This is something if you are stationed in the Second Infantry Division that you should really take advantage of:

A “Manchu Mile” involves some tricky math: it equates to 25 standard miles, “more or less,” as its tradition’s keepers like to say.

The 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus” began their biannual march Thursday night at the Camp Casey theater, where at least a few soldiers from most 2nd ID units joined them.

The “Manchu Mile” even drew some airmen, a couple of judge advocate lawyers and Brig. Gen. John Johnson, assistant division commander for maneuvers.

Each marcher dressed in battle gear, including helmet, rifle and backpack.

“After Mile 10 you don’t feel anything,” said 2-9’s Sgt. David Bullock, who completed the march last year. “Your feet are already swollen. You’ve probably made up your mind if you’re going to make it.”

Others labeled Mile 20 the toughest of the march, which commemorates the regiment’s 85-mile trek to battle at Tientsin during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China.

It is probably more or less the same course, but when I did the Manchu Mile six years ago the course went out the back gate of Camp Hovey and up and down a number of mountains past the ville of Toko-ri.  It really wasn’t that bad and like was mentioned in the article the enforced breaks were the worst part of the march.  By stopping to take a break and drink water your legs stiffen up and the breaks only make the march take that much longer.  However, overall a great experience and highly recommended for anyone in 2ID, plus you even get a belt buckle for it. 

From the Stars and Stripes:

The trial of a sergeant first class accused of soliciting and raping a female soldier, sexually assaulting another and coercing a third to make a false statement entered its third day Friday.

Sgt. 1st Class Carlos L. Reynolds, acting first sergeant with the 2nd Infantry Division’s 302nd Brigade Support Battalion, pleaded not guilty to all charges. One charge of insubordination was dropped earlier this week. (…)

Prosecutors say Reynolds raped a private after three other junior enlisted soldiers left Spc. Renee Hoist’s barracks room on June 22.

Defense lawyers questioned whether penetration had occurred, citing statements the private made to investigators.

Prosecutors countered that her testimony met the legal standard of rape, which requires at least a slight penetration, they said. She screamed at Reynolds to express lack of consent, they added.

Sounds pretty grim right?  Well this is why it is important to presume innocence until proven guilty:

Kincaid said the private’s statements to investigators and defense lawyers were inconsistent, with differences about her clothing and whether she told her mother of the alleged rape.

The private’s former supervisor, Sgt. Shalika Worlds , rated the alleged victim’s trustworthiness as a two on a scale of one to 10.

“She’s a habitual liar, sir. She’s untrustworthy,” Worlds told Kincaid.

“I wouldn’t believe anything she told me unless I had actual proof,” former co-worker Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Murphy said.

Soon after the alleged rape, the private received Article 15 nonjudicial punishment for making false official statements and disrespecting a different sergeant, Foxtrot Company commander Capt. Donald Little testified.

It will be interesting to see how this trial turns out, but this just goes to show that rape cases are not always a cut and dry thing.  However, even if this NCO is found not guilty, from reading the whole article it does sound like this guy is definitely guilty of some bad judgment.  You never go into a female’s room without having a witness with you.  If you do that you are opening yourself up to not only accusations like this, but most commonly the rumor mill which can be just as destructive to a unit. 

The mass punishment for the airmen and soldiers on Kunsan Airbase has ended:

The order at Kunsan Air Base that kept troops restricted to base for five days was to be lifted Saturday morning, a base spokesman said Friday night.

Wing spokesman Capt. James P. Lage said 8th Fighter Wing commander Col. Jeffrey Lofgren had decided the restriction would end at 5 a.m. Saturday.

Lofgren ordered the restriction Monday after two airmen and a civilian employed at the base allegedly choked and punched a local cab driver and tried to steal his car in Kunsan city.

The restriction affected nearly all of the 2,000 airmen at the base, as well as about 150 Kunsan-based soldiers of the Army’s 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

The Stars and Stripes has a good article today showing the various viewpoints from airmen stationed on Kunsan Airbase in regards to the restriction they have been hit by due to a taxi cab related incident from this past weekend.  Here is what one of the airmen had to say they were told the reason was for the lock down:

Airmen said their unit leaders told them the measure was ordered partly to protect them from “retaliation” from any angry South Koreans, and to avert possible violence against South Koreans by U.S. servicemembers who might be angered over last week’s Virginia Tech shootings. The killer in that deadly rampage was South Korean.

If the Kunsan leadership was so worried about retaliation from the airmen against South Korean civilians over the Virginia Tech shooting than why didn’t they lock the camp down after the shooting?  Additionally if they are so concerned about retaliation from South Koreans over the latest taxi cab related incident than why aren’t other USFK camps closed down when a taxi cab related incident happens? 

I’m not sure what the context of the lock down is because there may be more alcohol related incidents that have happened on Kunsan that we don’t know about, but usually lock downs are used to create the appearance that the command is "doing something".  I have seen these lock downs used before and what happens is that the guys that were locked down usually show an improvement in off post conduct, but after a few months a bunch of people PCS and are replaced with an equal number of new guys who all have heard wild stories about the ville in Korea and are ready to do a thunder run or two once they hit the country, but the only thing they end up hitting is the blotter.  It is those new guys who get in trouble and screw all the guys that got hit with the prior lock down.  Additionally the guys that are just a few days from PCSing are equally as likely to screw everyone else as well. 

I have never been an advocate of lock downs because they are only a short term solution to the bigger problems that are never addressed.

Who can name this city in Korea:

Here are this year’s current Korea Finder Leader’s Board:

Mark – 8

James – 2

Sonagi – 2

Peekstr – 1

Note that who ever totals the most points at the end of the year, I will purchase for them a Korea related book or DVD of their choice using the proceeds I have accumulated by people purchasing books from Amazon.com on my website.

Military Policemen have been making plenty of headlines recently and this incident in Iraq has to be the most outrageous misconduct by an MP I have seen yet:

Lt. Col. William H. Steele was commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment and is being held in Kuwait, an Army spokesman in Iraq said.

The charge of aiding the enemy involved providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees at Camp Cropper, a military prison in Baghdad where — at times — Saddam Hussein and other high-value prisoners have been held. The maximum penalty for aiding the enemy is the death sentence.

A second charge, of conduct unbecoming an officer, alleges that Steele “did … knowingly and wrongfully fraternize with the daughter of a detainee,” according to a military news release detailing the charges.

Additionally, Steele “did … knowingly and wrongfully provide special privileges to and maintain an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter,” the release read.

In all, Steele faces nine counts of four different violations of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Among the others: unauthorized possession of classified information, storing classified information in his living space, improperly marking classified informatione, failure to obey a lawful order from the 89th Military Police Brigade Deputy Commander, violating General Order Number 1 by possessing pornographic videos and mishandling military funds.

How in the heck did someone this jacked up become a battalion commander to begin with, much less put in charge of the most sensitive prison in Iraq?  If these incidents keep up I made need to add an MP related incident category to my archives.  So anymore thoughts on if MPs make the stupidest criminals.

The Marmot has a post about a new book being released that claims to prove the US helped the Japanese annex Korea after the Russo-Japanese War.  The book is titled, The Foreign Destruction of Korean Independence, by Carole Cameron Shaw.  The details of the book that the Marmot lists makes this book sound like Shaw is taking a cue from the Associated Press and recycling old history and presenting it as being new revelations.  Than she claims the information she uncovered was difficult to find when it has been lying out in the open for decades and is nothing new.  I wouldn’t be surprised that the history is presented out of context in order to meet Shaw’s preconceived notion of what happened shaped by her own world views which a number of commenters at the Marmot’s Hole are already pointing out. 

You can find my views on the Japanese annexation of Korea here. 

From Reuters:

South Korea is fighting a battle with China over ancient history using one of the most powerful weapons in its arsenal — sappy TV dramas watched by hundreds of millions of viewers in Asia.

The dispute is over whether a 2,000-year-old kingdom, whose lands covered much of the Korean peninsula as well as parts of China, was an ancient Korean royal house or a vassal of China.

At stake is national pride in South Korea where the ancient origins of the Korean people have long been overshadowed by the histories and cultures of neighboring China and Japan.

"The Koguryo issue may be one of the smaller problems that China has but it is everything for Korea. Koguryo symbolizes the identity of Korea," said Kim Woo-jun, a professor at the Institute of East and West Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul.

The article is actually a pretty good summary of what is going on and worth checking out if you are not familiar with the issue.  Now if only the Korean government would expend as much energy combating the Chinese invasion of Korean history as the Korean film makers are maybe the country would be able to stop the Chinese claims to Koguryo. 

General Bell is definitely persistent in pushing this issue:

The top U.S. commander in Korea urged Congress Tuesday to help him introduce standard three-year rotational tours for military forces in South Korea over the next several years.

Army Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the current “dysfunctional, one-year, war-zone rotational tour mechanism” has outlived its day.

Fifty-four years after the end of the Korean War, Bell said it’s time to end the arrangement that needlessly adds to the already-high U.S. worldwide operational tempo. At the same time, Bell said, it handicaps readiness and engagement opportunities with South Korea.

“I’m abdicating three-year, normal accompanied tours as an objective and a goal that we should work toward in Korea, and I would appreciate your support as I work this initiative over the next several years,” he told the panel.

Some may remember that General Bell was pushing this issue last month as well in front of Congress.

I would be surprised to see this happen before the Camp Humphreys expansion if the expansion happens at all judging by General Bell’s earlier comments this week.  The infrastructure to support three year tours is not available right now.  Would you want a soldier living in the Dongducheon ville with his family for three years especially if they have kids?  The hustler landlords would have a field day.  Additionally there are no schools on post and the PX and commissary could not support that type of increase in people.  Plus you have to take into consideration the force protection of all these people living off post.   

I just don’t see this happening anytime soon, but three year tours after the Camp Humphreys expansion should definitely become the norm.

Thailand is holding roughly 400 North Korean defectors in their jails and has threatened to return them to North Korea.  Now the defectors are all going on a hunger strike in order to draw attention to their plight and force the South Korean government to help them:

Hundreds of North Korean defectors detained in a Thai immigration detention center have gone on a hunger strike to protest an alleged delay or decline by South Korea in the process of accepting them, activists said Wednesday.

"The South Korean government refused to issue air tickets for unknown reasons, so 100 male and 300 female North Korean defectors started a hunger strike Tuesday evening," said Lee Ho-taek, secretary general of a civic group helping defectors from the North.

The Moral Bankruptcy of the Korean government continues. 

You can read more on this over at One Free Korea.