Author: GIKorea

The days of the dreaded tape test might be numbered:

The Army will formally study the body compositions of more than 2,000 soldiers beginning in October, and the service plans to use the data it gathers to determine the future of its body composition program, physical fitness manuals and the much-maligned “tape test.”

The Army’s Center for Initial Military Training will lead the study in conjunction with the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, according to an Army Headquarters execute order obtained by Army Times.

The study will take place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the order says.

The study’s goal is to provide senior leaders with “information with regards to…taping of soldiers, body fat, and body changes, and considerations of the relationship between body fat and fitness levels,” the order reads.

The study will also evaluate alternative methods of calculating body fat.

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but I have always believed that if a Soldier can reach an agreed upon high fitness score on the fitness test that they should not need to be tape tested. Hopefully something like this is considered in this study.

You don’t say something like this to any reporter much less JTBC even if you think it is off the record:

Japan’s deputy chief of mission in Korea reportedly described President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to hold a Korea-Japan summit during the Tokyo Olympics as masturbatory in a conversation with a JTBC reporter on Friday.  

According to JTBC, the reporter asked Hirohisa Soma his thoughts on the chance for a Korea-Japan summit taking place during the Tokyo Olympics, to which Soma reportedly responded in a combination of Korean and English, “President Moon is masturbating himself.”  

Soma added that Japan “does not have the time to care so muchabout the relationship between the two countries as Korea thinks.”  

“The conversation took place [in a casual meeting,] not a public press event, but we decided to run a report because we felt the remarks were not appropriate,” JTBC reported.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit ironic that the Moon administration is relying on nuclear energy to meet the need for increased power supply from the summer heat when they have long claimed they want to do away with nuclear power:

The government is trying to stabilize the nation’s power supply by getting nuclear reactors back into operation.    
   
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday that the Shin Kori unit 4 reactor, which was closed for maintenance, will be back in operation July 21, a week earlier than planned.    
   
Shin Wolsong unit 1 reactor, which had its start date moved up a month to July 18, will reach its full capacity of 1,000 megawatts by July 21.    
   
The Wolsong unit 3 reactor, which was shut for maintenance, will go back into operation on schedule on July 23.  
   
The three reactors will be contributing 2,150 additional megawatt of energy this week.    

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but like I have always said windmills and solar panels are not going to power a modern, industrial economy.

Hopefully this mountaineer can be found, but considering the altitude he got lost at and the extreme terrain, it seems any rescue is going to be difficult:

South Korea has asked China and Pakistan for help in the search for a Korean mountaineer missing in the Himalayas, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday. 

Kim Hong-bin, a mountaineer also known for having lost his fingers to frostbite, went missing on Monday while on his way back down from the summit of the 8,047-meter high Broad Peak, located in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range.

He broke the record of climbing all of the world’s 14 highest peaks in the Himalayas as a person with a disability. 

“We contacted the authorities in Pakistan and China as soon as we learned he went missing and requested a dispatch of rescue teams, including a helicopter,” ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said in a press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing that it has been nearly a decade and half since ROK Army soldier, SGT Yoon Jang-ho was killed in Afghanistan. Well now the memorial to him and other Soldiers have been disposed of after the U.S. military shut down Bagram Airbase:

Much of the work done by several people during the final stretch was “sanitizing” Bagram. 

“We pulled off stickers, signs went down,” said Kimberly Culverhouse-Steadman, who came to Bagram in February to close the USO and bring back its mementos. “They just didn’t want anything reminiscent of American presence.”

This effort was to “ensure consistency in appearance,” said Col. Jennifer Spahn, spokeswoman for U.S. Forces – Afghanistan, in a statement Friday. 

Some objected to painting over the murals at Bagram, including James Von Holland, a contractor at Bagram who has photographed hundreds of murals during his time at U.S. bases in the Middle East. 

“I didn’t like it at all,” Von Holland said. “It’s like going into the Louvre and destroying the Mona Lisa.”

Stars & Stripes

Here is SGT Yoon’s memorial afterwards:

It is tough to see these memorials being dismantled, but I think it had to be done. What would people think if the Taliban take the base over and we seem them defecating, blowing up, and doing other destructive things to these memorials.

By the way if you haven’t you should read up on SGT Yoon who has deep American ties and returned to Korea just to do his mandatory military service. He was the first Korean servicemember killed in action since the Vietnam War.