The KSC is definitely a unique an important part of the USFK team:
Korean Service Corps paramilitary members pose beside a tribute to fallen KSC members during a rededication ceremony for the monument at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, June 9, 2019.
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.”
N.K. leader offers condolences over former first lady’s death A condolence message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rests on a memorial altar at a Seoul hospital on June 12, 2019, for Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung. Lee died on June 10 at age 96. Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, delivered the condolence message and a wreath of condolence flowers to Chung Eui-yong, head of South Korea’s presidential National Security Office, and Rep. Park Jie-won of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace at Tongilgak, a North Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone, the same day. (Yonhap)
Congratulations to Command Sergeant Major Grinston:
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston has been selected as the next Sergeant Major of the Army.
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston, who has been in the service for more than 30 years, has been selected to be the 16th sergeant major of the Army, the service announced Tuesday. Grinston is the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and he will be sworn in to his new role at the Pentagon on Aug. 16, according to the Army. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey, who has been in his position since 2015, is retiring. “I look forward to working with Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said in a prepared statement. “The Army is in the midst of a renaissance, and he is a great choice to carry on our readiness, modernization and reform efforts.”
It looks like there may be a fourth Inter-Korean Summit before President Trump visits South Korea on June 30th:
President Moon Jae-in delivers a keynote speech during the Oslo Forum at the University of Oslo in the Norwegian capital, Wednesday (local time). He reiterated his call for resuming now-suspended nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Yonhap
A senior presidential aide said Thursday that discussions are underway with officials from Pyongyang regarding another inter-Korean summit, before U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with President Moon Jae-in, June 30.
“It’s evident that the U.S. president didn’t rule out the possibility of another meeting between President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of his planned visit here at the end of June. President Moon earlier raised this idea at his April summit with Trump in Washington. South Korea and the U.S. are united on that idea,” the official told reporters in a briefing.
“My understanding is that the U.S. president didn’t say anything on the usefulness and necessity of another inter-Korean summit,” the senior aide said, adding announcements will be made once the discussions are completed.
Moon renewed his call late Wednesday (KST) for a fourth summit with Kim Jong-un ahead of his meeting with Trump.
You can read more at the link, but I am not sure what they would talk about? Are they going to coordinate how they plan to persuade President Trump into signing a “pretend denuclearization” deal? Talk about how to avoid international sanctions?
Anyone else have any guesses on what they could possibly talk about?
The attacks on these ships just happens to occur while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting:
Two oil tankers were damaged in a suspected attack off the Gulf of Oman early Thursday, prompting the rescue of dozens of crew members.
The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet told Reuters it was assisting two tankers in the Gulf of Oman after receiving two distress calls. Details of the incident were unclear, but one of the operators made an unconfirmed report that a torpedo had hit its ship, Reuters reported.
“We are aware of the reported attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. U.S. Naval Forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 6:12 a.m. local time and a second one at 7:00 a.m.,” Joshua Frey of the Fifth Fleet said. The Fleet did not blame anyone for the attack.
One of the vessels involved was identified as the MT Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged but Norwegian-owned crude oil tanker carrying naphtha, a petrochemical product, to Japan.
A South Korean Hyundai ship based in Dubai actually rescued the crew of the Front Altair.
The obvious play here is that the Iranians attacked these ships because they did not like whatever message they received from Prime Minister Abe on behalf of President Trump. The Iranians have long threatened to shut down the Straits of Hormuz and cause world oil prices to surge and this is a reminder of that fact.
Here is an interesting article about a Kunsan Airbase NCO who has a side gig as a professional wrestler in South Korea:
Tech. Sgt. Gregory Gauntt, 8th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kunsan Air Base sprints before jumping into the wrestling ring in Goyang, South Korea, June 2, 2019
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.”
Veteran to be buried in S. KoreaSouth Korean Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Pi Woo-jin (R) bows before the remains of Albert Hugh McBride, a Canadian veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War, at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on June 11, 2019, in this photo provided by the ministry. The remains will be buried at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in the southern port city of Busan the next day. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
That is what some Koreans are saying after this incident at a festival in Yongin:
A Japanese man has ignited controversy for wrapping himself in a Rising Sun flag at the “ULTRA Korea” festival in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on June 7-9.
The Japanese imperial military used the flag during World War II (1939-45) and the flag is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression. Many Koreans believe the flag should be banned.
Some Korean participants in the ULTRA Korea, Asia’s largest electronic dance music (EDM) festival, reportedly had “clashes” with the Japanese and reported him to the organization committee. But the committee did not take any tangible action, according to Professor Seo Kyung-duk, a top Korea promoter.
“The festival officials should have restrained the man. If he had not cooperated, they should have dragged him out,” Seo wrote on his Instagram Tuesday.
“The man will return to Japan and say he had no problem displaying a Rising Sun flag in Korea. The committee should make an official apology and promise to avoid a recurrence,” Seo wrote.
First of all this Japanese man was clearly trolling for a reaction and he got it.
Anyway the way I look at it is that if the Rising Sun flag is banned in South Korea then the North Korean and Chinese flags should be banned as well. Those two countries killed far more Koreans than Imperial Japan ever did and destroyed nearly the entire country during the Korean War.
