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.
A light utility helicopter, the Surion, takes off in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, on May 1, 2015, as the Army conducts a drill to evacuate emergency patients to its main hospital in the adjoining city of Seongnam. The drill was timed with the launch the same day of the aviation command for the operations, with six of the choppers to be deployed. (Yonhap)
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)
These are very small amounts of money to be taking to be worth putting an entire military career at risk which leads me to believe that he has probably been doing this for a very long time and saw others doing it as well:
An Army brigadier general was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of taking bribes in exchange for paying favors to his friends’ sons serving mandatory military duty, the defense ministry said.
The general, who currently serves as a vice commander of the country’s Army Corps, allegedly received some 13 million won ($11,989) from five of his friends between 2012 and 2014, who asked him to change their sons’ assignments at the barracks.
“While the general, surnamed Kim, had been trying to peddle his influence, only one of the five was able to be transferred to another position,” a defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity. [Korea Herald]
A soldier from the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea fails to spike the ball with his foot during a foot volleyball match against a team of Korean soldiers at Camp Casey in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 17, 2015, as soldiers of the two countries hold an athletic event aimed at promoting the South Korea-U.S. friendship. The Korean sport of foot volleyball, known as “jokgu” in Korean, is similar to European football tennis and Malaysia’s Sepak Takraw and is basically a combination of soccer and volleyball. (Yonhap)
A soldier from the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea and a soldier from the 65th Division of the Korean Army compete in a “ssireum,” Korean wrestling, match at Camp Casey in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 17, 2015, as part of an athletic event aimed at promoting the South Korea-U.S. friendship. (Yonhap)
Family members photograph soldiers in the Arc Unit, South Korean troops dispatched for special military operations in the Middle East. The special commandos attended a farewell ceremony on Tuesday at the training field of the Special Warfare Command in Songpa District, Seoul. [NEWSIS]
Jasmine Lee is the first non-Korean member of the National Assembly in South Korea and the Korea Herald has an interview with her published that discusses some of her views:
When the governing Saenuri Party picked Jasmine Lee to serve as a lawmaker in April 2012, hate groups attacked her as a “dark-skinned” foreigner posing as a Korean.
Saenuri officials hoped Lee would encourage “diversity” in a dominantly homogenous, and sometimes xenophobic South Korea, to better represent naturalized citizens, foreign laborers, and other minorities in the National Assembly.
She has done her best to meet the expectations, Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald earlier this month, but the country has a long way to go.
“There has never been a multicultural society in South Korea,” she said. “So officials here don’t know exactly how to support such families here.” [Korea Herald]
Here is what she had to say about mixed race males serving in the ROK military:
South Korea’s Constitution obligates physically and psychologically fit men to serve 21 months in the armed forces. But the military did not accept “multicultural” men until 2011, as officials thought they would lack the social skills to mingle with others in their unit.
Lee has a son with her late Korean husband, who is likely to enter the military sometime next year. She said incorporating men from multicultural families was a step in the right direction.
“A Justice Ministry official once suggested that ‘multicultural’ servicemen serve in segregated units,” Lee said.
“I asked the official if those multicultural men would fight separately from other units if a war broke out. He said no.”
It will be interesting to see if this death sentence is actually ever carried out:
A South Korean soldier who shot dead five of his colleagues and injured seven others has been sentenced to death by a military court.
The sergeant opened fire in June 2014 at his post near the North Korean border and fled, sparking a manhunt.
He was captured two days later after he shot himself during a tense stand-off with troops.
It reignited debate on military culture in South Korea, where all males must do about two years military service.
The conscript’s attack had previously been attributed by a defence ministry spokesman to his “difficulties in adapting to military life”.
He had been placed on a list of conscripts requiring special attention.
In July last year, the military completed its investigation into the incident and said the attack, at a post near the border town of Goseong, was in revenge for bullying in the army and at school. [BBC via reader tip]
Here is an editorial in the Korea Herald in regards to the sex crime issue currently plaguing the ROK military:
The recent comments made by the Saenuri lawmaker Song Young-keun in relation to a sexual assault case in the military reveal why the country’s military is plagued by sexual crimes and misconducts.
Remarking on a case in which a brigade commander sexually assaulted a female NCO, Song, a retired Army Lt. Gen. who served as the commander of the defense security command, said that the brigade commander rarely went off base and suggested that the man, in his mid-40s, could have suffered from sexual frustration as a result.
The remark is deeply offensive to both men and women. Suggesting that men might commit sex crimes because of unresolved sexual needs debases men as creatures that are compelled to act upon impulse. It is bad enough that the sex crime occurred in the military, where discipline is a priority, but Song’s comment brings great dishonor to all men in the military.
Song’s comments also betray his attitude toward women ― as sexual objects ― that condones sexual violence committed against women. Song further incensed women by referring to the victim as the “sergeant agassi” which can be translated as “sergeant miss.” The usage of the word “agassi” fell out of public favor long ago as women find the term to be pejorative. In fact the term has limited usage today, often used in bars or room salons to refer to a bar hostess.
That a three-star general harbors such attitudes about women and sex crimes is greatly alarming. It is just such attitudes and thinking that perpetuate sex crimes in the military.
It is most unfortunate that Song was part of a National Assembly special committee charged with improving human rights in the military and revamping the military culture. He resigned from the committee on Jan. 30 “taking responsibility for causing trouble with inappropriate remarks.” However, more problematic than the remarks are the deeply embedded attitude toward about sex crimes and sexual objectification of women that the remarks revealed.
Perhaps such attitudes run deep in the military. Perhaps that is why some laughable guidelines ― men and women may not be in a car by themselves, men and women should only use one hand each when shaking hands ― have been suggested by the military in its effort to prevent sex crimes.
The military needs more than such superficial guidelines. It should create an atmosphere where men and women in the military can fight side by side as comrades in arms, regardless of gender. Regular gender equality training could be a starting point. [Korea Herald]
Everything in the editorial is fair enough, but to really see changes in the ROK military in regards to women than there needs to be changes in Korean society as well. Servicemembers do not enter the military and suddenly put aside all their sexist beliefs they learned while being a civilian when they put on the uniform. A culture of not treating women as second class citizens and sex objects needs to be changed well before someone enters the military. To be fair much has changed for the positive in regards to the treatment of women in Korea over the years and I expect these improvements to continue.
