Tag: USFK

Very sad news to share that the recently retired and former 8th Army Commander Lieutenant General Thomas Vandal has passed away from cancer:

A former commander of the Eighth Army and 2nd Infantry Division died over the weekend, according to a message posted Tuesday on Eighth Army’s official Facebook page.

Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, who oversaw the highest Army headquarters unit on the Korean Peninsula from February 2016 until his retirement earlier this year, died Sunday, officials told Stars and Stripes. No other details were provided.

“LTG(R) Thomas S. Vandal … you were a tremendous leader and a charismatic mentor,” the Facebook message said. “You were the epitome of the Eighth Army Motto: “Fight Tonight!” The hearts and prayers of the Eighth Army go out to the family and friends of LTG Vandal.”

The 1982 West Point graduate served prominently as one of the Army’s top generals in South Korea this decade, first taking the reins of 2nd ID in 2013 before becoming the Army’s top general in South Korea a few years later. He retired shortly after handing command to Lt. Gen. Michael Bills in January.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but first of all condolences to LTG Vandal’s friends and family.  It is shocking how quickly cancer can kill someone, even someone as fit as LTG Vandal was.

Besides being highly involved in completing 8th Army’s move to Camp Humphreys LTG Vandal was also a key player in the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea.  These were definitely two major legacy efforts he was part of during his time at 8th Army.

Rest in peace LTG Vandal.

The 1st Armored Division is the next rotational unit to come to Korea.  The division did not participate in the Korean War and according to the division’s history it made no rotational deployments to Korea either over the years.  So this is likely the first time that the “Old Ironsides” patch will be in Korea:

Tracked vehicles and other equipment for a new U.S. unit on a 9-month rotational mission here will arrive in South Korea next week, the U.S. Eighth Army said Thursday.

The equipment from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division based at Fort Bliss, Texas, will arrive in the country’s southeastern port city of Busan, 450 kilometers south of Seoul, early next week.

The new team is set to replace the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, which is completing its rotational deployment in support of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, a forward-deployed unit in Korea.

Aside from the equipment, approximately 490 troops of the new team have already arrived. The Eighth Army refused to elaborate on the total number of its personnel.

Unlike previous rotational deployments, the outgoing team will take some of their equipment, including M1 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, back to the United States, while the new team will bring in some of their own equipment.

In the past, equipment stayed in Korea while rotational troops moved on and off the peninsula.

The exchange of equipment is aimed at ensuring “proper maintenance” and service of the old equipment and aligning deployed forces with current U.S. Army-wide modernization and readiness efforts, the Eighth Army said.

“The noticeable difference this time is the movement of tracked vehicles,” Col. Joseph R. Morrow, the Eighth Army logistics chief, said. “This added complexity gives our soldiers the opportunity to maintain skills in shipping and safely moving large-scale equipment.  [Yonhap]

It will be interesting to see if the ROK government gives into Trump administration demands on the cost sharing issue in return for concessions on the North Korean issue:

South Korea and the U.S. are narrowing their differences over the cost, contract period and annual increase rate in regards to sharing the cost of stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula.

An official from the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Monday the two sides are negotiating thorny issues and ways to improve the system as a package for the new Special Measures Agreement set to take effect next year.

Under the current five-year contract which will expire in December, Seoul’s cost-sharing for stationing the 28-thousand-500-member U.S. Forces Korea for this year is set at around 960 billion won or 856 million dollars.

As for Washington wanting Seoul to include costs for “operational support” of deploying strategic assets from outside the peninsula against North Korean threats, the official said he can not answer whether the U.S. continues to make such demands.  [KBS World Radio]

I think it is arguable that USFK’s part in the US’s overall North Korea strategy is to do everything possible to not be the ones’ to blame if the current peace process falls apart because North Korea does not denuclearize.  The Kim regime would need an excuse for reneging on giving up their nukes and claiming that USFK is training to destroy them is a good excuse.  With that said they can just claim the US military presence in South Korea is enough to justify keeping their nukes as well:

Robert B. Abrams, a four-star US Army general who is nominated to become the next US Forces Korea (USFK) commander, stated that the suspension of joint military exercises between the US and South Korea has undermined combat readiness, and that an “atmosphere of detente” is being created on the Korean Peninsula.During a hearing to vet him for his new position at the Senate Armed Service Committee on Sept. 25, Abrams talked about the suspension of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint military exercises in the wake of the US-North Korea summit meeting on June 12. According to an AFP report, he said “I think the suspension of the exercise this past August and September, I would say was a prudent risk if we’re willing to make the effort to change the relationship with [North Korea].”  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

The FED became an oddly located military installation after Seoul’s explosive growth.  It is now about to finally close:

A few blocks from the sloping, spaceship-shaped Dongdaemun Design Plaza in one of Seoul’s trendiest fashion districts is another odd sight.

A tiny U.S. Army base sits just across the street from a hospital morgue and adjacent to a park that blocks its view from a major thoroughfare.

Know as FED, the compound has been home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, headquarters since the 1950-53 Korean War. Before that it was the site of a Japanese-built school from the nearly four decades when Japan occupied the peninsula until its defeat in World War II.

Surrounded by concrete and brick walls lined with concertina wire, the 13-acre base can be easy to miss, one of several sub-installations that belong to the larger Yongsan Garrison just a few miles away.

But its history reflects the highs and lows of the U.S. presence in the South Korean capital. In a final act, the Corps of Engineers is preparing to close the base after it moves to Camp Humphreys as part of the long-delayed relocation of most U.S. forces south of Seoul.

Kenneth Pickler, 64, the Far East District’s transportation chief, has worked on the compound since he was first deployed there as a soldier 1989, then took a job as a civilian after retiring from active duty.

The Cloverdale, Calif., native plans to retire after the FED compound closes, although he plans to remain in South Korea.

“My last official duty is to shut off the lights, lock the gate and hand the keys over … back to the garrison,” he told Stars and Stripes in an interview last month. “And that’s supposed to happen in mid-November.”  [Stars and Stripes]

You can read much more at the link such as the fact that a third of the buildings at the FED were built by the Japanese.  The first building was the Gyeongseong School of Education built in 1922 that is the main building used on the compound.

There is also an interesting story about a fuel leak mess created by the South Koreans when they razed an old Japanese courthouse adjacent to the FED back in the 1990’s that the US had to clean up.  It reminded me of the current fuel leak controversy over at Yongsan Garrison frequently blamed on USFK.

After the base closes in November there are not current plans on what the ROK will do with the land.  Considering that there are a number of Japanese era buildings on the property the bulldozer is likely coming for them.

I think these hearings should not provide any controversies though I would not be surprised if some members of Congress try to get him to say comments critical of the Trump administration’s North Korea policies:

Washington is set to replace the commander of US forces in South Korea amid a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula, even as denuclearisation of the North stalls.

The US stations 28,500 troops in the South, a treaty ally, to defend it against its nuclear-armed neighbour, which invaded in 1950, triggering the Korean War.

General Robert B. Abrams, commander of the US Army Forces Command, will undergo a confirmation hearing next week to be head of US Forces Korea (USFK), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s website showed.

If his nomination is approved, he will succeed General Vincent Brooks as commander of USFK, the UN Command and the South Korea-US Combined Forces Korea, who has been in the post since April 2016.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how many more requests General Brooks will be receiving from the Moon administration to send materials across the border:

The U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) authorized South Korea vehicles and personnel to cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) to support construction of communication infrastructure that will be used in inter-Korean business projects.

“Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, Commander of United Nations Command, authorized vehicles and personnel from the Republic of Korea to cross the Military Demarcation Line today in the eastern transportation corridor to support construction of communication infrastructure to be used between the Republic of Korea and North Korea,” said the UNC press release, Thursday.

“The approval allows more material than what is needed to repair communication lines, and will result in the construction of a communication building.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I swear this did not come out the Duffel Blog:

Col. Kerry Proulx, former commander of the 51st Mission Support Group, also improperly allowed subordinates and one subordinate’s wife to pay for her meals, and did not always repay them, according to a commander-directed investigation report obtained by Air Force Times through the Freedom of Information Act.

Proulx was relieved April 13 by Col. William Betts, commander of the 51st Fighter Wing. At the time, the base said she was removed due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to effectively lead,” but did not elaborate further. Proulx is now chief of the personnel division at Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted to AETC.

Remember the happy news the S. Korean NSA brought us a mere two days ago, that Kim Jong Un purportedly did not object to the presence of USFK. So, does this mean KCNA = independent media? Or that Kim, perish the thought, was lying? https://t.co/VPnriRKVqB

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 8, 2018

I personally always thought the joint exercises would be restarted in time to execute Key Resolve 2019 because I never believed the Kim regime was were serious about real denuclearization:

The U.S. military will move ahead with all future military exercises on the Korean Peninsula, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Tuesday, suggesting that America’s brief suspension of the drills as a show of “good faith” toward North Korea has not paid dividends in the struggling denuclearization talks with Pyongyang.

“We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises,” Mr. Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon, less than three months after President Trump labeled the U.S.-South Korean drills “provocative” and ordered them temporarily halted following his unprecedented face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr. Mattis made the announcement at a rare press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, during which the two also weighed in on a range of other topics, including efforts to stamp out the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the U.S. role in battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.  [Washington Times via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but supposedly the President received a hostile letter from the Butcher of the Cheonan, Kim Yong-chol that caused this announcement:

After the announcement it appears the ROK government may want to play delay games with restarting the joint exercises:

Resumption or suspension of joint military drills between South Korea and the United States is subject to discussions between the allies, an official from Seoul’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.

“As of now, the issue has not been discussed between South Korea and the United States,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a daily press briefing.  (……)

“It is an issue that should be discussed and decided by South Korea and the U.S. while reviewing the progress in the denuclearization of North Korea,” the Cheong Wa Dae official said.  [Yonhap]

I expect that the Moon administration will come out of his upcoming summit with Kim Jong-il offering some minor concession to entice the Trump administration to believe the Kim regime is serious about denuclearization.  Regardless I would be surprised if Key Resolve 2019 does not happen.  I guess we will see what happens.