It was only a matter of time before USFK aligned themselves with the Korean government’s new “Living with COVID” strategy:

Americans affiliated with the U.S. military in South Korea were free to move about the country as of Friday, when U.S. Forces Korea lifted its coronavirus travel restrictions.

USFK, the command responsible for roughly 28,500 American troops on the peninsula, said in a news release its troops and other personnel are no longer subject to travel restrictions meant to curb the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease.

Looser restrictions for U.S. personnel, including Defense Department civilian employees, contractors and family members, “better align with the [South Korean] government’s ‘Living with COVID-19’ initiatives,” according to USFK.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Last December a battalion command team in the 2nd Infantry Division were suspended for anonymous racism claims. Well now it has been found out that the racist claims were unfounded though the battalion commander was relieved any way for a poor command climate:

In December 2020, Army officials announced the command team of the 602nd Aviation Support Battalion, Lt. Col. Sean McBride and Command Sgt. Maj. Mario Salomone III, was “immediately” suspended when 8th Army “received allegations of racism, bigotry and discrimination in one of our formations via the Eighth Army Anonymous Assistance line.”

However, the ensuing Army Regulation 15-6 investigation found that McBride and Salomone did not violate the service’s Equal Opportunity policies.

“I am continuing to pursue options for appeal of this investigation and am humbled by and grateful for the outpouring of support I’ve received from those I’ve served with over the past 26 years,” McBride told Army Times when reached for comment. “More importantly, I’m proud of the soldiers of the Warhorse Battalion who continued to provide dedicated support to their fellow soldiers despite a global pandemic and challenging command climate on the Korean Peninsula. It was an honor to serve as their commander and I remain tremendously impressed by their accomplishments.”

But McBride’s rebuttal memo, which Army Times also obtained, expressed dismay at how senior leaders had announced the suspension following anonymous complaints that ultimately weren’t substantiated as EO violations.

“Commanders at echelon made public statements announcing my suspension from command and accusing me and CSM Mario Salomone of racism, bigotry, and discrimination on their official Twitter feeds,” McBride said in the memo. “Articles [about the suspension] define my online persona to this day. My professional and personal reputation has been destroyed [by unsubstantiated allegations].”

Army Times

I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link, but what made his case so unusual was how the senior military leadership in USFK and 8th Army on social media the racism claims that were ultimately unfounded.

Remember 2020 was the year of racial justice protests and that is the only explanation I can think of, of why something like this was tweeted out before any investigation was done. The Army leadership wanted to get ahead of any criticism of racism regardless of what the investigation found. LTC McBride essentially was “cancelled” by the Army. Good luck to him trying to fight back because it is going to be hard to get the Army to admit they screwed this up, but hopefully other senior leaders can learn from and prevent something like this from happening in the future.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that follows North Korea:

 An accidental conflict with North Korea is unlikely anytime soon with Pyongyang maintaining a very tight grip on its military, the chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

Gen. Mark Milley also dismissed the possibility of something accidental taking place within the North or its military in the near future.

“I would say that the government of North Korea at this point in time appears to be stable and they have good control over their military and their systems and all of their weaponry, etc,” the top U.S. military officer said in a forum hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank in Washington.

“So I don’t think you would see something accidental happen from them. It could, but I don’t think that’s highly probable. They have very, very tight control over their system,” he added when asked about the level of control North Korea has over its weapons and internal security.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the military actions North Korea takes are highly calculated. The shelling Yeonpyeong Island or sinking the Cheonan were all highly calculated military decisions by the regime leadership, not just military commanders going rogue.

No details on what happened, but condolences to SGT Haflei’s friends and family:

 A U.S. Army infantryman died at a South Korean army base on Oct. 17, the 2nd Infantry Division announced in a news release Wednesday.

Sgt. Joe Haflei, 33, of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, served as a team leader with the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. 

The command said his death is under investigation but no foul play is suspected.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

What kind of sad life must you have if the first thing you want to do when living with COVID measures are implemented is go protest at a comfort woman statue:

Boisterous shouting matches plagued the site in central Seoul of a girl’s statue symbolizing victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery Wednesday as supporters and detractors of the victims resumed rallies for the first time since distancing rules were eased.

Before rallies were banned under COVID-19 rules last year, the site near Japan’s Embassy had become a battleground every Wednesday, as supporters of the sexual slavery victims held a weekly “Wednesday rally” demanding an apology from Japan and conservative detractors held an opposing the protests.

After more than a year of hiatus, rallies resumed between the two sides at the statue site Wednesday, as eased social distancing rules went into force this week in line with the government’s “living with COVID-19” scheme.

Early Wednesday morning, about 10 anti-Japanese activists turned up at the site, holding banners calling for the resolution of the sexual slavery issue and shouting through loudspeakers that they won’t leave until all “pro-Japanese” forces are gone from the site.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the fact that there was pro-Japanese protesters is actually pretty amazing. Anyway judging by the picture the police greatly outnumbered everyone at the protest.