Tag: USFK

For the first time USFK has had to deal with a cluster infection from the coronavirus:

Coronavirus clusters at the U.S. Army’s largest installation in South Korea and at its former headquarters in Seoul are forcing personnel to “shelter in place” throughout the long holiday weekend.

The order, announced at 6 a.m. Saturday on U.S. Forces Korea’s official Facebook page, went into effect immediately for those stationed at Camp Humphreys — headquarters for USFK, Eighth Army and the 2nd Infantry Division — and Yongsan Garrison, 55 miles to the north. It expires at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

“USFK defines ‘shelter in place’ as remaining at your residence – including other occupants or residents – except for life, health, safety and essential services to include food and medicine purchases,” the announcement said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but USFK has had 19 new infections since Thursday and they try to conduct contact tracing to identify other potentially infected people. Having people shelter in place is help stop any spread while the contact tracers do their work.

Korean workers on U.S. military bases are the first Koreans to be vaccinated against COVID-19:

One of the first Koreans to be vaccinated against Covid-19, a Korean employee of a U.S. Army base in North Gyeongsang, spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo about having chills and muscle pains after a shot of Moderna’s vaccine — side effects familiar from flu shots.  
   
“I had muscle pains in my left arm, where I got the shot, for about two days,” a man in his 50s who works on the U.S. Army base in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.  
   
“Some of my coworkers reported having mild fevers,” he continued, “but most of our side effects did not last more than two days.”  
   
The first shipment of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines for the U.S. Forces Korea arrived in the country in late December. The South Korean government said that Korean soldiers and civilians working on the U.S. Army bases can take the shots if they wish to.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

USFK continues to do a great job catching people infected with the coronavirus when they arrive in Korea:

Forty-two people affiliated with the U.S. military, including 37 service members, have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon their arrival in South Korea, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday.

Of the total, eight service members and a dependent arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on government-chartered flights while 29 service members, a civilian and three dependents arrived here on commercial flights via Incheon International Airport, west of the capital, according to the U.S. military.

They all arrived between Dec. 28 and Friday.

All of them have been transferred to isolation facilities for COVID-19 patients at the U.S. military bases in South Korea. 

“The high number of USFK-affiliated confirmed with COVID-19 was due to the normal individual relocation moves to USFK, as well as those returning to USFK from off-peninsula over the Christmas and New Year holiday period,” a USFK official said, stressing that “none of the new arrivals have interacted with anyone residing within USFK installations or the local community.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty impressive that USFK has not had one cluster infection occur during this entire pandemic.

Here is another example of the effectiveness of the test and quarantine strategy implemented by USFK on newly arriving personnel:

 Seventeen American service members and six others affiliated with the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States, the U.S. military said Monday. 

The latest cases among the USFK-affiliated population rose to 509, most of whom have tested positive upon arrival in South Korea from the U.S.

Of the newly reported cases, eight service members and one dependent arrived at Osan Air Base in the city of Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on U.S. government chartered flights from the U.S. between Dec. 16 and 29, according to USFK.

Nine service members, three dependents, one contractor and one retired service member arrived on international commercial flights at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, between Dec. 16 and 31, it added.

Nine of them tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 test prior to entering quarantine. Two of them were confirmed to have been infected in a subsequent test while in quarantine, and the remainder tested positive in their mandatory test required to exit quarantine, the U.S. military said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Santa brought the coronavirus vaccine for some U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan:

U.S. Forces Korea will start administering the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus to frontline health care workers and first responders “over the next few days,” the USFK commander, Gen. Robert Abrams, announced Tuesday.

In a message on the USFK website, Abrams said the command would receive “additional shipments of the vaccine to inoculate all USFK-affiliated community members as production and distribution increases.”

He did not specify a timeline for wider distribution of the vaccine. “I ask that our community remains patient and flexible as the additional shipments arrive,” Abrams wrote. (…….)

In Japan, the same vaccine is expected to arrive, destined for six U.S. bases with medical treatment facilities, “within the next 24-48 hours,” Chief Master Sgt. Rick Winegardner Jr., senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces Japan, said on American Forces Network Radio on Wednesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I wonder how long USFK is willing to keep so many people in a telework status if the spread of coronavirus in South Korea continues at its current pace?:

The U.S. military command in South Korea is raising its coronavirus risk level and imposing new restrictions as the peninsula experiences record-breaking levels of new infections.

South Korea counted 1,078 newly infected coronavirus patients Tuesday, a pandemic record for that country, and 12 deaths, according to the country’s Central Disease Control Headquarters.

U.S. Forces Korea is returning to Health Protection Condition-Charlie, which reflects a substantial risk of the virus spreading, starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, according to a Facebook post by the command on Wednesday evening.

Only mission-essential personnel will report for duty, according to the statement. All others will telework. USFK will review the higher protection level Jan. 4.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but doing telework through the holidays is not a big deal when mostly everyone is on leave or half day schedule anyway. After the holidays is when the hard decision is going to have to be made because keeping soldiers on telework will eventually impact readiness.

Not a good look:

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is facing criticism over a dance party held at one of its bases last week at which participants did not wear face masks amid South Korea’s heightened social distancing scheme to stem the resurgence of new coronavirus cases.

The party took place at Flightline Tap Room at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Friday, with dozens of people dancing side by side without wearing masks, according to officials.

On the same day, South Korea’s daily number of new COVID-19 cases reached a near nine-month high of 629, with authorities urging citizens to cancel non-vital face-to-face gatherings.

The Seoul government has requested the U.S. military to follow antivirus measures. The U.S. military said Monday that the bar was “closed effective immediately, per command directive.” 

“The facility has been closed, and we are looking into the matter,” a USFK official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think these may the pictures causing the criticism that I pulled from the Flightline Tap Room’s Facebook page for a salsa party:

It looks like in the near future Korea could be seeing some more rotational forces if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has his way:

The military needs to move away from units being permanently based overseas and focus more on rotational deployments, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday.

“I am not a fan of large, permanent military bases from the U.S. overseas in other people’s countries. I think that is something that needs a hard, hard look,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said during a defense forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute. (………….)

Milley acknowledged there’s “no enthusiasm” for suggesting rotational forces over permanent overseas assignments, as many service members enjoy the overseas assignments with their families. Some countries also like having the permanent presence, he said, but those accompanying assignments bring risk. The amount of families living in South Korea with the threat of North Korea nearby has been a security challenge for decades, Milley said.

“If something were to happen, then we would have a significant amount of noncombatant, U.S. military dependents in harm’s way. I have a problem with that. I don’t have a problem with us, those of us in uniform, be in harm’s way. This is what we get paid for, this is what our job is,” said Milley.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but General Milley is right about the logistical issue of trying to evacuate families from Korea if a contingency was to occur. However, this has been a problem for decades and military leadership has decided to increase the amount of families in South Korea. We have all heard the tagline that USFK is the “Assignment of Choice” to encourage service members and their families to volunteer to come to Korea. What is the point of pulling out families if a few years down the road new military leadership decides to change things again?

I think the Korean government is not going to like this idea either. Having U.S. military families on the peninsula constrains what U.S. government leaders can do in response to North Korea provocations. Despite all of North Korea’s provocations that have killed many Korean and American military and civilian personnel over the decades, there has never been a punitive strike launched against the Kim regime. The location of Seoul near the DMZ is part of the constraint on decision making, but undoubtedly trying to evacuate USFK family members is another constraint as well.

Maybe allowing more rotational forces is a bargaining chip the Moon administration can use to get the Biden administration to agree to a peace treaty to advances it confederation policy?

The prior USFK commander General Vincent Brooks was also the U.S. Army Pacific Commander before taking over USFK:

U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera has been nominated to be the next commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), sources said Friday.

If confirmed, LaCamera will succeed Gen. Robert Abrams to lead the 28,500 American troops based in South Korea, as well as to take the helm of the U.N. Command and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command. Abrams took office in November 2018.

The nomination is part of a routine reshuffle, though no official term of office is set for a USFK commander, the sources said, adding that LaCamera is expected to face a parliamentary hearing in around February or March.

LaCamera has been in command of the U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) since November last year, which is the land forces component of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and encompasses such locations as South Korea, Japan, Hawaii and Guam.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.