'Privileged military service' doubt must be investigated thoroughly
A conscript in an Air Force unit in western Seoul is suspected of receiving preferential treatment thanks to what appears to be his father's influence. A man who identified himself as an Air Force noncommissioned officer raised the allegations in an online petition he posted on Cheong Wa Dae's website Thursday.
The various privileges the airman has enjoyed leave us speechless. The soldier has an assistant employed by his family take his laundry every Saturday morning and bring it back after being washed. Some noncommissioned officers, who are senior to the conscript, are mobilized to deliver the laundry. The petitioner also claims that contrary to the usual situation in which six to eight soldiers share a room, the serviceman has his own room in the barracks because he became ill from overexposure to air conditioning.
The serviceman often goes AWOL under the pretext of medical treatment, but he allegedly has dinner with his family while off base. The process through which he was assigned to the post is also in doubt amid allegations that his father used his influence to secure the post for his son.
The petitioner suspected the wealth of the soldier's parents was behind such privileges, saying the parents had frequently called noncommissioned officers to intervene in their son's military life. The press later identified the serviceman as the son of a vice chairman of the NICE Group, a credit information conglomerate.
Given the extent of the special treatment, there is little doubt that some in the Air Force unit were receptive to absurd and reckless demands from the airman's parents and provided things for his convenience.
What is needed first is to get to the bottom of the facts thoroughly. If what is revealed through the petition turns out to be true, the military should deal sternly with the serviceman and Air Force personnel involved in the irregularities. The military also should take fundamental measures to prevent a recurrence.