Category: USFK

A new officer is now in charge of the Hump:

Col. Michael Tremblay assumed command of Camp Humphreys on Thursday as the Army’s new home in South Korea faces the final push in its much-delayed expansion.

Tremblay, a career infantryman, inherits a garrison that has experienced growing pains, including housing problems and traffic jams, as its population more than tripled to surpass 35,000 in just over three years. It’s ultimately expected to reach more than 40,000.

The next major move is due to occur when the problem-plagued hospital finally opens in November, triggering the final steps toward closing Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, which had served as the main U.S. military base in South Korea in the decades after the 1950-53 Korean War.

Tremblay, 46, of Schoolcraft, Mich., was most recently the executive officer to the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command in Florida.

Stars & Stripes

Here is my favorite part of the article:

The garrison was hit with a series of complaints about housing on Humphreys, including children stuck in elevators, mold and slow responses to work orders, during a town hall meeting held in February as part of a campaign to deal with a military-wide crisis.

The leadership responded swiftly, including establishing an elevator task force, and has expressed confidence that the most severe problems have been resolved.

An elevator task force had to be established to fix elevators on a brand new base. The incompetence and fraud surrounding the Camp Humphreys construction is staggering. Anyway best of luck to Colonel Tremblay in completing the relocation from Yongsan Garrison to Camp Humphreys.

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.

Never leave behind a fallen comrade. Our solemn duty is to do all we can to recover the remains of our missing in action. https://t.co/7pFBlVAIVe

— Robert Abrams (@DogFaceSoldier) June 11, 2019

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.

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.

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. 

“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. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

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.

#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

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.