Off Limits and No Drinking Policy Letter
Off Limits and No Drinking Policy Letter
In response to planned protests in Uijongbu, the downtown area of Uijongbu has been put off limits.
A planned “civil gathering†prompted the U.S. Army to warn its military and civilian personnel to avoid downtown Uijongbu city, the Uijongbu subway station and roads leading from the station to Camp Red Cloud on Wednesday and Thursday.
Fliers distributed to people leaving Camp Red Cloud by gate guards on Tuesday — and a warning broadcast on American Forces Network television — advised that the subway station and downtown shopping district would be off-limits from 9 a.m. to midnight and that roads from the subway station to the camp would be off-limits from 5 p.m. to midnight both days.
In addition to this off limits policy, all 2ID soldiers have a no drinking order placed on them from 12AUG – 03SEP during the entire length of Eighth Army’s ULCHI Focus Lens exerise. This does not effect any soldiers outside of 2ID unless they are soldiers from other Eighth Army units involved in UFL.
I guess we will see if anyone “runs amok” this weekend anyway.
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UPDATE: Apparently another factor weighing in on the decision to suppend drinking priviledges during UFL is the fact that 2ID has been notified that anti-American groups have made plans to go to areas where soldiers frequent and provoke incidents with the soldiers and capture it on camera to be downloaded to the internet and the Korean media. So if you are out and about these upcoming weekends be careful of these goons trying to provoke something. Think before you react.
With all this going on I really can’t blame General Higgins the 2ID commanding general for placing this order. With UFL going on and all the senior leaders in the Divison occupied by this important exercise the last thing they need to worry about is another “runs amok” incident. I know a lot of soldiers are complaining about this policy but heck I have been on more field problems than I can remember that were longer than this. Were professionals and should be able to comply with this order. It could be a lot worse. Soldiers in Iraq have a no drinking policy for one year.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that normal ops? As long as I can remember, there's always been no drinking for those directly supporting either RSO&I or UFL.
The expanded General order #1 is being imposed for multiple reasons, not just the anti-american threat.
You have the high level of senior leader involvement in UFL, coupled with unfortunately high levels of indiscipline while off-post. Train wreck waiting to happen. I assume the CG is tired of getting his ass chewed by higher for soldiers not acting like mature adults so he created his challenge.
Far as I know, this only applies to 2ID and those working directly for 2ID. Imagine in EUSA General Order #1 will only apply to those actively participating in the exercise.
Not that big a deal. There's not drinking when soldiers deploy to gunnery (30 ) days. Should be no big deal. Fairly simple order to follow.
*Off topic* If you haven't heard, there is a memorandum by the good old 2ID Division Commander concerning no drinking for about a month starting 12-13 Aug till 3 Sep concerning a korean web site saying that anti-americans will purposely position themselves outside bars frequently visited by GI's in attempts to initiate altercations between themselves and video record it and hand it over to the korean media. I don't know which website it is, perhaps you know? And also I was wondering if this was also enforced in area's 2, 3, & 4
I'd like to know how frequently GIs were around there. If it were often, I could imagine the photographer being there. But, I don't remember hearing about it as a GI hangout. I mean, it does not have the reputation of Itaewon or Dongduchon (sp?).
I can see the guy actually going to either of these places and happening to stumble on such an event.
But, he just happened to be in Sinchon at a time when the soldiers are there and at a time when such an event breaks out?
Exactly the kind of event he hopes to capture on film to show/prove to the rest of Korea how bad GIs are?
I didn't give it much of a possibility of being staged at first.
But as I've thought about it, the more it just seemed like a big coincidence. Maybe too big.
And the note you put out about the police alerting USFK to the activist's plans is something I have caught wind of a few times in the past — maybe about once a year.
I still wouldn't bet on it, probably, but I'm leaning more toward it having been staged.
Unless, again, the place is frequented by GIs more than I know. —- That the photographer knew this and had chosen it as a place to sit and wait to see if such an incident popped up some night.
I don't see anyway the KATUSA was involved because I'm sure he probably got severely disciplined by the ROK Army for taking the soldiers to Shinchon. The entire area is off limits but primarily soldiers down south would still go there because there was no CP/MP patrols until after this incident. Now very few people dare go there.
I think it wasn't staged but just a moment of opportunity they took advantage of.
I can remember these warnings about the activists planning to stage an incident a couple of times a year. Once, in 2000, the police got wind they were planning to kidnap a GI in response to the great water poisoning of 10 million Koreans.
And I have recently changed my wild guess on the Shinchon Stabbing Incident. http://www.usinkorea.org/stabbing/index.htm
I now guess wildly that is was staged.
First, I should get an answer to a question however — is Sinchon an area that draws a good number of soldiers?
From the articles, it said it was an off limits area. But, is it not too uncommon for soldiers to go their anyway?
The reason I'm guessing more that it was staged is the coincidence that the photographer/activist who announced he had plans to go to Donduchon (sp?) to record bastard GIs at work just happened to be in Sinchon that night with a camera to record the brawl.
If Sinchon is an area well known for attracting some GIs even though its off limits, then I am moved to neutrality.
But, if it isn't, if it is not that common for a GI to show up there, the coincidence of the GIs being there, the photographer being there, and a fight breaking out starts to become too improbable for me.
The fact a KATUSA is there also has my conspiracy theory brain cells clicking.
It makes me imagine a scene like this in the barracks, with the KATUSA saying, "Hey, I know of a good place we can go. A lot of hot chicks there! Let's go to Sinchon" after he has been contacted by his other 20 something year old Korean buddies who are in college who asked him to help them set up a photo op.
But in no way, shape, or form would I bet money on this wild guess…….because that is mostly what it is….
Can either one of you answer this question? My wife, Korean, told me that the Korean man who was stabbed in the incident subsequently died, and her friends swear up and down that it's true. I've searched the English language papers but haven't found anything as a result.
I think it is BS, since if he had, wouldn't there have been a real sh*t storm in the media and amoung the usual cast of demonstrators?
Ask your wife to get a url for a Korean language article that says the guy died and post it here or email it to me. I can't breeze through a Korean article, but I can plough my way through it. I'd like to know what they (your wife and friends) are basing the info on.
From what I read, I don't think the injury was life-threatening.
This is some question about whether the wound came from the sharp edge of the knife or the back end jaggd edge. I believe the soldier claimed that he held the back edge against the guy's throat while standing behind him in an effort to ward off the mob. But, he was convicted of attempted murder, and he did cut the guy's throat no matter how he did it.
But, to me, he wouldn't have been convicted of attempted murder in the US. I think you would have a hard time convincing a jury he meant to kill the man when he had the opportunity to slit his throat effectively and he could have plunged the knife into his torso easily. Those are acts of someone trying to kill another person.
But, the guy would have been found guilty of a violent crime in the US, regardless of whether he was outnumbered or not, unless they had weapons, which I never read any of the Koreans did.
I don't know what the different levels of crime they have in Korea below attempted murder or how such a case would have been handled if it had been a Korean civilian.
If the knife holding person had been a Korean soldier, I know he would have never stood trial in a civilian court. He would have been handled by the Korean military judicial system.
Here is a posting in the Joong Ang Ilbo about how the sentence of attempted murder was upheld for a stab wound to the neck, not murder proving the victim is still alive.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200411/23/20041123…
You can also read this from Nomad's site for further proof that this guy is still alive and well:
http://lostnomad.blogs.com/the_lost_nomad/2004/09…
Your wife is just repeating a common Korean myth about this incident passed by the hate groups to further spread anti-Americanism in Korea. The way Koreans believe rumors and inuendo truly amazes me but then again no one in the Korean media challenges these claims and they in fact openly promote them, so these lies become the established truth in the minds of the general Korean public.
Yes, same thing happened for warrior storm as well.
I have a correct your error here GI Korea. Even way down south on CP Carrol we have the same "no drinking" order in place for UFL. We had the order last year as well and will have it again next year.