a six-month deployment in
Seoul.
Lt-cmdr Marshall (50) will leave New Zealand on April 3 and
arrive in the South Korean capital on April 5 - exactly five
years to the day since he left the city after a six-month
deployment at Camp Bonifas, between September 2007 and April
2008.
It will be his third overseas deployment; his second was a
six-month stint in Afghanistan from October 2008 to April
2009.
Lt-cmdr Marshall volunteered for the 12-month posting and was
looking forward to the challenge as a senior officer within
the ''operations side of things''.
''I'll be based in Seoul and doing quite a bit of work within
the demilitarised zone, monitoring the armistice and making
sure there are no violations,'' he said.
Since the armistice agreement was signed in 1953, the United
Nations Command Military Armistice Commission has been made
up of representatives from 16 countries committed to
upholding the agreement and supervising the Korean
demilitarised zone.
Lt-comdr Marshall said New Zealand had the third largest
contribution of countries within the commission, behind the
United States and South Korea.
Most of the 9000-odd troops in Seoul's Yongsan army garrison,
where he would be based, were American, he said.
''There is still about 30,000 Americans in South Korea. For
me, the attraction is the food and culture, and the chance to
do something a bit different and more challenging.''
His wife Marie, who recently became the Dunedin RSA Welfare
Trust's welfare officer, will stay in Dunedin and visit him
in South Korea.
Lt-cmdr Marshall said his Korean was ''basic'', but English
was widely spoken and the commission included translators.
rosie.manins@odt.co.nz
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