USFK Reportedly Wants to Move the CFC Headquarters to Camp Humphreys
Here is the latest update on the ever changing location of the CFC headquarters:
The United States told the Moon Jae-in administration that it wants to move the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command from its planned relocation site in Yongsan District, central Seoul, to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, government sources told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.
Joong Ang Ilbo
“General Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, recently told Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo about the change of plans,” the JoongAng Ilbo quoted a government source as saying in its Thursday edition. “The Ministry of National Defense is currently reviewing the proposal.”
The newspaper also said multiple government sources confirmed the U.S. military’s relocation plan. Originally, the United States planned to keep the Combined Forces Command (CFC) in Yongsan.
Other top U.S. military offices – the headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Eighth Army Command – have been relocated away from Yongsan to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.
According to the sources, General Abrams had considered two options for relocating the CFC. One was to move it inside Camp Humphreys and the other was to keep it inside the U.S. military base in Yongsan until the United States completed the process of handing over wartime operational control of Korean troops to Korea.
Seoul and Washington originally agreed to keep the CFC inside the compound of the Korean Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan. During a lecture on Jan. 4 last year, General Vincent Brooks, then the commander of the Korea-U.S. CFC and U.S. Forces Korea, said the CFC will remain in Seoul.
You can read much more at the link, but this is all coming down to who is going to have to commute. According to the article General Abrams is having to commute twice a week to Seoul from Camp Humphreys to execute his CFC duties. Additionally he says it is hard to find good staff officers to serve in CFC if they have to commute from Camp Humphreys where their families are.
Moving the CFC headquarters to Camp Humphreys means all the Koreans living in Seoul would be forced to commute down to Camp Humphreys. Additionally there is concern of having the CFC headquarters on a US military base after operational control of forces in Korea is supposed to be handed over to the ROK by 2022.
No CFC after OPCON transfer, but we all know opcon transfer will never happen; ROKs are terrified of being in charge. Also, very difficult to put required US only SCIFs in a Korean compound. On top of that ROK MND military leaks like a sieve, bad enough now can’t imagine how bad it would be if CFC was housed on a ROK coumpound.
I feel bad for those CFC personnel that thought they could continue to live in Seoul penthouse apartments and instead now have to move to the new Fayetteville of South Korea with the rest of the heathens.
There are some sweet apartments in the southern and eastern parts of Songtan. Maybe not as nice as some folks got in Seoul; but plenty nice enough.
Frankly, i begin to doubt General Brooks’ reasoning.
MooseyKnuckle. Fayetteville of Korea LOL! Good one! I appreciate the humor.
I have a lot to say about this, but chose to keep it short. I worked at CFC many years. Putting CFC/OPCON Transfer/SKIFs/and any kind of security together is a complete tragedy. The ROKS in CFC, 04 and above are incompetent or hamstringed. All the are allowed to do or capable of is coping US work. Putting CFC at Fayettville of Korea is also a tragedy. Puts to many ROK military there and resultant problems. IF there is OPCON Transfer CFC goes away. No US soldier will be commanded by a ROK soldier. (Notice I avoided using leader)
Mrs. Brooks probably didn’t want to livein Fayettenam of Korea and Uncle Sam got tired of paying exorbitant Seoul rents when they can put them on post housing at the Hump.
I would not be surprised if General Brooks just did not want to rock the boat with the ROKs when he knew he was leaving. Putting CFC at the Ministry of Defense never did seem like a good idea for the reasons others already cited. From what I have heard about General Abrams, he does not mind rocking the boat if it makes sense.
GI, I agree with you. Brooks was in the first class at West Point that had women. Also, the big cheating scandal. He got through that and served with honor and professionalism. I just wish he’d been a little more willing to take on the admittedly difficult task of moving the CFC.
During KR18, the “plan” was that CFC would be all moved in to ROK MND by UFG18.
As it turns out, the move never happened and the exercise was cancelled.
According to the article, CFC will remain after OPCON Transfer and commanded by the Chairman of the ROK JCS. If that is the case, the ROKs will want CFC to stay in Seoul, whether Yongsan or ROK MND remains to be seen.
One certainty is the ROKs will stonewall the hell out of moving CFC to the Hump.