Having spent time serving in the Iron Brigade it is a bit sad to see it deactivate:
A woman pauses to watch personnel carriers and tanks from the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion, 72nd Armored Regiment that were participating in an exercise on Korea’s western front on Dec. 23, 1966. On July 2, 2015, units belonging to the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will inactivate, marking the end of more than 50 years on the peninsula.
A unit that has guarded the Korean peninsula’s tense border for five decades has been inactivated and replaced with the Army’s first rotational brigade combat team deployed to the area.
The 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team — known as the “Iron Brigade” — was inactivated Thursday morning during a ceremony at Camp Casey. Assuming its responsibilities is the Fort Hood-based 1st Calvary Division’s 2nd “Black Jack” Brigade Combat Team, which is in Area 1 on a nine-month deployment.
Military officials have touted the move to rotational deployments of units stationed along the Demilitarized Zone as a way to maintain cohesion in a theater where constant turnover is the norm. Troops are typically stationed in South Korea on one- or two-year tours. But under the rotational deployment plan, entire units will train for and deploy to the peninsula together.
“I can tell you that when this transfer of authority takes place, our amount of readiness goes up,” said Gen. Theodore Martin, 2ID commander. Having intact rotational units deploy to the division also means he won’t see a turnover of about 10 percent of his forces each month, he said. [Stars & Stripes]
It is good to see that 2ID is honoring the veterans that served during the period of what has since been known as the DMZ War which few Americans or even military servicemembers know about:
Bob Haynes expected to be sent to fight in the rapidly escalating war in Vietnam like other men his age in the mid-1960s. Instead, he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s Camp Stanley, a world away from Southeast Asia’s steamy jungles.
“I looked at my orders and said, ‘Where the hell is Korea?’ ” said the McHenry, Ill., resident, now 67.
On Haynes’ first night at the Demilitarized Zone, North Korean forces launched a pre-dawn ambush on a 2ID patrol that killed six Americans and one South Korean soldier just a half-mile south of the heavily patrolled border. A seventh American was wounded.
When he learned of the skirmish, Haynes, then 19, was shocked.
“I turned to my buddy and said, ‘It’s too cold to be Vietnam here. What’s going on?’ ”
For Haynes and other 2ID soldiers, the November 1966 skirmish highlighted the ongoing danger of being stationed near the DMZ within close proximity of North Korean forces, even as the simmering conflict on the peninsula was overshadowed by the war in Vietnam.
Haynes returned along with 17 other 2ID veterans to mark the division’s 50th anniversary Wednesday. One of their first stops was a memorial at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan that lists the 130 U.S. and South Korean troops killed in combat since the 1953 armistice, including those who died in the 1966 ambush. [Stars & Stripes]
A U.S. soldier wears a military uniform with a patch of his unit during a ceremony at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, on June 3, 2015, to mark the formation of a landmark South Korean-U.S. combined division. The division will consist of a brigade from the South Korean Army and the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, with each entity to carry out normal duties in its assigned area during peacetime. (Yonhap)
Gen. Kim Hyun-jip (R), the commander of the South Korean Army’s 3rd field battle forces, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. Theodore Martin, the commander of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, during a ceremony at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, on June 3, 2015, to mark the formation of a landmark South Korean-U.S. combined division. The division will consist of a brigade from the South Korean Army and the U.S. 2nd Infantry, with each entity to carry out normal duties in its assigned area during peacetime. (Yonhap)
The 2nd Infantry Division is moving forward with its combined division concept with the ROK Army:
2nd Infantry Division civil affairs officer Lt. Col. Gil Kwon, left, and his deputy, Lt. Col. Michael Cole have shared an office at Camp Red Cloud, South Korea since Kwon and 30 other South Korean officers joined the division in January.
It’s a little cramped these days in the office that South Korean Lt. Col. Gil Kwon shares with his deputy, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Cole.
But they are learning more about each other every day as the two countries’ militaries try to bridge cultural gaps and prepare for a major reorganization that will shift south most U.S. forces from bases north of Seoul to an expanded megabase at Camp Humphreys.
What’s left will be a combined U.S.-South Korean unit prepared to defend the peninsula if war were to break out with North Korea.
The transformation involves adding South Korean troops and units, including 31 staff officers and an entire infantry brigade; replacing the Camp Hovey-based 1st “Iron” Brigade Combat Team with U.S.-based rotational brigades on nine-month deployments, and moving the bulk of the division to Camp Humphreys.
South Korean and U.S. officers started sharing offices inside 2nd Infantry Division headquarters on Camp Red Cloud in January as part of the transformation. In January, the division received a complement of 31 Korean officers with ranks ranging from major up to a brigadier general who is now deputy 2nd ID commander, said Maj. Gen. Thomas Vandal, who turned over command of the division to Maj. Gen. Theodore Martin last week. Vandal spent the past two years preparing for the changeover.
The South Korean officers speak English and have experience at U.S. and British military schools. Each is paired with a U.S. counterpart with one serving as the other’s deputy, he said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but 1st Brigade on Camp Hovey will deactivate this summer and be replaced by rotational units coming to Korea from the US for 9 months at a time. The rotational units will train with the 16th ROK Brigade.
The protesters actually get themselves together a good size crowd of about a thousand people to protest for this huge sum of compensation money:
Men shave their heads in protest during a demonstration April 3, 2015, over a history of incidents near the Rodriguez Range live-fire complex in Pocheon, South Korea. The large range is frequently used by both U.S. and South Korean forces.
A citizens group living near the Rodriguez Range live-fire complex in South Korea is calling for 11 trillion won ($10.2 billion) as compensation for training-related incidents during the past six decades, organizers said Monday following a recent protest.
The call by the private Youngpyeong Seungjin Firing Range Task Force for payment from the national government to Pocheon, an area of about 160,000 residents living between Seoul and the Demilitarized Zone, came after the group demonstrated Friday against range accidents. The city of Pocheon has not endorsed the request.
Senior 8th Army officials drove to the village and compensated the homeowner that day, while South Korea soldiers fixed the damaged roof.
Citizens group officials said they counted more than 1,000 people attending a protest Friday, which had been planned prior to the errant round incident, though the figure could not be independently confirmed. Local police told Stars and Stripes they did not count the crowd but had been told to expect about 500 people. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but there is no way I envision that much money going to the city of Pocheon. Live fire training has to be conducted somewhere just like their has to be an airport constructed somewhere. What matters is if all the proper safety precautions are being taken to minimize accidents like what happened with the misfired Stryker training round.
As of this week the 2nd Infantry Division has a new commander:
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea (April 24, 2015) — Maj. Gen. Theodore “Ted” D. Martin assumes as the 2nd Infantry Division commanding general from Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Vandal. Vandal served as the commanding general for the 2nd Inf. Div. for 22 months.
The 2nd Inf. Div. hosted the change of command ceremony at the Indianhead Field at Camp Casey, South Korea, April 24.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to have served in this storied and proud Division at such a significant time of transformation in its history,” said Vandal. “In so many ways, it has been the highlight of my military career as we took on many challenges and opportunities.”
During his time in command Vandal carried out the initial establishment for the Combined Division; employed the first combined arms and aviation rotational battalions to serve on the Korean peninsula; and established the “Think Twice” Campaign, which focuses on emphasizing responsible behavior among Soldiers in the Division, among other things.
“To the Soldiers of the 2nd Inf. Div., you are proud professionals and I am honored to have served as your commanding general,” said Vandal. “I thank you for your service and sacrifice.”
Vandal also added that this July will be the 50th Anniversary of the 2nd Inf. Div.’s continued service on the Korean peninsula. “The friendship and mutual sacrifice is what makes this Alliance so great,” added Vandal.
Although the Vandal family will be leaving Warrior Country, they will not be too far away. Vandal will be assuming duties as the assistant chief of staff, C-3/J-3, at United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea.
Before assuming command of the 2nd Inf. Div. Martin served as the commanding general for the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
Martin’s family military heritage goes back more than ten generations.
Martin said that as little boys he and his three brothers wanted to grow up to be just like their father: a Soldier who had experience serving in Korea. “Today the dream becomes a reality, as I now have the honor to serve where he once fought during the Korean War,” added Martin. [Army.mil]
You can read the rest at the link, but that is pretty cool that MG Martin’s dad served during the Korean War and now he is in command of the last US Army division in Korea.
I don’t know what’s worse about this story, the victims trying to bribe their way into jobs or the conman who took their money for himself?:
A former Camp Stanley employee was arrested on allegations that he bilked South Koreans out of more than $740,000 in exchange for non-existent base jobs — and enlisted an unwitting U.S. soldier’s help to pull off the scam, South Korean police said.
The man identified by the surname Gang, 54, posed as a high-level base hospital official and convinced 27 people during the past six years to hand him a total of 800 million won, Uiwang Police Station officials told Stars and Stripes.
Gang forged Army documents and took his victims on tours of Yongsan Garrison, Camp Humphreys and other areas to help sell his story, police said.
Gang also convinced a U.S. soldier at Camp Stanley that the victims were prospective employees, then had the soldier interview them by phone to test their English, said Jo Min-chang, of Uiwang’s Economic Crime Investigation Team.
Police said they do not think the soldier knew he was participating in fraud.
Gang worked at Camp Stanley for more than 20 years before being fired last month, Jo said. He had most recently served as an ambulance driver.
When the victims began to complain about employment delays, police say Gang issued forged apology letters that used official Army logos, fonts and style, if not necessarily proper grammar.
“We would like to make an apology for any damage to who are newly employed and promoted because of a conflict between the 8th Army and Korean members of the 8th Army,” one of the letters read, according to a sample obtained from Uiwang police. “We, the 8th Army, are sincerely doing our best to make smooth recovery. And therefore, we would like to wish domestic bliss.”
In other letters, he blamed North Korean nuclear threats and bilateral defense budgets for causing delays, police said. [Stars & Stripes]
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Choi Yoon-hee (L, front), accompanied by Thomas S. Vandal (R, front), head of the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea, tours the division in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 20, 2015, in this photo released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Yonhap)
Condolences to the family of this deceased USFK soldier:
A 2nd Infantry Division soldier died after being found unresponsive in his barracks at Camp Hovey, South Korea, 8th Army officials said Wednesday.
Sgt. 1st Class Stephen C. Perry, 35, was pronounced dead after being transported Wednesday to Saint Mary’s Hospital.
Perry, of New Orleans, was assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
“We are keeping Stephen’s family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” said Col. Matthew Eichburg, commander of 1st ABCT. “Stephen was a passionate soldier and a valued member of the Iron Team.”
The death remains under investigation, 8th Army officials said. [Stars & Stripes]
