Category: USFK

I did not know that Camp Market had not already been handed over, the facility has been closed for years:

The site of Camp Market, a former U.S. military base, in Bupyeong, about 25 kilometers west of Seoul, is seen in this photo taken Dec. 20, 2023. (Yonhap)

The U.S. military in South Korea fully returned its former base, Camp Market, to the Asian country Wednesday, the defense ministry said, as part of a broad relocation scheme to consolidate its bases across South Korea.

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) handed over about 257,000 square meters of land in Camp Market near Seoul to South Korea, four years after returning some 216,000 square meters of land in the base in the first phase.

The agreement was made in a meeting of the South Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement Joint Committee, which governs the legal status of the 28,500 American soldiers stationed in South Korea.

“As the rest of the site of Camp Market, which was used for a bread factory and warehouse, has been returned, the return process of a total of 473,000 square meters of land has been completed,” the defense ministry said in a joint statement with the ministries of foreign affairs, environment and land.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is USFK’s latest response to North Korea’s provocations:

The United States flew long-range bombers for joint drills with South Korea and Japan on Wednesday in a show of force against North Korea, days after the North performed its first intercontinental ballistic missile test in five months.

The trilateral training off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju was meant to strengthen the countries’ joint response against North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The exercise involved B-1B bombers and South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, the statement said. It said the B-1Bs’ flyover is the 13th time that a U.S. bomber has been temporarily deployed near and over the Korean Peninsula this year.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Soldiers from Texas are next to deploy to South Korea this winter:

Soldiers from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment fire a 155mm M777 howitzer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq in June 2019. (Capt. Jason Welch/U.S. Army)

The Army’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment from Fort Cavazos will deploy to South Korea for a planned winter rotation, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The Texas-based unit will replace the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division from Fort Carson in Colorado.

The 3rd Cavalry Regiment is a combined-arms unit from the III Armored Corps that can act as a reconnaissance and security force or as a Stryker combat team, according to the Army’s website.

The previous two Army rotational deployments to South Korea used Stryker combat teams under a Pentagon policy moving away from tank-heavy armored brigades to mobile units with more infantry that can maneuver quickly.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It seems like every other year an F-16 crashes into the Yellow Sea, here is the latest example. Fortunately the pilot was recovered safely:

An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed Monday morning off South Korea’s western coast, according to the 8th Fighter Wing.

The fighter from Kunsan Air Base was flying over the Yellow Sea when it experienced an in-flight emergency at 8:43 a.m., the wing said in a news release Monday.

The pilot ejected and was rescued at sea by the South Korean navy and coast guard, 7th Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.

A South Korean air force helicopter airlifted the pilot to Kunsan, she added.

The pilot is awake and in stable condition, according to the news release.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

No reductions in the U.S. troop presence in South Korea will be coming in the latest budget proposal:

Soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division stand in formation during a rehearsal on Robertson Field at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, May 15, 2023. (Frank Spatt/U.S. Army)

U.S. troop levels in South Korea will remain the same under an annual budget proposal submitted to Congress by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Thursday.

Committee lawmakers from both chambers released their negotiated copy of the National Defense Authorization Act allocating $886 billion to fund the Defense Department through the next fiscal year.

Under the proposal, the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops deployed to South Korea will be maintained to affirm “the United States commitment to extended deterrence using the full range of … defense capabilities.”

Most of those troops are stationed at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas, roughly 40 miles south of Seoul. It’s home to around 35,000 service members and DOD civilians and serves as headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea, Eighth Army, the 2nd Infantry Division and the Combined Forces Command.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

If war was to break out on the peninsula being able to deal with chemical, biological, and nuclear threats will be important skills for Soldiers to master:

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has released photos of a U.S. Army chemical corps company conducting joint drills with South Korean forces near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) amid heightened tension along the border with North Korea. 

American soldiers from the 59th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Company have been training together with U.S. Forces Korea and South Korean troops near the DMZ to bolster the combined defense posture, the command said in a post Wednesday (local time), without specifying the schedule.

The New York-based company has been on a nine-month rotational deployment in Camp Casey in Dongducheon, 41 km north of Seoul, since July in support of the 2nd Infantry Division and Eighth Army stationed in South Korea. The company attended the Ulchi Freedom Shield, an annual joint military exercise held by South Korea and U.S. forces in August. 

The training focused on reconnaissance and decontamination missions as well as countering weapons of mass destruction, and chemical, biological and nuclear hazards, according to the command.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but by the way has anyone ever seen MOPP suits like the ones shown in the picture? They must be a new model becasue I have never seen ones like that before.

With the amount of people that continue move into and drive in the area around Rodriguez Range these safety incidents are going to continue. However, with that said there really is no where else to go to conduct live fire training on the scale Rodriguez Range provides:

The command responsible for U.S. ground operations in South Korea has taken responsibility for a stray bullet that struck a moving car last week, according to Pocheon city officials.

Eighth Army, headquartered at Camp Humphreys south of the capital, “sincerely [feels] responsible for this accident,” Lt. Gen. Willard Burleson said during a meeting with Pocheon officials Wednesday, according to a news release from the city the next day.

Burleson said the command plans to “permanently close” the firing lane where the accident occurred and relocate training to a safer area, according to the release.

The Oct. 24 incident occurred less than a mile from the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, where U.S. and South Korean troops train 16 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.

The windshield of an SUV driven by a South Korean man was struck at 6:30 a.m. by a 5.56 mm bullet, according to Pocheon police. The driver was not injured.

The incident is still under investigation; however, a preliminary analysis “identified an issue with one of the firing lanes,” Eighth Army public affairs director Lt. Col. Juan Martinez wrote in a statement emailed Friday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link and fortunately the man driving the car was not injured by this errant round.

What ever happened with his family must have been pretty bad to give up command after only 5 months:

The head of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base will relinquish command due to personal reasons after less than half a year on the job.

Col. Timothy Murphy will retire “earlier than planned” on Feb. 1 “solely due to family reasons,” said a news release from 7th Air Force at Osan Air Base, roughly 75 miles north of Kunsan.

Murphy took charge of the wing on May 25. He previously served as vice commander of the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base, Japan. 

“I did not make this decision lightly, but know it is the best choice for the well-being of my family and the 8th Fighter Wing,” he said in the release. “I want to thank the Wolf Pack community for respecting our privacy and being so understanding as we transition to retirement.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The cooperation between the U.S., the ROK, and Japan continues to expand:

South Korea, the United States and Japan plan to conduct a joint aerial exercise for the first time near the Korean Peninsula next week, a source said Wednesday, amid efforts to bolster three-way security cooperation against North Korean threats.

The trilateral aerial exercise is scheduled for Sunday over the Korean Peninsula, involving the U.S. strategic bomber B-52 currently deployed to South Korea.

“The joint aerial exercise involving South Korean, U.S. and Japanese Air Forces will consist of a formation flight with the B-52 escorted fighter jets from the three countries,” a source familiar with the matter said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.