Strangely enough, although the adversaries face one another daily at the MDL, at no time are they permitted to converse face to face. And once an official phone call has been placed, extremely strict measures ensure the message is clear and understood by all.
“When we call Panmunjom, I read the message word for word — from the period to the commas — in English to the North Korean interpreter,” Jackson explained. “Then, our South Korean interpreter reads the same message over again in Korean. After that, a North Korean repeats the message in Korean back to our duty interpreter, and then their interpreter reads it back to me in English. So every single phone call is repeated four times.”
Having someone available to pick up the phone 24/7 or repeating a simple message four times may seem like overkill to most, but when the person on the other end is consciously looking for opportunities to twist the intended meaning, it’s entirely necessary. For his part, Jackson feels privileged to be one of the few Sailors ever assigned to this position, and likens his job to that of a life saver.
“The closest comparison I can give my friends to this job is that of a fireman,” said the 35-year old. “Because firemen are always on call and ready to respond to any emergency — and that’s the same mindset you have to have in this job. Like a fireman, I always have to be on top of my game.
The information I pass to the North Korean army must be exact. If I’m not in the right mindset, I could easily slip up. And just one or two words out of sequence could mean something entirely different.”
With only two other enlisted watchstanders manning the JDO on a rotating schedule (one Army staff sergeant, one Air Force technical sergeant), the rotating 24-hour-days on duty can be long and tedious.
However, the men take their duty seriously.
“When I’m on duty — and especially when I’m on the phone — it’s all business.” That seriousness is clearly echoed in the Joint Duty Office’s motto of “We’re always on the line.”
