Nick Mararac

00:00:00

Mararac: My name is Nicholas Mararac, I was born in Washington D.C. My birthday is July 7, 1983. My parents, um and myself, actually, we’re ethnically Filipino. They migrated to the states in the seventies, and I grew up outside D.C as well.

Interviewer: Great, thank you. And how about the schools that you, um, up to the moment when you joined the military. What kind of educational background do you have?

00:00:30

Mararac: I went to Catholic school from kindergarten to twelfth grade and… um, after graduation from high school I was accepted to the United States Naval Academy and that is how I got my commission into the United States Navy as a naval officer. I served as a surface warfare officer.

Interviewer: Alright great. So yeah we’re starting to talk about your military background now. 

00:01:00

Interviewer: Um, let us now talk about you being based in Korea? So when , actually maybe even, not even just about Korea, so when were you enlisted, umm, and then when did you go to Korea?

Mararac: I was commissioned in 2007 upon graduation from the Naval Academy. Uh it is different from being enlisted. If you enlist in the military, then you go through boot camp or whatever indoctrination the branch of service you are joining has. For officers, it is necessary for you to have at least a bachelors and have graduated from college. 

00:01:30

Mararac: So I graduated in 2007, that is how I became a commissioned officer.

Interviewer: Okay. What kind of basic military training did you have and like where, what kinds?

Mararac: My military training started at the- the Naval Academy. We have our own indoctrination, um, prior to starting the academic year and then it is really just constant military training. 

00:02:00

Mararac: It is integrated into our college studies so we actually take classes that are, um, applicable to our military service in the future. So for instance, for me, I was a surface warfare officer, which means that I served primarily on ships or um, providing support to the fleet in the United States Navy. Um so I took navigation courses in college, and other classes that were applicable to that job.

00:02:30

Interviewer: And are you still a part of the Navy?

Mararac: I am not. I was retired, medically retired, uh, in April of 2014.

Interviewer: Okay, so then your rank uh right before retirement was what?

Mararac: I was a lieutenant or O3 in the Navy.

Interviewer: Alright, thank you. Now let’s talk about Korea. So again when and where uh so when did you go to Korea and where was it that you went to?

00:03:00

Mararac: In 2011, I first went to the Defense Language Institute to learn Korean.

Interviewer: Which is in?

Mararac: It is in Monterey, California so about 95 or 105 miles south of San Francisco and the school focused not just on language but also the culture. And then I went to Seoul and served at the United Nations command and we were based out of Yongsan.

00:03:30

Interviewer: Okay and when was it that you arrived in Korea?

Mararac: I arrived in the fall of 2011.

Interviewer: And what were your duties?

Mararac: I worked for the United Nations Command and Military Armistice Commission as the liaison officer for the Neutral Nation Supervisory Commission. Uh, the Neutral Nation Supervisory Commission, or the NNSC, is composed of three countries today; Switzerland, Sweden, and Poland. 

00:04:00

Mararac: However, in 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed and the NNSC was established, it originally had for South Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, and North Korea had Poland and Czechoslovakia. Uh, in ‘93 when Czechoslovakia split…

00:04:30

Mararac: North Korea did not recognize them as the same country established in the Armistice Agreement so they, they kicked them out essentially and eventually they kicked out Poland too. So today, the NNSC still exists in South Korea and so you have a Swiss and Swedish camp in the DMZ and the joint security area.

Interviewer: I see.

Mararac: Um, and so my duties as a liaison officer for them was making sure that they had everything they needed to, uh, fulfill their duties as assigned in the Armistice Agreement.

00:05:00

Mararac: Which is really just making sure that all the restrictions that are in place in the agreement are being abided by and they also provide a, um, a neutral perspective which also provides legitimacy for what the United States does and what other countries are doing in Korea.

00:05:30

Interviewer: I see. Thank you for sharing. Uh, now let’s talk about your experience in Korea. You said you got some Korean language and culture uh education from the Defense Language Institute so would you say you have already known, you learned a lot about the Korean culture or Korea itself? How much knowledge do you feel you had before you were dispatched to Korea?

Mararac: Before I went to Korea?

00:06:00

Mararac: Um I wasn’t able to actually complete the language training required because the  job that I had to go to needed me sooner than later. Um, so my, my cultural knowledge was pretty much limited to what I learned before, uh, I was an international affairs major in college so it was, the Korean War was discussed.

00:06:30

Mararac: And at the Defense Language Institute, we learned about things you would learn in any sort of language class about food and typical cultural stuff but I did not actually learn as much as I know now until I was at SCSU at the contemporary in the Korean contemporary cultures class.

Interviewer: Mhm yeah! Then how about knowledge of the Korean War and the Korean War Veterans? Would you say also very little?

00:07:00

Mararac: I would say it was limited to what I learned in college for the most part, which I did have a genuine interest in because my focus was on East and Southeast Asian politics. Uh, but other than that, it wasn’t as much as I did when I learned at SCSU.

Interviewer: Mhm, okay. Uh, now tell me what it was like when you arrived in Korea, like your first impression of Korea and how was your living condition?

Mararac: So my first time in Korea was actually before I moved there. 

00:07:30

Mararac: I was at one point stationed in Japan and decided to take a week trip to Seoul because I had never been, and I found the language really intimidating because you would see, for instance, Korean written down in letters, not in actual hangul, and I found it very difficult to try to pronounce or say words or names of places. 

00:08:00

Mararac: But when I moved there and had some basic understanding of the language and I could at least read, it was not very difficult for me to get around on my own as far as meeting and I guess networking with Koreans. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning as much as I could while I was there.

Interviewer: And how was your living condition there and um how much were you paid?

00:08:30

Mararac: I lived on the 27th floor of a high-rise in Samgakji, which is an adjacent neighborhood to Yongsan kind of near Itaewon about a, I guess, a half mile walk. So I had, I had a pretty… I had a nice apartment. It was a good place. As far as being paid, I was paid well. I was living very comfortably.

Interviewer: Uh, let’s see. How was your relationship with Korean soldiers?

00:09:00

Mararac: I actually worked very closely with a Korean. She was a Korean Captain and she got promoted to Major. She was an Intel officer for the, uh, ROK Army and we had a very good relationship, a very good working relationship, and what I actually enjoyed the most out of her and I did not really learn about this, that this was a thing until like I took that class.

00:09:30

Mararac: Like hiking trips and parties that you have with your work, with your co-workers, I thought that was a lot of fun because it was a really good bonding experience not just with the other with the Korean army folks, but also the other nations that were involved in what we were doing there because we all came together because we all went hiking and there was a lot of drinking afterwards.

Interviewer: Okay. So it sounds like you guys did have a lot of time to socialize outside of just the base.

00:10:00

Mararac: Yes. That seemed to be very important.

Interviewer: What would you say were the most difficult or dangerous memories during your duty? Have you been possibly wounded?

Mararac: I was never wounded while working in Korea, and I never actually felt in danger. So because of the office that I worked for there, I was constantly in the DMZ.

00:10:30

Mararac: Specifically at the JSA, the Joint Security Area, and I was also able to walk around on my own which is kind of funny. If you work there you have to wear a specific arm band that identifies what you do and if you are armed or not armed. So soldiers that actually work in the DMZ will wear an arm band that is black.

00:11:00

Mararac: I think it identifies them as being some sort of security force there. When I would work on the DMZ, I had to wear my yellow arm band which meant that I was not armed but still working in some sort of physical capacity because we did a lot of tours through the DMZ because education, educating people on what is going on there, what we arre doing there, is important. 

00:11:30

Mararac: But yeah, I would be able to walk along the DMZ by myself and I would have North Korean soldiers staring at me and then, I mean, if they really wanted to cause an international incident and kidnap me, I guess I’m like right there. But in all honesty, no I was never afraid.

Interviewer: So that would be, maybe one instance where you felt slightly in danger but since it is not, that is your point? There were really no dangers?

Mararac: It was a reality of my work, of my work day.

00:12:00

Interviewer: Okay. Great.

Mararac: Uhh, what were other things? We also stood watch, I was there also when the passing of power to Kim Un and also the rocket launches that he did.

Interviewer: Then what would be one of your happiest or most rewarding memories from your duty?

00:12:30

Mararac: Usually it was when I would finish facilitating a meeting between high-ranking offices of the Swiss, the Swedes, The Americans, and the Koreans and we came to some sort of agreement on something in particular and we moved in it and came to a disagreement and moved in a specific direction because it meant that I was involved in getting stuff done.

00:13:00

Interviewer: Great, great. So all this work, great work that you did, what was the impact of your service in Korea upon your life?

Mararac: For me personally, the impact was experiencing a different culture and learning about this new culture, learning their language, trying to understand how they think or why they think the way they do. 

00:13:30

Mararac: As far as my military service or what I provided to Korea, I was really just another link in the chain. There is someone that replaced me afterwards that I left and is continuing the same duties that I was responsible for. So I like knowing that I was a part of that big picture.

Interviewer: Since you’ve been back in the states, have you been back to Korea?

Mararac: I have not had a chance to return to Korea.

00:14:00

Mararac: But I am continuing to study Korean at San Diego State in hopes that maybe if the opportunity in the future arrives, then I may move back to Korea.

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