CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – Yi, Tong Hui, a contract specialist, has been an employee with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, for the past 27 years but has decided to retire after a total of 40 years of service with the U.S. and Republic of Korea government.
Yi initially started working as a procurement specialist in 1979, after getting married and finding out some of the benefits for working with the government.
“I found out that government service offers Saturdays off unlike other companies,” said Yi. “So after my honeymoon I began my first job with the U.S. government.”
The highlights of Yi’s career covers the areas from Yongsan to Pyeongtaek. She went on to describe a few of her career highlights with the FED.
“Initially I was the only contract specialist and I had a heavy workload due to fraud recovery,” said Yi. “As a construction contract specialist I was in charge of all of Yongsan area. My contracts built the Yongsan Theater, USFK headquarters, Child Development Center and the elementary school. When I was walking around Yongsan and sometimes we would have mandatory training inside theater, I felt very good. It made me proud of my job to say that this is my project.”
Camp Humphreys was once a small military installation, but now has grown from 1210 acres to 3528 acres due to the land development and utility infrastructure development (LDUI) plan. Yi was assigned to this project, which she stated, lasted more than 10 years.
“When the project started with site orientation it was all countryside,” said Yi. “From time to time, I would come down to Pyeongtaek to look at my project’s progress. I am really happy with what we have accomplished and continue to accomplish every day.”
Yi became a bit emotional when talking about retirement as she wants to continue to work, however, her husband is ill and she wants to be there to take care of him.
“I really enjoy and love FED,” said Yi. “We are an engineering organization but it is very human focused. I always feel like a corps of engineers’ member.”