Tag: USFK

This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:

A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.

The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.

The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.

The CFC has finally completed its move from Yongsan Garrison:

The combined command that defends South Korea officially opened the doors on a new headquarters Tuesday, nearly three years after beginning its relocation from Seoul.

The Republic of Korea-United States Combined Forces Command now resides at Camp Humphreys, Pyeongtaek, after 44 years at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. Republic of Korea is the official name for South Korea.

Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas, now serves as the headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea, U.N. Command and the Combined Forces Command. Roughly 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, the majority of them at Humphreys.

USFK commander Gen. Paul LaCamera and Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup during a ceremony at the new headquarters welcomed soldiers from both countries and thanked them for their help in maintaining the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Since its creation in 1978, the Combined Forces Command coordinates the defense of South Korea with troops from Seoul and Washington. The command has operational control of over 700,000 active-duty U.S. and South Korean troops.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

These electromagnetic wave detectors are not going to detect anything because the THAAD radar looks up towards the sky into space where a ballistic missile comes from. Pointing the THAAD radar at the ground towards a farm will not allow it to detect ballistic missiles. The claim made by activists has already been disproven with tests taken before, but the government is going to go ahead and continue to play this game for activists that will never be happy until the radar is removed:

 South Korea’s defense ministry has selected a successful bidder in its project to acquire and install electromagnetic wave detectors around the THAAD missile defense base in a southeastern county, officials said Sunday.

The ministry is to receive the delivery of eight electromagnetic wave detectors by April 28, 2023, under a promise made to residents in Seongju, 217 kilometers southeast of Seoul, home to an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Five of those will be installed near the base to monitor the potentially hazardous electromagnetic waves of THAAD’s X-band radar around the clock, with the remainder to be set aside as spares.

The equipment is expected to be installed in the second quarter of next year, according to an official, who added that the ministry is in talks with local organizations on the exact locations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but does the government provide electromagnetic wave tests for all the Korean Green Pine and Patriot radars spread out around the country?

The political opposition in South Korea is demanding that the ruling government stop combined exercises with USFK:

Military exercises involving U.S. and South Korean forces are a necessary consequence of the constant security threat from North Korea, the South’s national defense minister told lawmakers Monday.

Suspending exercises with the U.S. military “is impossible” in light of threats from North Korea, Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup told lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing Monday. 

Rep. Cho Sujin,a conservative lawmaker and member of the ruling People Power Party, during the hearing described relations with North Korea as a “fraught situation” that requires people to be “highly attentive.” 

Cho called on Lee to answer opposition critics who question whether the increased tempo of exercises is the correct response to North Korea’s record-breaking spate of ballistic missile tests this year. Several progressive South Korean non-governmental organizations and independent party lawmakers have been critical of the joint exercises and allege they fuel the division between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the political opposition is playing right into the hands of the Kim regime of sowing division in South Korea while they quickly advance their missile and nuclear programs.

If anyone deserved a Soldier’s Medal it is these three U.S. troops from Camp Casey. I like the comment from one of the survivors that the one large Soldier was pulling people out of the alley like he was picking radishes from a field:

 A trio of foreign heroes praised for saving more than 30 lives from last Saturday’s tragic crowd crush in Seoul turned out to be American soldiers stationed in South Korea, some survivors said Thursday.

One of the survivors, known only as a twentysomething man living in Cheongju, central South Korea, told Yonhap News Agency he believes the three foreign heroes are U.S. soldiers serving in Camp Casey in Dongducheon, about 50 km north of Seoul.

The man told local media earlier he was pulled out of the chaos in a narrow alleyway in Itaewon before fainting and being carried to safety.

He said he is convinced the heroic Americans are Jarmil Taylor, 40, Jerome Augusta, 34, and Dane Beathard, 32, after belatedly learning of their interviews with French news agency AFP published Sunday.

He said he went to Itaewon on Saturday to enjoy the Halloween festivities with his friends but fell down in the crowd in the narrow alleyway before being crushed for about 15 minutes.

The Cheongju man, who is 182 cm tall and weighs 96 kg, said a strong black man rescued him from the crowd as if pulling radishes from a field.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think I have heard of a squadron commander getting fired this quickly:

The commander of the 8th Maintenance Group at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea has been fired after just four months on the job, a unit spokeswoman confirmed Saturday.

Air Force Col. Jay Bertsch was let go Oct. 11 and reassigned outside the unit due to a “loss of confidence” in his abilities, 8th Fighter Wing spokeswoman Capt. Paige Hankerson said in a statement emailed to Stars and Stripes. 

The Air Force Times was first to report on Bertsch’s removal on Friday.

“As a reflection of the importance of our mission and responsibility leaders bear to guide airmen, the Wolf Pack holds its leaders to a high standard,” Hankerson said, referring to the wing’s mascot. “Out of respect for the member and due to the legal process, no further information is to be provided at this time.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The New York Times recently published an article on the THAAD protests in Seongju. Despite a long article it shares nothing new and really doesn’t provide deep insight into what is actually happening with this issue:

“Now, if there is war, our village will become the first target because of that machine up there,” she said impatiently.

The “machine” Ms. Do was referring to is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, a powerful radar and missile-interceptor battery also known as Thaad. Five years ago, it was brought to this hamlet about 135 miles southeast of Seoul by the United States, infuriating China and prompting it to unleash economic retaliation. ​

Washington and Seoul said the weapons system was crucial in their defense against North Korean aggression. China argued that the United States was using North Korea as an excuse to expand its military presence in the region and make implicit threats toward its most formidable competitor. Villagers like Ms. Do and their supporters, including labor activists, have tended to agree.

Now, the Thaad system, located in an area once known for its melon patches, has become a symbol of the broader challenges facing South Korea as it ​tries to strike a balance between China, the country’s largest trading partner, and the United States, its main security ally.

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but what the article misses is that the THAAD was rapidly deployed into South Korea during the Park Guen-hye administration. The Korean left opposed THAAD simply because it was Park administration initiative. If the THAAD battery was deployed by a President on the Korean left, these protests would not have grown to what they have become. Of course much of the protests were fed by claims the radar would poison crops and give people cancer which all proved untrue. The claims are further ridiculous when one considers that Patriot and Green Pine batteries used for missile defense are deployed all around Korea and there are no protests about them.

Since this was an initiative of President Park the usual suspects in the Korean left came out and protested it. When President Moon took power he took a middle ground of allowing the THAAD to remain where it was because he knew it was providing a needed missile defense capability to the country and did not want to harm the U.S.-ROK alliance by trying to remove it. However, to appease his left wing base he allowed the protesters to continue to block the road forcing the U.S. and ROK military personnel to use helicopters to access the base.

Seeing how THAAD was a wedge issue between the Korean right and left, the Chinese decided to jump in and further inflame this issue by claiming the THAAD was harmful to their national security. They used the false claims the radar was intended to spy on them even though it is pointed towards North Korea, not China. Additionally the U.S. has other radars and assets in the area to monitor China which they say nothing about. The Chinese hoped to pressure Moon to remove THAAD in order to harm the U.S.-ROK alliance. To President Moon’s credit he did not take the bait from the Chinese and allowed the THAAD battery to remain. To appease the Chinese he made the “Three No’s” promise. Despite the promise the Chinese government continued to take economic retaliatory measures against South Korea which continues to this day.

Now with a President from the Korean right in power he has changed policy and has been removing the protesters to allow U.S. and ROK military personnel access to the base by road. This road access will allow much needed facility improvements to enhance the quality of life for U.S. and ROK troops stationed at the base. The few protesters that remain now are simply there for NIMBY reasons and the usual protesters from the Korean left have largely abandoned them as they search for another wedge issue to attack the Korean right with.

This is a big change going from armored to a Stryker Brigade in South Korea. It will be interesting to see if the Army keeps rotating Stryker units to South Korea:

A Stryker Brigade Combat Team from the 2nd Infantry Division arrived in South Korea on Saturday as part of the Army’s annual rotational force in the country.

Stryker vehicles and other equipment from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team were offloaded at the Port of Pyeongtaek near Camp Humphreys, according to a news release from 8th Army on Friday. The base is the home of U.S. Forces Korea, U.N. Command, 8th Army and the 2nd Infantry Division.

The division announced in July that the team out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., would replace the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division from Fort Bliss, Texas, which will be returning home after a nine-month tour in South Korea.

Roughly 4,000 soldiers are attached to Stryker brigade combat teams. Centered on Stryker vehicles that can be configured for narrowly defined missions, they are able to perform with fewer resources than armored brigade combat teams.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is an important upgrade that allows the Patriot firing batteries spread across South Korea to use tracking data provided by the much more powerful THAAD radar to better intercept North Korean missiles:

U.S. Forces Korea has delivered equipment that will add functionality to a missile-defense system stationed on the peninsula and better “protect the South Korean people from North Korea’s missile threats,” according to a statement from the Ministry of National Defense on Friday. 

The new equipment will provide “better performance” for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system by “improving interoperability” between it and the United States’ Patriot missile system, the statement said.

Interoperability is a term often used by the military to describe the ability of a country’s armed forces to use another country’s training methods and equipment. 

Another THAAD system was not delivered as part of the package, the ministry added. The new equipment will replace parts in the existing system, and the older equipment will be returned to the United States. 

South Korea’s alliance with the U.S. is more prepared to respond to the North’s “advanced nuclear and missile threats” because of the THAAD upgrade, the Eighth Army’s deputy commander, Gen. Mark Holler, said in the statement. THAAD is defensive system that will not “interfere with strategic and security interests of neighbor countries,” he added. 

U.S. missile defense agencies have worked toward integrating the Patriot and THAAD systems for at least two years. Multiple tests in 2020 attempted to provide THAAD-generated tracking data on a simulated target to a Patriot system, which would then intercept the target.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.