Via a reader tip comes this sad news that the former Eighth Army Commander General Charles Campbell has passed away from an undisclosed illness:
Former Eighth Army and Army Forces Command chief Gen. (retired) Charles C. “Hondo” Campbell died Monday after a lengthy illness, according to The Times, his hometown newspaper in Shreveport, La.
Campbell, 68, was the Army’s last continuously serving officer who had seen action in the Vietnam War, according to an Army statement released at the time of his retirement in 2010.
“When I went to Vietnam, we had more than 500,000 soldiers in Vietnam (alone),” Campbell said in the statement.
There are fewer active-duty soldiers than that in the entire Army today with plans to cut troop strength to 450,000 by the end of 2017.
During his service, Campbell saw the Army’s transition to an all-volunteer force, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the counterinsurgency campaigns that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He spent his final four years in uniform as chief of Forces Command, overseeing all continental U.S.-based conventional operating forces. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more about General Campbell at the link, but my condolences go out to his family and friends.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Vandal (R), the new commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, and his predecessor Lt. Gen. Bernard Champoux (C) walk alongside Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, U.S. Forces Korea commander, during a ceremony at Seoul’s Yongsan Garrison on Feb. 2, 2016, to mark his inauguration and the predecessor’s departure. (Yonhap)
On April 15, 2006 a group of USFK Soldiers Private First Class. Nicholas Acosta, Private Jesse D. Findley, Specialist Nick W. Davis and Specialist Shawn R. Kiely along with Davis’ wife and one of her friends went out to the A1 Club in the Dongducheon ville to celebrate a birthday. After spending some time at the club the group decided to leave which is when something happened that would have profound consequences for the Soldiers in the group:
Upon leaving, a South Korean man downstairs gave Acosta, Findley and Kiely “a weird look” and began speaking in Korean to Kiely, Acosta said.
“I told Kiely, ‘Just go, go,’” Acosta said. “I tried to calm the Korean down, but there was a lack of communication. Then he came between me and the wall, and hit Kiely.”
The Korean man, 19-year-old Lee Yong-whan, told police the fight started when he and a soldier bumped shoulders. [Stars & Stripes]
So basically people who had been drinking and could not properly communicate bumped shoulders and the confrontation ultimately turned into a brawl. Some how during the fight the Korean group with Lee got access to a metal pipe to beat the Soldiers with.
This photo, provided by Pfc. Nicholas Acosta’s defense attorney, shows what Acosta claims are injuries from an April 15 incident in which he says he was hit with a metal pole outside a bar. The attorney and Acosta said the photo was taken shortly after the incident. (Stars & Stripes)
The group of Americans tried to get away from the group of Koreans by exiting the club and jumping into a taxi cab. Unfortunately the taxi cab’s window was down and SPC Kiely was still getting punched through the window. The Soldiers screamed at the taxi driver to start moving, but the Koreans demanded that the taxi driver get out. The driver exited the taxi and the attack on the Americans continued. This is when PFC Acosta decided to jump into the driver’s seat and steal the taxi:
“I didn’t want to steal the taxi,” Acosta said. “Davis was a mess and Kiely was still getting hit. The only thing we could do was take the vehicle and get out of it.”
Acosta drove for about a mile before being stopped by Korean National Police, he said. [Stars & Stripes]
Stealing the taxi worked to escape the brawl, but it ended up turning an already bad situation into an even worse one. The Korean police stopped the group by firing warning shots into the air telling them to exit the taxi. The Soldiers exited the taxis and took out their military ID cards, but the police according to the group began to beat them with batons. The police deny this accusation. Acosta and the other Soldiers decided not to file a complaint against the Dongducheon police because they did not want to complicate the legal process any more than they needed to.
The ROK Legal Process
Since Acosta stole the taxi he was charged with the most serious crimes of assault, illegal use of a vehicle, property damage, drunken driving and driving without a license. Korean prosecutors were seeking an 18-month jail sentence for Acosta. The other Soldiers involved in the fight all received fines from the city of Uijeongbu. During the legal proceedings a common issue for Soldiers in ROK court surfaced again when PFC Acosta complained that he could not understand his court appointed translator:
Pfc. Nicholas Acosta enters the Uijeongbu District Court on Wednesday prior to his hearing on charges of assault, illegal use of a vehicle, property damage, drunken driving and driving without a license in connection with a fight outside a bar in Dongducheon on April 15.
The soldiers repeatedly asked the translators to clarify questions, and defense attorney Jin Hyo-keun had to translate some of the proceedings for his clients. Also, Judge Jung Jin-ho ordered the junior of the two translators to take over the duties over the senior translator’s objections.
When the soldiers left the courtroom before noon, both complained to their attorney, saying they didn’t understand what was happening in court. (………)
During Wednesday’s testimony, a Stars and Stripes translator heard the judge ask both soldiers, separately, whether they “admitted” to various aspects of their cases. The court translators, however, asked the soldiers only whether they were “aware” of those aspects. The soldiers answered “yes” to nearly every question. [Stars & Stripes]
Acosta’s defense lawyer lodged a complaint which led the court to replace the translators for the sentencing hearing. He did not want to demand a re-trial because he felt that the $9,000 restitution Acosta agreed to pay to the Koreans that beat him would lead to a suspended sentence. Acosta’s defense lawyer would be proven correct when he received a suspended sentence from the Korean court:
Judge Jung Jin-ho sentenced the soldier, Pfc. Nicholas Acosta, to eight months in prison for assault, property damage, drunken driving and driving without a license in connection with the incident. Jung suspended Acosta’s sentence for two years on the condition the soldier stays out of trouble in South Korea.
Acosta blew a sigh of relief and smiled at fellow soldiers as he left the courtroom, but he refused to comment. Prosecutors had sought an 18-month jail sentence. [Stars & Stripes]
Acosta followed good legal advice by apologizing to the court, paying restitution and keeping quiet during the ROK legal process. This is the best way to try and receive a suspended sentence. On the Korean side of this incident the only person to face punishment was the instigator of the fight, Lee Yong-whan who admitted to starting the fight and was fined $2,000 which was later dropped to $1,500:
Jung dismissed an appeal by 19-year-old Lee Yong-whan, the South Korean accused of starting the April 15 fight. Lee complained that his 2 million won (about $2,000) fine is excessive.
The judge said he understood that Lee faces financial difficulties and knocked off 500,000 won (about $500) for the one day that Lee spent in police confinement.
But Jung warned Lee that since he started the fight, the remaining fine was just.
Lee told Stars and Stripes that while he feels “partly responsible” for the fight, the fine isn’t fair.
Seeing Acosta in his dress uniform — Lee was in the courthouse audience as he waited for his separate appearance — was difficult, Lee added.
“Yes, when seeing the soldier, I feel furious,” he said. [Stars & Stripes]
I am not sure what Lee feels so furious about when Acosta is the one that was beaten down with a metal pipe and forced to pay $9,000 in restitution which is enough money for Lee to pay off his own fine.
Conclusion
The biggest lesson people should learn from this 2006 incident is that you do not necessarily have the right to self defense in Korea, especially as a foreigner. PFC Acosta was assaulted and beaten with a metal pipe and he was the one facing serious jail time and forced to pay $9,000 in restitution to the people that beat him. Getting into a physical altercation in Korea should be the absolute last resort and whatever you do never pull out a weapon because that just makes things worse. It is always better to just apologize and if that doesn’t work, run away from a possible altercation. Just make sure not to steal a taxi cab in the process of escaping.
Note:You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
While the investigation into why an inert TOW missile that hit a Korean civilian shed continues, Rodriguez Range will reopen for training:
Training resumed Saturday at Rodriguez Live Fire Range in South Korea, though restrictions introduced after a missile went astray last month will remain in place for the time being.
A tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missile fired Dec. 30 by U.S. Marines landed 200 meters outside the range boundary in an abandoned building within Pocheon city limits. An investigation into the incident is ongoing, said Col. David Patterson Jr., 8th Army spokesman.
“We will not fire the munition involved in the … incident on [Rodriguez Range] until the joint investigation is completed,” he said.
The safety of Pocheon residents remains a top concern of the command, Patterson said. [Stars & Stripes]
Congratulations to General Scaparrotti if the below report is true. This is pretty impressive that he is going from one very important four-star command to take over another one as the head of NATO. I can’t remember the last USFK commander that moved on to such a prestigious position after leaving their post in Korea:
Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, will probably be promoted to head NATO Forces.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is to recommend to President Barack Obama that Scaparrotti become the next commander of U.S. European Command.
Scaparrotti will serve concurrently as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, or the head of NATO forces. He assumed command of the USFK in August 2013. [Chosun Ilbo]
The article doesn’t say if the person was a government civilian or contractor, but regardless he has been fired for having ecstasy pills mailed to him in South Korea:
An American civilian who worked at the U.S. military in South Korea has been indicted on charges of trafficking drugs to Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, prosecutors said Friday.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the 35-year-old, identified only by his initial J, is suspected of receiving 35 pills of MDMA, better known as “ecstasy,” and 20.5 grams of hemp from an unidentified seller last year.
Still, the suspect was not taken into custody.
The drugs were sent from the Netherlands and went through the distribution center for military posts at Incheon International Airport, Seoul’s main gateway, before arriving at the military base, prosecutors said.
The suspect, who worked with the 8th U.S. Army, was fired in September after being caught by South Korean police who received a tip from the U.S. military’s criminal investigation division. [Yonhap]
Another ordinance round landing outside the limits of Rodriguez Range is the last thing USFK needed to happen at the increasingly controversial firing range. It will be interesting to see if the investigation results will be released because it would helpful to know if this was human error or a problem with the TOW missile? Regardless activists will undoubtedly jump on this in their effort to get paid:
The U.S. military has suspended training at the Rodriguez Live Fire Range in South Korea after a stray missile struck a nearby building.
No one was injured in the Wednesday incident, which is under investigation, 8th Army spokesman Col. David Patterson Jr. said Thursday.
The tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missile was fired by Marines training at the range, 2nd Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hyde said. It landed 200 meters outside the range boundary in an abandoned building within the Pocheon city limits.
“All operations have been ceased at the range,” Patterson said.
Rodriguez Live Fire Range is a 3,390-acre complex used year-round by both U.S. and South Korean forces. While most of the surrounding area is rural, residents have long voiced complaints over noise, fires and other incidents. [Stars & Stripes]
A reunified Korean peninsula is a big if, but if it did happen one thing is for sure that USFK’s role in South Korea would undoubtedly change if not end all together. That is what former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry writes about in a paper discussed in the below National Interest article. I for one think that the ROK would want to keep USFK intact with less troops on the ground as a hedge against any Chinese adventurism on the peninsula:
Last week Kim Jong-un marked the fourth anniversary of his succession to leadership and his father’s death in North Korea. The leadership transition reignited discussion among North Korea watchers over how and whether the regime would be able to survive. Two years later, Kim had his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, executed for treason, sparking another round of speculation over whether the execution reflected a step toward consolidation of power under or was evidence of infighting that might lead to a leadership vacuum in Pyongyang. Because North Korea’s totalitarian system requires isolation to perpetuate political control yet is increasingly penetrated by markets and information, speculation about North Korea’s collapse will persist, and outside observers will judge that Kim is playing a losing hand.
For this reason, policy wonks continue to discuss whether North Korea might collapse and what challenges might emerge out of such a scenario. Nevertheless, seldom discussed is how a unified Korea might behave or how the U.S.-South Korea alliance might or might not adapt, change or even dissolve as a result of unification. Answers to these questions, of course, are speculative and are difficult to conceptualize, but Sue Mi Terry, managing director for Korea at BowerGroupAsia and former CIA analyst, seeks to tackle them straight on in her discussion paper, “Unified Korea and the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Alliance.”
Starting with the most likely scenario that unification will occur with South Korea absorbing the North without a devastating war, Terry argues that a unified Korea would face three possible strategic choices: continuing the alliance with the United States in some form, becoming an independent regional power and tilting toward China. A multilateral security arrangement or a collective security mechanism is unlikely to materialize as an option. [The National Interest]
The investigation into the live anthrax spores shipped to the US military in South Korea has uncovered numerous other shipments of anthrax. However, those shipments featured dead spores unlike the one that was mistakenly shipped to South Korea that had live spores in it. Fortunately no one who was exposed to the live spores has contracted anthrax:
A probe by Seoul and Washington into an erroneous shipment of a live anthrax sample to a U.S. military base in Korea revealed on Thursday that samples of the deadly bacteria have been brought into the country many more times over the past six years than initially known.
Since 2009, a total of 16 anthrax samples were brought into the country by the United States Forces Korea (USFK) without the knowledge of Korean authorities, according to the results of the joint investigation.
The USFK initially told the Korean government in May that only a single anthrax sample was shipped here and that it was the first time for such an occurrence.
A live anthrax sample was mistakenly shipped in late April to the Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi, where 22 personnel were possibly exposed to live anthrax spores.
These exposed researchers and staff took antibiotics and vaccines and have not contracted the disease so far, and the live bacteria sample was immediately destroyed. However, there was an outcry in Seoul over the potential risks.
In response, the United States and Korea in July formed a joint task force to investigate how live anthrax shipments entered Korea undetected. It was composed of military and foreign affairs officials.
The 15 other anthrax samples were shipped to the U.S. military base in Yongsan District, central Seoul, between 2009 and 2014 for biological testing purposes, according to the investigation.
Korean authorities said they were not aware of these anthrax shipments because customs officials here are not authorized to look into biochemical samples for the USFK that are labeled “inactivated.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
