Tag: 2nd Infantry Division

With the recent passing of Muhammad Ali I figured it was as good as time as any to remember the Champ’s visit to South Korea back almost exactly 40 years after ago in 1976.  Ali visited South Korea after participating in a celebrity wrestling match with famed Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki.  Incredibly Ali threw six punches in the wrestling match and earned $6 million for it.

Pacific Stars & Stripes, June 26, 1976

Ali landed in Korea at Gimpo Airport and a motorcade took him on a tour of downtown Seoul where an incredible one million people it was estimated greeted him.  Here is what Ali had to say about the welcome he received in Seoul:

“When I go back to America and throughout my tours I will tell people of the world how nice Korea is,” Ali said.

Pacific Stars & Stripes, June 29 1976

Ali also had good things to say about US troops stationed in South Korea:

“I’ve many American brothers over here, black and white who fight for the freedom of the world and are doing a job we can’t pay them for,” he said.  “I am a fighter myself and I realize how lonely it is when you’re in combat-how lonely you are in training.”

After the motorcade tour of Seoul, Ali was next driven north to Camp Casey where he boxed and entertained 2nd Infantry Division soldiers:

Ali fought exhibitions for the U. S. 2nd Infantry Division after receiving a hero’s welcome in downtown Seoul from hundreds of thousands of Koreans.

“One million dollars a punch,” Ali said of his 15-round draw Saturday with professional Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki, who spent most of the bout on his back trying to kick Ali down.

“And you are going to see hundreds of punches for nothing,” he told more than 2,500 American soldiers at the Shoonover Bowl outdoor theater 12 miles below the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea.  [Stars & Stripes, June 29, 1976]

So for soldiers stationed on Camp Casey the next time you are at Shooner Bowl remember that decades ago Muhammad Ali once entertained US soldiers there.  Here is a cool story from the visit:

“All right, fellows. Do you have any boxers out here?” Ali asked.

Specialist Fourth Class Gerald Noble, 28, stepped out. The 202-pound soldier was a Michigan State heavyweight champion in 1967.

They agreed to a five-minute round, in which Noble tried hard but was no match for Ali. The champion danced in and away and landed scores of accurate but soft punches on the soldier-boxer.

After the fight, in which Ali patted Noble on the seat of the pants with his right fist after forcing him into a corner, the champ declared the soldier one of the best men he has fought.

The soldiers booed, and a 149-pounder volunteered to “put up a better fight, if not knock you out.”

The challenger was Private First Class Larry D. Rice, 20.

Ali faked being knocked down twice in a five-minute round with the welterweight, drawing big cheers from the crowd. In the end, however, it was Rice who became exhausted and gave up.

“Ali is a great fighter but today he turned out to be a greater entertainer, too. We love him in this remote area. He must be second to none in every sense,” an enlisted man said. “Second to None” is the slogan of the division.

What an awesome story Gerald Noble and Larry Rice were able to tell for the rest of their lives of boxing Muhammad Ali.  It is such an incredible story they probably had a hard time getting people to believe them.  I am sure the Koreans and GIs that saw Ali back in 1976 will never forget his visit much like many people in the world will not forget the legacy Muhammad Ali left before his passing.

It is slowly happening, but it looks like the bulk of 2ID will eventually be on Camp Humphreys after all these years of delays:

The 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment will move from an area near North Korea this summer, becoming “the vanguard” for a massive relocation of U.S. forces to regional hubs south of Seoul, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.

The announcement is part of a flurry of activity as U.S. Forces Korea readies to finally shift the bulk of its operation to Camp Humphreys in the South Korean port city of Pyongtaek and other areas. The effort has been frequently delayed due to funding and construction problems. The move was originally scheduled to take place in 2008 but was delayed until 2012, then 2016 and most recently, 2017.

The Fort Hood, Texas-based battalion is slated to move from its base at Camp Hovey, which is near the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, to Humphreys in July, said Lt. Col. Richard Hyde, a spokesman for the 2nd Infantry Division.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I am not sure what the union expects USFK to do; keep jobs that aren’t needed?:

Thousands of Korean employees at two U.S. military bases in Korea are facing massive layoffs because of the planned relocation of the camps.

Under a plan signed between Korea and the U.S., the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters and 8th Army headquarters, located in Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul and the 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), north of Seoul, will be moved to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army garrison in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

About 5,000 Koreans are working at the military bases.

There is a growing fear that at least half of the jobs of Korean employees might be on the line, but there has been no explanation from the U.S. military regarding its plans to cut jobs or reassign personnel, arousing anxiety among the workers, the USFK Korean Employees Union said Sunday.

On Thursday, the labor union began a one-person protest at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, scheduled to last for nine days, and will hold a rally against the layoffs at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan on May 21.

“We will fight to protect our jobs,” a labor union official said. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

A bunch of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers have apparently made themselves eligible for Army downsizing after being punished for the brawl they were part of at the UN Club in Itaewon:

The Army has punished nine soldiers for a brawl in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district, a 2nd Infantry Division spokesman said Tuesday.

 

Video that has been circulating on social media since shortly after the January fight shows a group of foreigners brawling in the street in front of the UN Club, a nightspot popular with U.S. troops that’s a few minutes’ walk from Yongsan Garrison, headquarters of 8th Army and U.S. Forces Korea.

 

The brawl involved both men and women trading punches and wrestling on the ground, oblivious to the efforts of a lone, bespectacled South Korean police officer to bring the situation under control with a glowing-red traffic wand.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but here is the Youtube video of the brawl, what disgrace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEtOGx1PDSc

This has been an ongoing complaint for troops deployed in Korea, but I don’t see this decision changing considering the fiscally constrained environment the Army finds itself in:

 Efforts to encourage U.S. soldiers to eat at on-base dining facilities haven’t gone down well with some hungry troops, who say they’d rather spend subsistence allowances at fast-food joints or off-base restaurants.

A new Army policy called Essential Unit Messing — which went into effect Feb. 1 — requires soldiers deployed with rotational units on the peninsula to eat at the dining facilities or pay out of pocket for food.

Under the policy, the Army deducts meal costs from a subsistence allowance that troops used to be free to spend wherever they liked, Army spokesman Paul Prince told the Army Times.

Despite the change, several dozen soldiers, including some from the 1st “Ironhorse” Armored Brigade Combat Team, were eating lunch Wednesday at Camp Casey’s food court. The Fort Hood, Texas-based unit is there on a nine-month rotational deployment.

Spc. Dartanian Pina, 21, of Rio Rancho, N.M., said he quickly tired of dining facility food and prefers to go off base, paying out of pocket for local fare such as bulgogi (beef stew).

“It’s better than the DFAC (dining facility),” said Pina, adding that he liked the freedom of the old system.

Adding insult to injury, some have complained the dining facilities weren’t giving them enough to eat.

Amanda Ramirez, of Killeen, Texas, whose husband, Steve, is a sergeant serving with the Ironhorse brigade, posted photos online showing the small food portions that soldiers from the unit were getting at dining facilities last month.

“I cannot form a well-written response as to how mad I am right now,” Ramirez said on her Facebook page above the pictures of fairly small portions of chicken, eggs and potatoes. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

For old 2ID personnel like myself, it still seems weird to hear about an elementary school on Camp Casey.  After only six years of operation the school is closing this summer:

Camp Casey’s elementary school and child development center will close this summer as U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula relocate to Camp Humphreys.

An Installation Management Command memo, dated Jan. 28 and addressed to the parents of children stationed at U.S. facilities north of Seoul, says Camp Casey Elementary School will close in June and Child and Youth Services will end at the base July 1.

“In accordance with the 2002 Land Partnership Plan (amended in 2004), Area I is reducing in U.S. population and bases,” Col. Jack Haefner, U.S. Army Garrison Camp Red Cloud and Area I commander, said in the memo.

Camp Casey’s Department of Defense Education Activity school opened in 2010 with an enrollment of about 250 as part of U.S. Forces Korea’s plan to increase the number of command-sponsored slots on the peninsula. A new wing opened in 2011, nearly doubling the K-8 school’s capacity. However, enrollment has declined over the past year. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

A ceremony is held at U.S. military base Camp Casey in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on Feb. 26, 2016, for the rotation of troops. Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest on the protests outside of the Korea Training Center.  Basically the protesters want to get compensation money for the noise from the range.  If the US pays compensation will people living near Nightmare Range going to be the next to complain about noise and want compensation as well?  What about people who live near US air bases, should they be compensated as well for noise?  What gets me is how this is framed as a US military problem when the ROK military uses the KTC as well.  I have never heard of Koreans protesting against ROK military noise?  It would be an interesting fact to know if the ROK military has ever paid out compensation money for noise.

At sunset on Oct. 28, a group of South Koreans gathered outside the gates of Rodriguez Live Fire Complex at Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, some 24 kilometers from the heavily guarded demilitarized zone.

The numbers swelled into the hundreds, with the mostly middle-aged crowd from adjacent villages starting bonfires, singing songs and watching live dance performances. However, despite the seemingly festive atmosphere, hostility could be felt as villagers were there to hold a rally, calling for an end to what they alleged was excessive noise and danger from the U.S. military complex.

“I came here because I’m a resident here. The kids are so scared (because of the noise from gunshots), they keep waking up at night. I wish the noise could just go away,” said Lim Ga-young, a Vietnamese-Korean mother who accompanied her three children and mother-in-law to the rally.

Just like Lim and hundreds of people who gathered to seek compensation for decades of “living in fear,” villagers from near the U.S. shooting range in Pocheon, including in Yeongpyeong-ri and Yamae-ri, have complained about the noise and flying bullets from military shooting drills for over half a century.

The Rodriquez range, just a stone’s throw from North Korea, carries out live-fire exercises, including the annual Foal Eagle war games jointly conducted by the South Korean and U.S. military.

But flexing the allies’ muscles against the communist neighbor ― which remains technically at war with the South since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an cease-fire and not a treaty ― appears to have had unintentional negative repercussions on the well-being of the villagers.

“Living in this area, we are paying a hefty price because of the environment. Some even had to undergo surgeries for health problems. But there has hardly been any real probe or measures taken for us. They just don’t care, that’s why we decided to take the matter into our own hands,” said 62-year-old Lee Eung-soo.

“Decades have passed, but nothing has changed,” said Lee, who has lived in Pocheon for 60 years and works as a barber in his village. “It is hard for me to move because my entire livelihood is based in the city.” [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this sad news that two Soldiers from the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade were killed in a helicopter crash near Wonju:

A U.S. military helicopter crashed in South Korea during a routine training mission Monday, killing both American pilots on board, the U.S. Army and South Korean police said.

The AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed on a road in Wonju, about 80 miles east of Seoul, a Wonju police officer said.

Two bodies recovered from the helicopter were severely damaged and officials couldn’t immediately confirm their identities. There were no reports of casualties on the ground.

The U.S. Army in South Korea later confirmed the crash, saying the cause of the accident was under investigation.  [Fox News]

You can read more at the link, but condolences to the families of the pilots after this tragic crash.

Serving with Korean Augmentees to the US Army (KATUSA) is an experience with a long history for US military servicemembers in Korea.  So when I was recently browsing through the Stars & Stripes archives this article about a KATUSA leading a US Army infantry squad caught my attention:

From the November 8, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes.

The KATUSA Sergeant J.S.Song due to his competence was chosen as a squad leader for Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division that served on the Korean Demilitarized Zone.  Back then just like today most KATUSAs are not given positions with such responsibility due to language and cultural differences.  The fact that Sergeant Song was given such a position especially back then when combat on the DMZ was a common occurrence shows how competent of a KATUSA Sergeant Song was.  Here is what his Platoon Sergeant Guy E. McKean and Sgt Song himself had to say about be given this leadership opportunity:

It is stories like this that makes me wonder if Sergeant Song ever did return to being a farmer after his service was completed.  If so he would be an old man now, but hopefully he still has good memories about his time leading US troops on the DMZ.