KATUSA Soldier Goes AWOL for 5 Months and No One Notices
This is pretty bad and he wasn’t the only KATUSA to use the Camp Humphreys relocation to go AWOL:
A Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) soldier allegedly went absent without leave (AWOL) and spent the last five months of his service at his home, but the Korean military authorities were unaware of this until another soldier made an anonymous complaint, sources said Wednesday.
The former KATUSA sergeant, who was stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) in Yongsan, central Seoul, was to be relocated to USAG Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, early this year. However, he did not follow the relocation order.
Currently, over 90 percent of U.S. forces and KATUSAs who were stationed in and around Seoul have moved to the recently expanded USAG Humphreys, according to a U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) official.
The deserter took advantage of lax personnel management at the time when soldiers were being continuously relocated to Humphreys in large numbers and only a small batch of KATUSAs were left behind at Yongsan.
“The suspect allegedly told Korean Army officers in Pyeongtaek that he was part of a handful of KATUSA and U.S. troops left working in Yongsan, but they did not cross-check this with officers stationed in Yongsan,” a source told The Korea Times.
The man allegedly stayed at home while he was AWOL.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link, but he wasn’t the only KATUSA to use the relocation to go AWOL. Other KATUSAs did so as well, but when one of them got caught he blew the whistle on the KATUSA that went AWOL for five months.
I do not recommend having a support team member you cannot rely on.
Had a guy in my battalion in Germany go on leave for a year and two weeks. He demanded court-martial because he knew full well that non-judicial punishment would not go in his favor. The staff judge advocate informed the battalion commander that the approved leave form (DA Form 31 at the time) clearly had the departure and return dates which are the dates the soldier actually adhered to. Of course the guy ended up not being paid for the excess leave taken, but man what a great story. I don’t think anyone at all in the command, junior to or senior to him, liked the guy’s useless commanding officer. Some of us felt that the whole legal debacle was pushed along to that result as a nail in the company commander’s career’s coffin. Of course there’s no way to prove that, but man it was sure funny when it happened!
As if KATUSA wasn’t enough of a sham job, the comfortable work schedule and barracks life of a US soldier assigned to Korea, get both ROK and US holidays off, and daily language instruction. Also, many get to serve in the field of study they are in at college (medical service, finance etc.) Bad decision to go AWOL for the last 5 months but guess he thought he would get away with it.
johnhenry, that’s a great story!!
Hope he makes up the 5 months in a comfortable ROK brig or repeats in winter in a unit in Cheorwon.
setnaffa: There are more! The company commander for one guy in the same battalion wanted to court- martial the guy. The SJA said there’s no way the guy would be found guilty (mainly because he was clearly innocent). Sad Sack told the CO, “No problem, Sir. Just Article 15 me.” Dude didn’t even appeal to the battalion commander.
Johnhenry, that second guy must be nicknamed “Carl”…