Tag: ROK Army

A towed artillery piece fires as reservists and soldiers from the South Korean Army’s 1st Corps conduct a live-fire exercise at a range in Paju, north of Seoul, bordering North Korea, on Sept. 8, 2016. (Yonhap)

Senior high school girls get information at a special forces booth to recruit noncommissioned officers in a job fair for high school graduates at a Seoul convention on Aug. 31, 2016. (Yonhap)

Happy 66th anniversary to the KATUSA program:

The Korean Augmentation Troops to the U.S. Army (KATUSA) celebrated the 66th anniversary of its foundation Monday, according to the KATUSA Veterans Association.

Some 400 U.S. military officials, KATUSA war veterans, KATUSA reservists and active-duty KATUSA soldiers participated in the event at Camp Jackson, a U.S. military base, in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul.

KATUSA Veterans Association Chairman Kim Jong-wook and 2nd Infantry Division Commander Theodore D. Martin were among the participants. Chairman Kim delivered a welcoming speech following a silent tribute to patriotic martyrs and then Commander Martin as guest speaker gave a keynote speech on the meaning of the 66th anniversary for the two allies.

Commander Martin said KATUSA has operated like a set of well-running wheels for the U.S. and South Korean armies for the past 66 years. He asked KATUSA soldiers to continue their bridging role in strengthening the bilateral alliance.

“Today, the strength of the KATUSA Program serves as a symbol of the friendship and continued commitment between the two countries. This strength is vital, and it enhances our combined ability to deter aggression and maintain peace in the Korean Peninsula,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link to include a story about a South Korean family that had three generations serve in the KATUSA program.  The KATUSA program has definitely been a success since its founding by General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.

Soldiers from the Army’s 17th Division show off their martial arts skills during an event in the city of Incheon, west of Seoul, on July 8, 2016, to welcome veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War. (Yonhap)

Congratulations to First Lieutenant Ji Eun Jeong for being awarded the US Army’s Expert Infantryman Badge.  She is considered the first female ROK Army officer to receive the badge.  Two years ago two female ROK Army NCOs became the first Korean females to be awarded the EIB:

May 26, 2016 – CAMP CASEY, Republic of Korea – Soldiers congratulate Republic of Korea Army 1st Lt. Ji Eun Jeong, a platoon leader in the 115th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, 90th Mech. Inf. Brigade, 30th Mech. Inf. Division, on earning an U.S. Army Expert Infantryman Badge. Jeong, a 25-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, is the first female ROK officer to complete the EIB. South Korean officers are not actually authorized to wear the U.S. badge, but were pinned during the ceremony and awarded a certificate of achievement. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Keith Anderson, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs, 1st Cav. Div.)  [PACOM.mil]

Here are some statistics of how many failed to pass the testing:

Included in the final number to complete the challenge were more than 40 ROKA Soldiers, including Republic of Korea Army 1st Lt. Ji Eun Jeong, a platoon leader in the 115th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, 90th Mech. Inf. Brigade, 30th Mech. Inf. Division. Jeong was the first female ROK officer to earn the EIB. A female ROK NCO completed the grueling challenge last year to earn her EIB.

“I want a specialty for infantry, and EIB is a challenge for female Soldiers,” said Jeong.

Of the 627 Soldiers who started the EIB testing in South Korea May 22, only 131 finished and earned the honor of wearing the Expert Infantryman Badge. And of those, 29 distinguished themselves as “True Blue” Infantryman by successfully completing every event without retest and receiving first time “go’s” on every evaluation – 18 U.S. and 11 South Korean Soldiers.  [DVIDS]

That is a pretty high attrition rate and thus shows how hard the awardees worked to get the EIB. According to the Korea Times 1st Lt. Jeong did 200 pushups, 200 sit-ups and ran 7 kilometers each day to prepare for the test.  She also qualified for the ROK Army’s version of the EIB in November 2015 which made her eligible to compete for the US Army’s EIB last month.  Incredibly the attrition rate for the ROK Army EIB is much higher than the US Army EIB:

Only infantry personnel are eligible to participate in both the EIB test and South Korea’s equivalent test.

The U.S. military officially opened the door for women on ground combat jobs beginning in January and there were no female participants from the U.S. side this year, according to the South Korean military.

In November 2015, Jeong was the only woman among the four successful candidates who took the South Korean infantry test. A total of 85 soldiers took the test then.  [Korea Times]

Only 4 of 85 passed the ROK Army EIB testing which is pretty amazing.  It sounds like the US Army get our infantrymen to compete in the ROK Army EIB testing for an additional skills challenge.

President Park Geun-hye meets with a South Korean soldier serving in South Sudan on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in a ceremony held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 27, 2016 to boost their morale, in this photo provided by her office. (Yonhap)

This photo released by the Defense Acquisition Procurement Administration (DAPA) on May 26, 2016, shows an AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopter parked on the tarmac at an undisclosed Army base on May 26, 2016. The DAPA delivered four AH-64Es to the South Korean Army, the first batch of 36 AH-64Es it plans to introduce in a US$1.6 billion deal. (Yonhap)

The guy that was jumping around kicking people in the City Hunter drama is some how unfit for military service:

Actor Lee Min-ho has been exempted from active military service required of all able-bodied South Korean men because of his medical history, his talent agency said Thursday.

The 28-year-old will instead work in the public service for about two years, MYM Entertainment said, adding it has not been decided when he will start the service.

The decision was made because he has screws in a leg he broke in a car accident in 2009.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I always have a lot of respect for the actors and other celebrities that complete their mandatory military service.

This will be a big upgrade to the ROK Army’s combat capabilities if they are able to field these additional K2 tanks which are a pretty impressive piece of military equipment:

South Korea’s military is pushing to field some 100 additional units of the locally built K2 Black Panther tanks to strengthen frontline defense against North Korea, a military official said Thursday.

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) submitted the request citing the need for 100 or so more K2 tanks in October and the Ministry of National Defense is carrying out a verification of the demand,” the military official said.

K2 is the South Korean Army’s main battle tank (MBT) and has been produced since 2013. The tank developed in the country has been reaching frontline units starting in 2014, with a total of 206 K2 tanks having been deployed or are in the process of being delivered.

The additional production plan, if accepted, would push up the number of the South Korean military’s fleet to more than 300 tanks. The K2s augment the K1 battle tanks that are in widespread service among the country’s military.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Soldiers remove broken vinyl greenhouses in Goseong County, Gangwon Province, on May 8, 2016. Some 540 of the total 772 greenhouses in the region were damaged by strong winds that struck the region on Wednesday. The Army’s 22nd Division has deployed some 700 troops to help get rid of the damaged greenhouses. (Yonhap)