Tag: USFK

You have to like how this article published by Yonhap makes it seem like there was rampant crime caused by service members at Yongsan Garrison:

he pullout of the headquarters of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) from the Yongsan base in the heart of Seoul in June 2018 has created a bittersweet aftermath in the central Seoul district over the past year.

On the bright side, the Yongsan area around the former USFK compound has seen a steep fall in the number of assaults and other crimes committed by American service personnel and civilian workers and their families.

On the flip side, merchants in Itaewon and other commercial areas close to former USFK facilities have suffered a steep drop in customers and sales. (……..)

Police and residents have said the reduced number of American soldiers and crimes involving them in the Yongsan area were the most noticeable change in the past year.

According to data from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the number of criminal offenses committed by USFK members filed in Seoul in relation to the Status of Forces Agreement fell 18.5 percent from 119 cases in 2017 to 97 in 2018. In the first five months of this year, there were a mere 25 cases.

“American soldiers used to frequently cause trouble during their visits to Itaewon, which has a lot of bars. After the relocation of USFK facilities, U.S. military-related incidents and accidents have significantly decreased,” said a police officer.

Another officer from the Yongsan Police Station said, “Until two years ago, police officers frequently traveled to airports to take custody of USFK soldiers caught attempting to leave the country with gun magazines and other illegal possessions. But there have been very few such reports after the relocation of the U.S. base.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but 119 criminal cases in 2017 does not tell me much. Were the majority of these parking tickets and traffic citations which have been used in the past to inflate the GI crime rate? As I have always said statistics showing convictions for major crimes is the best way to determine what the GI crime rate really is.

As far as traveling to the airport this makes no sense because the soldiers just moved south to Camp Humphreys. The soldiers are still there so if illegal possessions at the airport was a problem before it should still be a problem now, though I have never heard of anyone getting arrested for a gun magazine at the airport.

The rest of the article goes on with the usual complaints about how Yongsan Garrison is basically a toxic waste dump preventing the creation of Seoul’s version of Central Park. Of course the article made no mention of the fact that Yongsan Garrison has below average soil pollution levels.

The KSC is definitely a unique an important part of the USFK team:

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.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting article about a Kunsan Airbase NCO who has a side gig as a professional wrestler in South Korea:

Over the past year, Tech. Sgt. Gregory Gauntt has established an alter ego as one of the most despised characters in South Korea.
That’s Ryan Oshun, the persona that Gauntt, 33, adopts when he steps into the ring as the Pro Wrestling Society heavyweight champion. The noncommissioned officer in charge of fuels knowledge for Kunsan’s 8th Logistics Readiness Squadron calls Oshun “the guy you wouldn’t want to ever bring home to your mother, but the guy you want to be around because it would be super cool.”
Before Gauntt started his yearlong stint in South Korea, he contacted Korea-based Pro Wrestling Society promoters and worked his way into their shows. He hopes the momentum he’s built establishing fans and enemies in Korea will continue when he returns to the States next month.
“I hope wrestling in Korea will boost my résumé because I am now an international champion,” he said. “Maybe the stock behind my name is more, and I have more credibility now that I have traveled outside the U.S.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see in the coming years if this actually happens or not since it is tied to the OPCON transfer that has been repeatedly delayed:

Seoul and Washington agreed Monday to name a Korean four-star general to lead the combined forces command (CFC) here, according to the defense ministry.

They also agreed to relocate the command’s headquarters, now in Seoul, to the U.S. Forces Korea’s Camp Humphreys base in Pyeongtaek, citing the operational efficiency of the military forces.

The agreements were reached between Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and his counterpart acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan in Seoul, the ministry said.

Shanahan later visited President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae for talks on the alliance and issues regarding North Korea’s denuclearization, weeks ahead of the summit between Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled at the end of June. (………..)

Jeong and Shanahan also approved a plan to name the four-star South Korean general as a new leader of the CFC once the wartime OPCON transfer is completed, to take a separate role to lead in a combined defense, but not in assuming other duties. Currently a four-star U.S general heads the CFC.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is what General Abrams recently had to say about the readiness of US troops in South Korea:

Combined training and readiness have not flagged in South Korea despite suspension of large-scale exercises last year, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea said Wednesday.
“I want to be crystal clear about it,” Gen. Robert Abrams said at the three-day Land Forces Pacific Symposium in Honolulu. “Combined training and readiness, it has hasn’t slowed down one bit. We are continuing to conduct very rigorous combined training at echelon, over 100 exercises thus far in 2019 alone. It happens at multiple levels.”
Abrams fiercely defended the suspension of the large-scale exercises announced after President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June in Singapore.
“This was a prudent action in support of diplomacy,” he said during a keynote speech followed by a question-and-answer session for an audience of primarily soldiers from the U.S. and Pacific partner nations.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

#BulldogFocus
Soldiers with #IronSupport Battalion gathered for a Tactical Dining Out to build espirit de corps at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, Republic of Korea, May 11. National Anthem performed by SGT Alon Humphrey, #BulldogBrigade PAO NCOIC.@1stArmoredDiv@2INFDIV @FORSCOM pic.twitter.com/iFxLafEDKP

— BulldogBrigade3abct (@3ABCT1AD) May 11, 2019

This must have been quite a bad work environment to win a settlement from the Army:

An African-American civilian hospital employee “reached a significant settlement agreement” with the Army in late April after a lawsuit filed last year alleging that she was subjected to a racist and sexist command climate while working in South Korea.
Shawlawn Beckford, who served on active duty for 11 years before returning in 2006 as a civilian, had accused the Army of supporting a hostile work environment at Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital at Yongsan, where she was an administrator from 2009 to 2015.
“As a civilian employee it is my duty to represent and uphold the Army’s mission, vision, and leadership philosophy — in or out of uniform,” Beckford said in a May 1 statement from the office of her attorney, Kellogg Hansen in Washington, D.C. “But I am more than a position. I am a person with feelings and emotions, and I was mistreated in a system that failed to protect me.”
Reached for comment by Army Times, Beckford requested to keep the dollar amount of the settlement private.

Army Times

This is something I have seen before, people thinking it is okay to use racial slurs if they are of the race the slur is intended for:

“On a weekly basis during that time period, [the command sergeant major] would visit Ms. Beckford’s office and make belligerent, gendered comments toward her,” according to the lawsuit. “For example, he told her, ‘You’re a single parent. You’re a slut.’ ”
He also made comments about her race, the complaint said, calling her “just a house [N-word],” “dumb [N-word],” “our token Black person” and “ghetto.” (…….)

The 15-6 investigation found that though he used racial slurs in the office, it wasn’t in a discriminatory manner, because he himself is black. Still, he was relieved of his position and barred from leading a command again, according to the complaint, but stayed working within the office and continued to harass Beckford.

You can read more about the poor work environment at the link, but the hospital at Yongsan Garrison seems to have had some highly unprofessional people working there.

It is just me or does this girl that went missing from Camp Humphreys and was later found looks like the oldest 14-year old girl I have ever seen?:

A Camp Humphreys soldier’s teenage daughter who was reported missing, “has been located and reunited with her family,” according to an Army notice posted on social media on Saturday.
A post on the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys Facebook page said the girl is “doing fine” and added. “Thanks everyone for your assistance.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The UNC has a new Deputy Commander from Down Under:

Australian Rear Adm. Stuart Mayer has been named the new deputy commander of the U.S.-led United Nations Command in South Korea, according to a press release on Tuesday.
The U.N. Command, which is headquartered at Camp Humphreys, oversees implementation of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War instead of a peace treaty.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, has confirmed Mayer’s appointment, making him the first Australian to serve in the post, the Australian Defence Force said. Mayer will be promoted to the rank of vice admiral before taking up the appointment, it added.
He will replace Canadian Lt. Gen. Wayne Eyre, marking the second time in the command’s 69-year history that the post was offered to a non-American officer, it added. No date for the change of command was given.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.