For the fifth straight day another person affiliated with USFK has tested positive for coronavirus, however only 2 of the 19 infections have been uniformed servicemembers:
This image provided by U.S. Forces Korea shows a visitor to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek going through a fever test for prevention of COVID-19. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
An American citizen working for U.S. Forces Korea’s Camp Humphreys tested positive for the new coronavirus Friday, the 19th confirmed case for the USFK community.
USFK said an American construction worker working for the military camp was diagnosed with COVID-19 in the day.
According to USFK, the U.S. citizen last visited Camp Humphreys, the USFK headquarters in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and has since been under self-quarantine at his home for having been in contact with another coronavirus patient.
Considering that CID says there is no threat to the public than how is foul play still being considered?:
Pfc. Marissa Jo Gloria, 25, a combat engineer at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, was found dead in her barracks on Saturday, March 21, 2020. Spc. Clay Welch, 20, a combat medic assigned to the base, was found dead in his room the following day. U.S. ARMY
The recent deaths of two American soldiers were not connected to each other or the coronavirus, but foul play has not been completely ruled out as investigations are ongoing, the military said.
The 2nd Infantry Division soldiers — Pfc. Marissa Jo Gloria and Spc. Clay Welch — died in their barracks rooms on Camp Humphreys over two consecutive days earlier this month.
Seeking to stave off speculation amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials took the unusual step of immediately announcing that neither soldier had been ill nor exhibited symptoms of the respiratory disease. (……..)
“At this point in both of the investigations, foul play is not suspected, but we have not completely ruled it out while we conduct thorough investigations,” he said.
“I can also tell you there is no danger to the public or the Camp Humphreys community in regard to these deaths,” he added. “No further information will be released at this time to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigations.”
According to the article the USFK soldier contracted the virus from the contractor who worked at the 8th Army headquarters. It will be interesting to see how many people end up being infected from just the one contractor who initially got it:
Customers wait to enter the commissary at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Friday, March 27, 2020. Escalated health protection measures put limits on the number of people who can be inside the store at one time.
The soldier is in isolation at Camp Humphreys in a barracks set aside for coronavirus cases, according to a USFK press release.
The contractor was the fourth case of coronavirus confirmed at Camp Humphreys, which is in the rural area of Pyeongtaek about 55 miles south of Seoul. The other eight cases are at bases in the southeastern city of Daegu and nearby areas, which were at the center of the outbreak that began in mid-February in South Korea.
USFK remains at a high-risk level for the virus. The command has sharply restricted access to bases and ordered service members to avoid nonessential travel and off-post social activities in a bid to keep the virus from spreading.
Staff Sgt. Deontae D. Allen, 27, of Kansas City, Mo., was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene on Camp Humphreys by emergency medical personnel on Sunday, according to a press release.
A 2nd Infantry Division soldier who worked as a mortuary affairs specialist was found dead Sunday in his barracks room, the Army said Thursday. The cause of death is under investigation.
Staff Sgt. Deontae D. Allen, 27, of Kansas City, Mo., was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene on Camp Humphreys by emergency medical personnel on Sunday, according to a press release.
A facility that was plagued by corruption and mismanagement to construct is closer to fully opening:
After years of delays, the U.S. military held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for a new, $275 million hospital, marking a turning point in the relocation of most American forces to this expanded base south of Seoul.
The opening of the 68-bed Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital, also known as BAACH, allows its namesake facility on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to close. The new hospital, which had already offered outpatient services, will officially open for inpatients on Nov. 15.
The U.S. military broke ground for the hospital and ambulatory care center in November 2012 on land that had been used for helicopter hangars. But construction problems and quality control issues filled the years that followed, as the South Korean contractor Samsung C&T Corp. struggled to meet rigid U.S. standards.
Great job by all the Soldiers that participated in the ruck this week:
Servicemembers and civilians participated in the ninth annual 9/11 Memorial Ruck March at Camp Humphreys on Wednesday, marking 18 years since the worst attack on the U.S. since Pearl Harbor and the prelude to the nation’s longest war.
An estimated 500 people signed up for the 9.11-mile memorial ruck, beating a record set in 2017 when 264 participants signed up and completed a slightly different route.
Many of the participants were mere toddlers on the morning of 9/11, more concerned with putting one foot in front of the other without falling over than shouldering a pack and moving out.
Pfc. Alison Malmborg, a supply specialist for the Eighth Army Wightman NCO Academy, was 2 years old when those tragic events unfolded.
“There are a few sergeants and people we work with that were in the military during 9/11, so it means a lot to spend this time with them and show that we are dedicated,” she said. “Even though I was only 2, I am here today serving alongside them.”
The long debated issue of where to officially put the Combined Forces Command has apparently been settled:
Most amenities for U.S. soldiers and family members in Yongsan Garrison in Seoul will be shut down as of Oct. 1, as an ongoing relocation is being carried out. [YONHAP]
Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will be relocated from the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek by 2021, defense officials announced Sunday.
The CFC, Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff made the announcement jointly on Sunday, adding that a timeline will be finalized in the U.S.-Korea Security Consultative Meeting coming at the end of October or early November.
The move had been forewarned by Washington and Seoul in June, but Sunday was the first time an exact time for the move was announced.
The move of the CFC will be in time for the expected transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon) over Korea’s military forces from the United States to Korea by 2022.
You can read more at the link, but the ROK was trying to keep the CFC in Seoul and force the Americans to commute every week for meetings. USFK wanted the CFC based out of Camp Humphreys which is what they ended up getting.
According to the article the hand over of operational control is still planned for 2022. 2022 just happens to be of the ROK presidential election so you know that who ever President Moon selects to run for President will take credit for the hand over.
Col. Michael Tremblay assumes command of Camp Humphreys in a ceremony at the Army garrison in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on Thursday, June 27, 2019.
Col. Michael Tremblay assumed command of Camp Humphreys on Thursday as the Army’s new home in South Korea faces the final push in its much-delayed expansion.
Tremblay, a career infantryman, inherits a garrison that has experienced growing pains, including housing problems and traffic jams, as its population more than tripled to surpass 35,000 in just over three years. It’s ultimately expected to reach more than 40,000.
The next major move is due to occur when the problem-plagued hospital finally opens in November, triggering the final steps toward closing Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, which had served as the main U.S. military base in South Korea in the decades after the 1950-53 Korean War.
Tremblay, 46, of Schoolcraft, Mich., was most recently the executive officer to the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command in Florida.
The garrison was hit with a series of complaints about housing on Humphreys, including children stuck in elevators, mold and slow responses to work orders, during a town hall meeting held in February as part of a campaign to deal with a military-wide crisis.
The leadership responded swiftly, including establishing an elevator task force, and has expressed confidence that the most severe problems have been resolved.
An elevator task force had to be established to fix elevators on a brand new base. The incompetence and fraud surrounding the Camp Humphreys construction is staggering. Anyway best of luck to Colonel Tremblay in completing the relocation from Yongsan Garrison to Camp Humphreys.
The KSC is definitely a unique an important part of the USFK team:
Korean Service Corps paramilitary members pose beside a tribute to fallen KSC members during a rededication ceremony for the monument at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, June 9, 2019.
The Korean Service Corps Battalion recently unveiled its memorial monument at a rededication ceremony after relocating the solid stone tribute south to its new headquarters at Camp Humphreys. In 1985, the monument was established on Camp Kim, a small base just outside the gates of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. Camp Kim closed in 2018 and was converted into a center for visitors to learn about base history at the new Yongsan Park Gallery. “Not long after the Korean War broke out, Lt. Gen. Walton A. Walker quickly reached the conclusion that combat troops needed help in critical areas of logistics,” Eighth Army commander Lt. Gen. Michael Bills said in his dedication speech Sunday. On July 25, 1950, South Korean President Syngman Rhee established what would become the Korean Service Corps to provide critically needed support to the beleaguered U.S. forces in Korea, Bills said. Four U.S. divisions, driven south by North Korean troops, were holding a perimeter that month around the port city known today as Busan.
“This monument was a labor of love by the KSC to honor the sacrifices of their fellow members,” Bills said. “The monument was not purchased or donated; it took over seven years of dedicated service to complete. The stone itself was mined from Baegun Mountain to symbolize the loss of KSC lives at that very mountain during the Chinese spring offensive of 1951.”
Here is the latest update on the ever changing location of the CFC headquarters:
The United States told the Moon Jae-in administration that it wants to move the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command from its planned relocation site in Yongsan District, central Seoul, to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, government sources told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.
“General Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, recently told Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo about the change of plans,” the JoongAng Ilbo quoted a government source as saying in its Thursday edition. “The Ministry of National Defense is currently reviewing the proposal.”
The newspaper also said multiple government sources confirmed the U.S. military’s relocation plan. Originally, the United States planned to keep the Combined Forces Command (CFC) in Yongsan.
Other top U.S. military offices – the headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Eighth Army Command – have been relocated away from Yongsan to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.
According to the sources, General Abrams had considered two options for relocating the CFC. One was to move it inside Camp Humphreys and the other was to keep it inside the U.S. military base in Yongsan until the United States completed the process of handing over wartime operational control of Korean troops to Korea.
Seoul and Washington originally agreed to keep the CFC inside the compound of the Korean Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan. During a lecture on Jan. 4 last year, General Vincent Brooks, then the commander of the Korea-U.S. CFC and U.S. Forces Korea, said the CFC will remain in Seoul.
You can read much more at the link, but this is all coming down to who is going to have to commute. According to the article General Abrams is having to commute twice a week to Seoul from Camp Humphreys to execute his CFC duties. Additionally he says it is hard to find good staff officers to serve in CFC if they have to commute from Camp Humphreys where their families are.
Moving the CFC headquarters to Camp Humphreys means all the Koreans living in Seoul would be forced to commute down to Camp Humphreys. Additionally there is concern of having the CFC headquarters on a US military base after operational control of forces in Korea is supposed to be handed over to the ROK by 2022.
