It is finally happening which is amazing considering how many years we have been hearing that this was going to happen.
A view from the roof of the future 2nd Infantry Division headquarters at Camp Humphreys on June 5, 2016. The Army is moving most of its forces, including the headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea, the 8th Army and the 2nd Infantry Division, to the expanded garrison south of Seoul.
U.S. forces in South Korea are finally starting to move to their new headquarters south of Seoul, although the much-delayed expansion of Camp Humphreys won’t be finished for several years.
First up is the Fort Hood, Texas-based 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, which is packing up and redeploying south this week from the mountainous area near the border with North Korea.
Soldiers loaded Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles on flat rail cars Thursday, taking advantage of a new railhead at Humphreys and using late-night convoys to avoid worsening Seoul’s tangled traffic. One whistled the theme song from “M*A*S*H,” a long-running TV series about the Korean War that was set in the area. A separate train was carrying soldiers to Humphreys along with the vehicles so they could jump out to fight if needed.
Several units, including the 304th Signal Battalion and military police, have already redeployed to Camp Humphreys — which will be spread over more than 3,500 acres near the port city of Pyeongtaek.
But the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, will be the vanguard of the historic move by the 2nd Infantry Division, which has been stationed near the world’s most heavily militarized border for decades. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link. Just think this was supposed to be completed back in 2008. According to the article USFK officials have declined to give an end date of when the move will be complete and instead call it conditions based.
It looks like the “Not In My Backyard” crowd has already started protesting the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
The official announcement of deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in Korea is bringing a huge backlash from residents of areas which are rumored to be candidate sites for the system.
People in the regions claim the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) will pose serious health risks to them and environmental damage due to strong electromagnetic waves.
Immediately after the announcement Friday, residents in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and Waegwan of Chilgok County in North Gyeongsang Province, the two key candidate locations, expressed vehement opposition.
A coalition of 25 civic groups in Pyeongtaek, where the United States Forces Korea (USKF) headquarters will be moved, said they will hold a press conference on July 19 to announce their protest plans to block the possible deployment there.
“The noise and electromagnetic waves emanating from THAAD radar will pose grave health threats to residents here,” the coalition said in a statement. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but like most Korean protests these people are blatantly lying to get public sentiment behind them. Anyone can Google and find out the safe keep out zones for the THAAD radar. In fact it is published in the draft Environmental Assessment document for the THAAD unit on Guam that can be downloaded at this link. Here is an excerpt from the document that discusses the safe keep out zones for the radar:
Operation of the THAAD battery requires the following exclusion zones along +/- 90 degrees of the axis of orientation of the THAAD radar system to avoid injury to personnel and damage to equipment from electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted from that radar: 328 feet (100 meters) for personnel, 1,640 feet (500 meters) for equipment, and 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) for aircraft. An earthen berm in front of the radar further reduces the ground-level EMR exposure risks. For aircraft, a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) was established for the THAAD expeditionary mission starting in April 2013. The airspace coordination procedures for this flight restriction were documented in a Letter of Agreement between the Army, USAF, FAA, and Guam Air Route Traffic Control Center. Under Alternative 1, the TFR would continue to be used during THAAD radar operations.
So unless the THAAD radar is sitting 100 meters directly in front of someones house they will not be exposed to harmful EMR. Aircraft will need to stay 5.5 kilometers away from the radar which as the document shows on Guam they put restricted airspace measures over the radar site. These same safety measures will have to be done in Korea which I am sure USFK planners will do.
Gen. Vincent Brooks (L), commander of United States Forces Korea, hands over the flag of the 7th Air Force to Lt. Gen. Thomas Bergeson, new deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the 7th Air Force commander, during a ceremony at Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, on July 8, 2016, to mark Bergeson`s inauguration. (Yonhap)
A new deputy chief of United States Forces Korea (USFK) took command on Friday, vowing to put more effort into enhancing the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea so as to forge an “ever stronger” partnership, the U.S. military said.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Bergeson took office as the deputy commander of the United Nations Command and the USFK, replacing Lt. Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy in the ceremony held at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, the USFK’s Seventh Air Force said in a statement.
With the new position, Bergeson also serves as the commanding general of the Seventh Air Force, as well as the air commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
“I look forward to enhancing the capabilities of our team and transforming the alliance into an ever stronger partnership,” Bergeson said.
He stressed the role of South Korea as a “key contributor” to regional peace.
“We will continue to refocus our training and exercises in order to maximize our combat capability and enhance our readiness to ‘fight tonight.'”
His inauguration came at a critical time when Seoul and Washington are deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an advanced U.S. missile defense system, on South Korean soil.
If THAAD is deployed with the USFK, the chief commander of the Seventh Air Force will effectively be in charge of controlling the THAAD unit on behalf of the USFK commander, according to a South Korean military official.
Bergeson served as the director at the Pentagon’s legislative liaison for the U.S. Air Force secretary. He is an F-15 and F-22 pilot who has a more than 3,100 hours of flight time under his belt, the U.S. military said.
O’Shaughnessy will assume command of the Pacific Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, it also said. [Yonhap]
Lieutenant General O’Shaughnessy in my opinion was a great commander for 7th Air Force and will do great things at PACAF as well.
United States Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Vincent Brooks (L) shakes hands with Maj. Gen. David Puster, the outgoing deputy commander of USFK’s Eighth Army, in a change of command ceremony held at the USFK headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul, on July 7, 2016. Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith replaces Maj. Gen. Puster. (Yonhap)
Considering the short time of flight of incoming enemy missiles, missile defense operators in South Korea do not have time to call the South Korean Defense Minister for approval to engage an incoming target. It is also pretty ridiculous that there is even a debate on whether a missile from North Korea projected to impact within South Korea should be considered a wartime act or not:
A debate is escalating over command of THAAD, the U.S. anti-missile defense system, and whether the United States or South Korea is to have the final say on a response in the case of a North Korea attack.
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo told parliamentarians Tuesday in a scenario of a North Korean ballistic missile attack, Seoul has four to eight minutes to respond, local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported.
“A very sophisticated operation management procedure has been developed,” Han said.
Han’s response, however, evaded a question from Justice Party spokesman Kim Jong-dae, who had asked Han which military would issue the command to intercept an incoming missile, Yonhap reported.
Han later added South Korea holds “operational control” during peacetime and U.S. Forces Korea plays a role in support of that strategy.
But Han did not say whether a fired missile coming from North Korea qualifies as an action of peacetime or wartime. [UPI]
I like school uniforms considering some of the people I see now a days dressed like slobs going to school. School should be a professional learning environment which school uniforms help create. Really the only issue I see is the cost. Whatever uniform is selected should not cost parents more than it does to buy regular school clothes:
Seoul American High School is considering a new dress code that would require students to wear uniforms.
The draft proposal prompted heated debate, with supporters saying more needs to be done to rein in students who dress inappropriately and critics calling it too strict. Many on both sides complained the uniforms would be expensive and get little use since most students will likely be moving soon as part of the relocation of most U.S. forces in Korea.
Students would have to wear collared polo or button-down dress shirts in a choice of three colors — blue, white or black — with chino-style pants, according to a draft copy obtained by Stars and Stripes.
The policy would ban shorts, skirts and jeans, as well as flip flops, shoes with wheels and headgear. The principal reserved the right to make exceptions based on a student’s religious beliefs or documented medical conditions. [Stars & Stripes]
Considering all their recent missile test activity conducting increased reconnaissance makes sense:
The United States’ forces stationed in South Korea have expanded their aerial reconnaissance along the inter-Korean border following North Korea’s recent launch of Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM), official sources said Monday.
On June 22, North Korea fired two Musudan missiles from its eastern coastal city of Wonsan. The first missile reportedly blew up shortly after launch, but the second one soared to an altitude of some 1,400 kilometers before flying 400 km and hitting the East Sea. Pyongyang has declared the second launch a success, and with a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km, the IRBM could reach as far as the U.S. territory of Guam.
Since the latest launch, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) had been sending two U-2S ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft to conduct daily surveillance missions along the inter-Korean military demarcation line, USFK officials said.
Before the launch, only one U-2S was sent into the air to conduct reconnaissance.
The reconnaissance aircraft, nicknamed Dragon Lady, monitors, videotapes and sometimes wiretaps North Korea’s military activities from an altitude of some 20 km on a flight mission that could last up to eight hours. The U-2S can see 60-70 km inside North Korea while still flying outside the country’s airspace. [Yonhap]
It looks like ISIS wants to spread their war against the West all the way over to South Korea now:
The Islamic State jihadist group has designated U.S. Air Force installations here and South Korean citizens as targets for attacks, Seoul’s state spy agency said Sunday.
In a press release, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that the group incited terrorist attacks against them through Telegram, a messaging service, and revealed location data of 77 Air Force installations of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and of individuals in 21 countries.
The extremist group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), obtained the location data from its own hacking group, named the “United Cyber Caliphate,” the spy agency explained.
“While disseminating the location data of the installations and information on the individuals, (the group) incited (its sympathizers around the world) to retaliate for the benefit of Muslims,” the NIS said.
Through the messaging program, the IS unveiled the locations of U.S. Air Force units in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, and of one employee of a South Korean welfare organization. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but ISIS is a bunch of fools if they think the location of US military bases in South Korea is secret information.
North Korea is using the 14th anniversary of the tragic 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident to bash the United States and call for a withdrawal of US troops from Korea:
Site of 2002 armored vehicle accident.
North Korean media urged South Koreans to turn toward anti-American sentiment and repel U.S. troops from South Korea, and mentioned the 2002 deaths of two schoolgirls crushed by a U.S. military vehicle.
The Yangju highway incident in South Korea, which happened 14 years ago today, was a tragic accident in which a U.S. military vehicle hit and crushed two Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, both 14, while they walked beside a narrow country road on their way to a birthday party.
“Fourteen years ago today, two South Korean schoolgirls at the age of 14 were struck and killed by devilish homicidal American imperialists’ Caterpillar truck,” wrote state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Monday, calling the incident “only one of many incidents in which American invaders have crushed the dignity and sovereignty of South Koreans.”
Pyongyang’s other publications also described the incident, and urged South Koreans to repel U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula.
“This evilest deed of all evil deeds is only capable of being carried out by the soldiers of an evil empire, which was built on the skulls and blood of Native Americans …” wrote state medial portal Uriminzokkiri. [NK News]
