Thanks for an informative post.
I am very fond of Korea.
It was one of my two overseas Army assignments; and I applied to get my time in Korea extended but it was turned down, not at the U.S. Army HQ in Seoul, but at the Pentagon. I think my life may have taken a different course if I had been allowed a longer hitch in Korea. I am not sure how exactly, only that it was a defining experience for me and I left with potential for that to increase on the table.
Glad to hear you liked your tour of duty in Korea. As you probably know, soldiers either love or hate their Korean tours — and being a “hardship tour” separated from family does not help.
I know a chaplain who managed to extend his Korean tours for 11 years, and some other people who went into the Reserves so they could stay in Korea, but they usually were married to Korean wives.