LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
After working alongside U.S. Army veterinarians for the past year, an officer in the Republic of Korea army begins the journey home this weekend, ready to share his knowledge with colleagues.
Maj. Sangho Seo, a veterinarian in the ROK army, came to the Daniel Holland Military Working Dog Hospital in October 2010 through the Department of Defense Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program, a one-year professional development exchange between the U.S. military and its allied partners.
The exchange program is structured to provide foreign personnel with career-broadening work assignments in U.S. defense establishments, and vice versa. The Republic of Korea is one of 16 countries participating in the program.
"To be the first (ROK army) veterinarian to come to the United States is quite an honor," Seo said. "My family has enjoyed America. It was a learning experience for them and me, too.
"I look forward to the U.S. Army and the ROK army veterinary corps working together through mutual assistance and cooperation."
The long-term assignment was an opportunity for the two veterinary corps to exchange ideas as well as compare and contrast programs, said U.S. Army Col. Kelly Mann, DOD Military Working Dog Veterinary Service director.
"ESEP is a unique program, and not many veterinarians are selected because it's very competitive," Mann said. "In the clinical aspect of veterinary medicine, I don't know of anyone else in the veterinary corps that's been selected. It's that rare.
"The program, in addition to the expertise we swap just doing our daily jobs, builds relationships for the future," he said. "An exchange of ideas between the two programs - the MWD program in the Republic of Korea is a great program - allows us to compare and contrast. We're always striving to be the best, and the way we do that is by interacting with other allied military. That makes us all better."
To gain experience for an instructor's position at the ROK military working dog center, Seo worked in various Holland MWD hospital departments, including diagnostic imaging and surgery.
Rotating throughout the hospital also gave Seo and the U.S. hospital staff an opportunity to learn from each other.
"Major Seo is unique to the military working dog community because of his operational experience as a commander at the ROK military working dog center and as a veterinary internal medicine specialist," Mann said. "We shared knowledge on our current techniques, tactics and procedures, and on our hot button medical issues ... and on treatments.
"Their program compares really well with a lot of what we do, so there's a lot to learn from each other," he added.
During his assignment, Seo stepped out of internal medicine to assist processing military working dogs for the field and to perform surgeries frequent to the Holland staff. Those roles, along with other duty assignments at the hospital, will accentuate Seo's internal medicine expertise in training junior officers of the ROK veterinary corps.
"The intangible is the number of personnel who will be influenced," said Mann. "When my officers go other places in the veterinary corps, having had the opportunity to work with an allied military veterinary officer, they'll have a much better understanding outside of our own little box. It's exactly what's needed today as we move more into a joint atmosphere.
"From his instructor's slot, Major Seo is going to affect their military working dog program throughout the country," he said. "The exchange has allowed him a year to focus on the different aspects of military working dog medicine and surgery. He's made a great impact here, and it has been an honor to have him."