(GRS Log) 1. Introducing GRS Post

From July 2024 to January 2026, I served my mandatory military service in the Republic of Korea Army as a communications specialist at a tier-1 isolated mountain post, which I’ll refer to simply as GRS. Looking back, the environment was so surreal that it feels like a fever dream. Before these memories get garbage-collected from my brain, I want to document a few episodes from my time in GRS.

GRS Post in the cloud

Our primary mission was to support core military communication network, so our base was on a mountain peak over 2,500 feet. It is literally isolated. There were no roads to our post. No PX (military convenience store). No medic! It was just a tiny post with ten crew members. Unless we were going on an official vacation (which was about 3 months period), we could not step off the mountain.

GRS used to have a cable car that delivered our food and supplies. However, during my service, the cable car broke down for a long time.

So, what happens when a mountain base loses its automated supply chain? We became the new supply chain.

GRS-style logistics

Three times a week, we had to hike down the mountain and manually carry about 44 lbs of food and supplies back up in military duffel bags. And the weather didn’t care about our logistics, whether it was pouring rain, snowing heavily, freezing at -4°F in the winter, or boiling 95°F in the summer (hello mosquitoes).

When we hiked down to pick up the fresh food, we couldn’t just walk down empty-handed. We used those same duffel bags to carry down our accumulated garbage, food waste, and used toilet paper. Once at the bottom, we’d empty the trash, load the bags up with fresh food, and hike back up. (If you’re questioning the hygiene… fortunately nobody got sick!)

During our hike, we applied payload optimization (afterall, we were communication specialists). Heavy drinks were the absolute worst—they weighed a ton and disappeared the fastest. Therefore, we just chugged them halfway up the mountain to reduce the load. For the heavy, tasteless vegetables like leftover potatoes or tomatoes? We occasionally performed emergency packet drops into the woods (special treats to wild boars).

Because our supply runs required decent enough weather to physically hike, severe storms or typhoons meant the supply chain was officially severed. On those days, no food. Our menu instantly downgraded to plain rice and Kimchi. If we were lucky enough to have some emergency canned Spam, we’d fry it up as a special meal.

Looking Back

GRS was absurd and physically grueling. Yet, I truly miss those hikes and surviving in the cloud with my crew members. It was a bizarre chapter of my life, but I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.