Category: USFK

This makes me wonder how people without legal immigration status were able to access Camp Humphreys every day to go to work?:

Ten people at retail businesses at this base were cited or deported earlier this month on suspicion of working illegally in South Korea, according to a South Korea immigration investigator Friday.

Army Criminal Investigation Division agents and South Korean investigators apprehended the 10 during a sting operation Nov. 5, an investigator in the Suwon Immigration Office told Stars and Stripes by phone. The group, including people from Turkey and the Philippines, were allegedly working for a restaurant and jewelry store at Humphreys without work visas, according to the investigator with the Justice Ministry branch in Suwon city.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This should lead to fresher produce for customers:

Produce at U.S. bases in South Korea was temporarily in short supply as the Defense Commissary Agency began replacing U.S. imports of certain fruits and vegetables with their locally grown counterparts.

Commissaries plan this month to start stocking “the highest quality” local fruits and vegetables that are “consistent with what is available in commercial grocery stores,” U.S. Army Garrison Daegu announced in a Facebook post Oct. 29.

These include apples, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, radishes, pumpkins, kale, leeks, green onions, tomatoes, pomegranates, persimmons, citrus and grapes from the United States, along with squash from Mexico, DeCA spokesman Keith Desbois said by email Friday.

Stars & Stripes

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The U.S. and the ROK demonstrating the future of warfare to the North Koreans:

Unmanned aerial vehicles from the United States and South Korea recently teamed up to improve their combat effectiveness via first-of-their-kind live-fire drills, according to the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. The training took place Friday, a day after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile off its eastern coast, although the timing is unrelated, according to email Monday from 7th Air Force spokeswoman Master Sgt. Rachelle Coleman. A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper dropped an inert, 558-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, using reconnaissance data from a South Korean air force RQ-4B Global Hawk, according to Coleman and a ministry news release three days earlier.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The 2nd Infantry Division has a new rotational brigade in South Korea:

A Stryker combat team has taken over as the U.S. Army’s rotational force in South Korea, relieving a cavalry unit in a ceremony at Camp Casey, the U.S. base closest to North Korea. The 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., assumed the responsibility Friday at Camp Casey, about 15 miles from the border, replacing the 3rd Cavalry Regiment out of Fort Cavazos, Texas.

The Stryker brigade is outfitted with the eight-wheeled armored combat vehicle of the same name. The rotational force of approximately 3,500 soldiers and 1,500 prepositioned vehicles supports the 2nd Infantry Division in nine-month deployments to South Korea. The division is headquartered at Camp Humphreys, roughly 40 miles south of Seoul.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully no one was injured in this fire:

A fire broke out at a US Forces Korea (USFK) storage facility in the southeastern port city of Busan on Thursday, officials said, with no casualties reported so far.

The blaze occurred at 6:31 p.m. at the USFK’s Busan Storage Center in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to officials.

More than 160 personnel and 51 pieces of fire equipment have been mobilized to extinguish the fire, which is believed to have started during plumbing work.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The issues around Rodriguez Range is very similar to noise complaints by people who build homes around airports. The range had been there long before the population began increasing around the area. It looks like the ROK government will now invest enough money in the area to keep the locals quiet for the time being:

U.S. troops may now employ attack helicopters in live-fire drills at a range 16 miles from North Korea, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. For the past six years, the Army could fly AH-64 Apaches in exercises at the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, but not fire their weapons. Representatives from the ministry, South Korean army and a citizens’ group investigating noise complaints from the range, signed a memorandum Monday to “normalize” training by U.S. forces, according to a ministry news release that day.

Concerns over noise generated by the Apaches prompted a U.S. noise study earlier this year, Kang Tae Il, chairman of the citizens’ group — Pocheon Live Fire Range Countermeasure Committee — told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. “We, local residents, originally wanted to get this range moved and closed,” he said. “However, in the situation in our country that is a standoff with North Korea, soldiers need to train somewhere.”

The change near the border came as tensions continue to tick higher on the peninsula. On Tuesday, North Korea destroyed parts of inter-Korean roads on its side of the border, after claiming that South Korean drones flew over Pyongyang. To compensate Pocheon residents for the noise, the ministry agreed to construct a gymnasium, golf course and other sports facilities around the range at an undetermined date, Kang said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The equipment for the next rotational unit in support of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 1-2 Stryker Brigade out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord has arrived to Korea:

The first batch of equipment for a new American rotational force employing the Stryker fighting vehicle arrived at a southern port over the weekend, the U.S. Army in South Korea said Wednesday.

Stryker vehicles and other pieces of equipment belonging to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team were unloaded in Gwangyang, 291 kilometers south of Seoul, on Sunday to replace the current 3rd Cavalry Regiment as part of a regular rotation, according to the Eighth Army.

“We welcome the Ghost Brigade to the Republic of Korea to enhance the interoperability of the Combined Division and strengthen our alliance with our ROK partners,” Maj. Gen. Charles Lombardo, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division/ROK-U.S. Combined Division, said in a release.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Now we know what caused a USFK F-16 to crash this past December:

The crash of an Air Force fighter jet off South Korea’s western coast last year was due to the loss of instrumentation and poor weather, according to a 7th Air Force news release Friday. The F-16C Fighting Falcon was over the Yellow Sea on Dec. 11 when it crashed “due to loss of primary flight and navigation instruments during adverse weather conditions,” the release states. The fighter belonged to the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, 115 miles south of Seoul.

The pilot survived the crash although the aircraft was a total loss, according to 7th Air Force. The Accident Investigation Board found that the F-16’s loss of flight and navigation instruments was prompted by the failure of an embedded GPS inertial navigation system. That system’s failure, along with the unidentified pilot’s reliance on other indicators that showed inaccurate readings, led to “spatial disorientation,” according to the release.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The USFK commander nominee has just stated the obvious:

 The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander nominee on Tuesday described North Korea’s “rapid” advancement of its nuclear and missile capabilities as the “single greatest” challenge facing the Korea-based command, vowing to maintain a “constant” state of readiness if confirmed.

During a confirmation hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lieut. Gen. Xavier Brunson, currently the commander of First Corps, also voiced concerns over growing military exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow, noting his commitment to mitigating risks associated with their military alignment.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Three medal of honor recipients from the Korean War were recognized with three housing towers named after them:

Keeble, Kyle and Vera, the three new housing towers that opened at this Army installation last week after five years of construction, bear the names of Medal of Honor recipients from the Korean War. The 12-story towers near Humphreys East Elementary School hold semi-furnished apartments for up to 216 noncommissioned and commissioned officers and their families, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Combined, the towers contain 144 three-bedroom, 54 four-bedroom and 18 five-bedroom units, according to a Corps of Engineers Far East District fact sheet.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.