Tag: USFK

“A Profile” is a continuing series of articles here on the ROK Drop that describes each of the different US military installations in Korea and the corresponding “villes” outside of the gate.  You can learn more about these locations at the below links:

• Bosandong Ville In Donguducheon (2011)
• Camp Bosan AKA TDC Ville (2025)
• Camps Casey, Hovey, Nimble, Mobile, Castle, & Kwangsa-ri
• Camps Kyle, Sears, Essayons, LaGuardia, & Falling Water
• Camp Kyle & Camp Sears (2020)
• Camp Casey (2025)
• Camp Mobile
• Camp Mujuk
• Camp Page
• Camp Red Cloud (2005)
• Camp Stanley
• Korea Training Center (KTC)
• The “TDC Ville” (2007)
• Teokgeo-ri Ville
• Uijeongbu
• Western Corridor Camps
• Western Korean Demilitarized Zone
• Yongsan Garrison, Camp Kim, Camp Coiner, Camp Jackson & Camp Market

Note: If anyone wants to contribute an article to this series feel free to send it to me using the “Contact” link above.  If it is of high enough quality I will publish it here on the ROK Drop.  I would particularly like to publish articles about camps that are now closed.  If you have served on a now closed camp and would like to share your thoughts and pictures of your time on the camp please write an article and send it to me or post it in the Forums.

Here is an article that talks how much former 8th Army Commander LTG Campbell appreciated his time in Korea:

Late former 8th U.S. Army commander Charles Campbell considered it one of his greatest honors that he was given a Korean name meaning defender of Korea while serving with the Asian ally, his family said Friday.

Campbell, who commanded the 8th Army from 2002 to 2006, died Feb. 8 of an illness at age 68.

“General Campbell often commented that one of his greatest honors was when the South Korea-U.S. Alliance Friendship Group gifted him with the name ‘Kim, Han-su,’” his family said in an obituary carried by the Shreveport Times and other local media.

“His Korean name means ‘the great defender and protector of Korean freedom and peace.’ General Campbell reserved a special place in his heart for the people of South Korea and especially General Paik Sun-yup, South Korea’s greatest hero of the Korean War,” the family said.

Paik, the South Korean Army’s first four-star general, provided Campbell “with guidance and counsel that was invaluable to him during his many commands in Korea,” the obituary said.

Campbell’s memorial service is scheduled for Feb. 22 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Shreveport. [Korea Times]

This photo taken on Feb. 19, 2016 shows the U.S. Naval Forces Korea building inside South Korea’s naval base in the southeastern coastal city of Busan, which was relocated from Seoul’s Yongsan Garrison. (Yonhap)

It looks like the ROK and the US are looking to make a strong statement to North Korea on the status of the US-ROK alliance:

The annual Korea-U.S. joint exercises will be the largest ever in terms of both “quality and quantity,” Defense Minister Han Min-goo told Saenuri Party officials at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Twice as many U.S. troops and double the equipment as before, or about 15,000 U.S. troops and hardware like a combat aviation brigade, a Marine mobile brigade, an aircraft carrier fleet, a nuclear-powered submarine fleet, and aerial refueling tankers, will be participating in the drills dubbed “Key Resolve/Foal Eagle.”

On the Korean side, the troop numbers will be greater by half than usual at 290,000 personnel, including special operations forces, Army corps in the front-line areas, and Army divisions in the rear areas.

The exercises are aimed at ensuring that troop reinforcements from the mainland U.S. are integrated smoothly on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

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)

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/691196779757330433

A Birthday Gone Bad

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.

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:

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]

You can read more at the link.