Category: USFK

A comment I recently received discussed a helicopter crash that occurred back in 1973 at Camp Page.  What was strange about this helicopter crash was that it involved family members of the pilot.  Digging through the Stars & Stripes archives I was able to locate the details about this crash.  The crash happened on April 7, 1973 when the pilot of the UH-1 Huey helicopter from the 55th Aviation Company crashed into the Han River near Camp Page:

The above article is from the July 12, 173 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.

Inside of the helicopter was the pilot, his wife and son, and two soldiers.  Tragically the pilot’s 18 month old son died in the crash along with one of the soldier crew members.  The two bodies were recovered by two USFK personnel who happened to be scuba certified.  Talk about a horrible tasking to be stuck with:

The above article is from the April 11, 1973 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.

The pilot who survived the crash would go on to be medically retired and wrote a book about his helicopter flying experiences in Vietnam.  He then became an ordained minister and currently lives in Nebraska with his wife that survived the helicopter crash.  I could not find anything that said what caused the crash, but regardless a pretty sad story that fortunately the pilot and his wife were able to rebound from the loss of their son.

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: 

It looks like General Scaparrotti is not happy that the new OPLAN developed between the US and South Korean militaries has been leaked to the media:

Commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti has requested a joint investigation into the leakage to the media of a new military operation plan signed recently with the South Korean military, according to a parliamentary audit into Seoul’s Defense Ministry.

“It is a fact that there has been a request (from Scaparrotti) for a joint probe,” Cho Hyun-chun, the head of the Defense Security Command, said in response to a lawmaker’s query on the recent media coverage of the new OPLAN 2015 during the parliamentary audit session.

Adding to the admission, Defense Minister Han Min-koo said the USFK commander raised a complaint over the media coverage of OPLAN

2015 during their meeting last month to review the performance of their joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

The strategic messaging to the Kim regime in North Korea continues:

South Korea and the United States performed a joint war simulation on Friday involving live-fire bombings and flights of combat jets in the latest show of joint force against North Korea.

The allies mobilized the biggest-ever number of troops, artillery pieces and military vehicles for this year’s Integrated Firepower Exercise 2015, marking the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule in 1945.

Under the scenarios of a local attack and all-out aggression by North Korea, the forces fired off K-55 and K-9 self-propelled guns, recoilless guns, and Vulcan automatic cannons at mock enemy camps in a remote drill field in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, near the border with North Korea.

A host of KF-16, F-15K and F-4 fighter jets were also flown to bombard mock enemy command facilities, with A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, tanks and machine guns spreading a barrage of shells and rockets.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

So did any ROK Heads see this pier being built last month?:

A Trident Pier supports Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore 2015. CJLOTS is an exercise designed to train U.S. and Republic of Korea service members to accomplish vital logistical measures in a strategic area while strengthening communication and cooperation in the U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance.

MARICRIS C. MCLANE/U.S. ARMY PHOTO

About 17,000 U.S. service members — including Marines, sailors and soldiers of the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary)’s 10th and 11th Transportation Battalions from Fort Eustis — deployed to Korea last month to build the world’s longest floating pier.

The Republic of Korea Army also participated in the exercise called Combined Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore, which allows the services to transfer cargo from the sea to shore. Essentially, a temporary pier is fixed to a barge off the coast connecting it to shore, so supplies including troops and equipment can be driven across the floating dock. This is one of the 7th brigade’s key functions.

The training lasted two months from May to July near Amyeon Beach on the western shore of Korea, and it was one for the record books, according to a statement from Fort Eustis. The pier the soldiers built measured 560 meters, or about one-third of a mile.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

All you keyboard warriors in Korea have fun the next two weeks:

The U.S. and South Korea quietly kicked off their annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise Monday, despite protests and warnings from North Korea.

The annual computer simulation drill is scheduled to run through Aug. 28, with about 50,000 South Korean and 30,000 U.S. troops taking part, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

Combined Forces Command described UFG as “a routine and defense-oriented exercise designed to enhance CFC readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula.” The exercise is planned months in advance and is not connected to real-world events, it said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think this news should be very surprising to anyone:

U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea have been making sophisticated maps of underground military facilities in North Korea to better deal with threats posed by the North, a military journal showed Saturday.

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has been also running an education program for senior South Korean and American military officers to share information on North Korea’s underground facilities and to jointly respond to the North’s military threats, according to a contribution by Korean Army Maj. Park Sung-man in a journal titled “Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

The program, named “Underground Facility,” was drawn up in the mid-1990s by the U.S. Army. Since last year, ranking Korean military officials have joined the program, which was introduced to USFK in 2007.

The move indicates growing alertness against North Korea’s military threats as the North has been keen on building underground facilities that are presumed to be around 6,000 to 8,000, it said.

USFK has been making maps on such facilities based on accounts by North Korean defectors and other available information, it added. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Picture from the November 16, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes.

It must have been a good exercise to warrant this much attention from the North Koreans:

North Korea leveled a verbal attack on the United States Saturday for South Korean artillery drills near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea.

In a statement, the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People’s Army claimed that the U.S. is behind the “military provocations,” as it seeks to maintain the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto sea border between the two Koreas.

“The U.S. is hurling the puppet forces into ceaseless arms build-up and military provocations in the above-said waters in a sinister bid to preserve the illegal ‘northern limit line’, to begin with,” an unnamed spokesman said, according to Korean Central News Agency.

The NLL was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War but the North has refused to acknowledge it.

It’s a “foolish intention to preserve the waning justification” for the U.N. Command, the North’s military said.

“These reckless military provocations of the U.S. will only precipitate its doomsday,” read the statement.  [Yonhap]

Picture of USFK soldiers training at the guerilla warfare school from the April 11, 1968 Stars & Stripes.  Does anyone think that maybe USFK should get back to its roots and reintroduce a guerilla warfare school in Korea?

GI Flashbacks is a continuing series of articles here on the ROK Drop that chronicles important events and incidents involving US military servicemembers in Korea.  Learn more about the servicemembers and events that have shaped the US-ROK alliance as we know it today at the below links:

• The 2006 Dongducheon Taxi Brawl
• The 2005 Osan Shakedown Scandal
• The 2004 Taxi Cab Rape Case
• The 2004 Shinchon Stabbing Incident
• The 2002 Seoul Subway Kidnapping
• The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident
• The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Scandal
• The 1999 Murder of SFC Jeanne Balcombe
• The 1995 Seoul Subway Brawl
• The 1992 Private Kenneth Markle Murder Case
• The 1982 Defection of Private First Class Joseph White
• The 1981 Ingman Ranger Massacre
• The 1981 Deadly River Crossing Accident
• The 1973 Camp Page Helicopter Crash
• The 1971 Anjeong-ri Race Riots
• The 1970 Camp Red Cloud Motorpool Hanging
• The 1967 Eugene Taylor Murder Case
• The 1967 Specialist John Vaughn Homicide Case
• The 1967 Trial of Staff Sergeant Billy Cox
• (1957) The True Story of How Camp Red Cloud Received Its Name