Tag: USFK

Time for people to start getting their hair back into standards:

 As the daily count of coronavirus cases declines in South Korea, Camp Humphreys will take a step toward normalcy this weekend by reopening gyms, barber shops and some other services, the commander said Thursday.

Anticipating crowds, garrison commander Col. Michael Tremblay said military standards for haircuts would be phased back in slowly.

“What we don’t want to have is a rush on the barbershop,” he said in a community update via Facebook live. “We know you’re all shaggy out there and that’s fine.”

“We’re going to do this deliberately. So you’re going to get at least a week before there’s going to be any type of hair cut inspection,” he said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many infections it would take for everything to get closed back down again?

Here is some good news from USFK:

The first U.S. service member to test positive for coronavirus has recovered and been released after 49 days in isolation in South Korea, the military said Thursday.

The announcement came as the pace of infections has slowed across South Korea since an outbreak began in the southeastern city of Daegu in late February.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but his wife who was infected as well has recovered too. That is however a brutal amount of time to be in isolation, 49 days. All the best to the couple in their recovery.

As I have long said, I did not expect a cost sharing deal to get done before the April 15th Korean parliamentary elections and it appears that will be the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected South Korea’s offer to raise its contribution to shared defense costs by at least 13 percent, a news report said Friday.

Trump made the decision last week after consultations with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Reuters said, quoting unidentified current and former U.S. officials.

Esper made a phone call to South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo earlier this week to press Seoul to quickly agree to much higher contributions, it said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but politically there was no way the ruling party would agree to a major increase in defense spending. By the Trump administration turning down the modest increase, the Moon administration can go into the election saying they tried, but the Trump administration is too greedy and that is why all you Korean employees that work on U.S. bases are laid off.

The next decision by the Moon administration will be if they want to wait until after the U.S. Presidential election to make a deal.

Great job by these volunteers:

As U.S. troops everywhere are increasingly required to wear masks to ward off coronavirus, a group of volunteers has begun churning out cloth coverings to make up for shortages nearly two months into the pandemic in South Korea.

The volunteers, including civilians, military spouses and even some soldiers, set up an assembly line operation at the arts and crafts center Tuesday on Camp Humphreys, which is the main Army garrison on the divided peninsula.

The morale, welfare and recreation division has provided more than 500 yards of fabric, thread, elastic and sewing machines, said Kelly Schmidt, one of the main organizers and the wife of Eighth Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Schmidt.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

For the fifth straight day another person affiliated with USFK has tested positive for coronavirus, however only 2 of the 19 infections have been uniformed servicemembers:

An American citizen working for U.S. Forces Korea’s Camp Humphreys tested positive for the new coronavirus Friday, the 19th confirmed case for the USFK community. 

USFK said an American construction worker working for the military camp was diagnosed with COVID-19 in the day.

According to USFK, the U.S. citizen last visited Camp Humphreys, the USFK headquarters in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and has since been under self-quarantine at his home for having been in contact with another coronavirus patient.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Via reader tip comes this odd story of USFK apparently pulling a fast one on a Korean lab testing people for the coronavirus:

A Seoul-based lab tested 72 American troops positive for the novel coronavirus, but the US military in Korea said they belonged to soldiers stationed elsewhere, a local report said Sunday. 

A US hospital at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where the US military here is headquartered, sent clinical specimens to the lab, and it shared the results with the city of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, as it was bound by law to do so.

The city pressed the US Forces Korea for more details, but it only confirmed that those diagnosed with COVID-19 were US troops on duty elsewhere and not in Korea.

The local report said the specimens sent to the lab for testing were all numbered, rather than named, so the examinees were not identified.

Upon learning the news, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered every lab in the country not to run virus tests on unidentifiable samples. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but but what doesn’t make sense to me is that USFK has been stating that the hospital on Camp Humphreys can do its own coronavirus testing. The hospital can supposedly do up to 80 tests a day so has it reached maximum testing capacity by also testing soldiers from outside of USFK?

The article also says that the city wants every soldier, family member, DOD civilian, and contractor living off-post in Pyeongtaek be tested for the coronavirus. How come the city isn’t forcing every Korean in Pyeongtaek to be tested? Why just USFK personnel? Are they saying USFK personnel are somehow more susceptible to be infected by the coronavirus compared to a Korean? This seems discriminatory to me.

Previous reporting has said the US and the ROK are close to a new cost sharing deal, but it has not been reached soon enough to stop the furlough of thousands of Korean employees:

Following months of warnings, the U.S. military put 4,500 South Korean base employees — about half its local workforce — on unpaid leave indefinitely Wednesday after the allies failed to agree on a new defense cost-sharing deal.

The furlough — the first of its kind — was a blow to the alliance and joint military readiness to fight on the divided peninsula, which commanders say already has been jeopardized by restrictions on movement aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Considering that CID says there is no threat to the public than how is foul play still being considered?:

The recent deaths of two American soldiers were not connected to each other or the coronavirus, but foul play has not been completely ruled out as investigations are ongoing, the military said.

The 2nd Infantry Division soldiers — Pfc. Marissa Jo Gloria and Spc. Clay Welch — died in their barracks rooms on Camp Humphreys over two consecutive days earlier this month.

Seeking to stave off speculation amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials took the unusual step of immediately announcing that neither soldier had been ill nor exhibited symptoms of the respiratory disease. (……..)

“At this point in both of the investigations, foul play is not suspected, but we have not completely ruled it out while we conduct thorough investigations,” he said.

“I can also tell you there is no danger to the public or the Camp Humphreys community in regard to these deaths,” he added. “No further information will be released at this time to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigations.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.