Tag: USFK

It amazes me that after already being convicted of forgery that no one scrutinized his divorce paperwork before letting this guy off the hook and allowing him to retire:

Prosecutors in South Korea have reopened the case of a U.S. soldier who allegedly tricked a local woman into a bigamous marriage and left her $50,000 in debt when he returned to his wife in America, according to South Korean news reports.

Rachel Lee, 43, a divorced mother from Chuncheon, said a friend introduced her to Master Sgt. Scott Fuller, 40, in August 2013 when Fuller was serving with the Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division. The pair hit it off and married in a traditional Korean ceremony just four months later. However, documents Fuller submitted to have the marriage recognized in Korea, including Army and U.S. Embassy certifications of his single status, turned out to be forged, she said.

“He’s a con, and he killed my soul and broke my heart,” Lee said of the deception, which was discovered only after Fuller abruptly returned to the U.S. in May 2014. “He just left without saying anything. He totally ruined my life.”

The Army returned Fuller — who was stationed at Fort Drum in New York — to South Korea when it discovered the forgeries.

In October 2014, a South Korean court found him guilty of forgery and sentenced him to eight months in prison. The Army knocked him down in rank to sergeant first class after an Article 15 hearing, according to documents provided by Lee to Stars and Stripes. The details of the case were then verified by a U.S. military official in Korea.

Fuller then convinced Lee, the Korean court and the Army that he had, at last, divorced his American wife after producing what he claimed was a divorce judgment document from a New York court. His sentence was reduced on appeal to a $10,000 fine with no prison time, and his rank was restored. Fuller also used the document to obtain a dependent identification card for Lee that listed her as his spouse.

It wasn’t until August of this year that she found out — from Fuller’s American wife, Marianne — that the divorce document was also a forgery. The Army quickly determined that the document was likely not genuine. Nonetheless, U.S. and Korean officials declined to take further action, Lee said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but what a mess.

Via a reader tip comes this sad news that two Soldiers from the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade were killed in a helicopter crash near Wonju:

A U.S. military helicopter crashed in South Korea during a routine training mission Monday, killing both American pilots on board, the U.S. Army and South Korean police said.

The AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed on a road in Wonju, about 80 miles east of Seoul, a Wonju police officer said.

Two bodies recovered from the helicopter were severely damaged and officials couldn’t immediately confirm their identities. There were no reports of casualties on the ground.

The U.S. Army in South Korea later confirmed the crash, saying the cause of the accident was under investigation.  [Fox News]

You can read more at the link, but condolences to the families of the pilots after this tragic crash.

Maj. Gen. Theodore Martin, the commander of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, carries coal briquettes on a back carrier in the city of Dongducheon, northeast of Seoul, on Nov. 17, 2015, to deliver them to impoverished residents. The briquettes are used both for cooking and heating traditional Korean homes. The division and the Gyeonggi provincial government delivered 5,000 briquettes to those residents in the city. (Yonhap)

Soldiers affiliated with the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division push a cart filled with coal briquettes in the city of Dongducheon, northeast of Seoul, on Nov. 17, 2015, to deliver them to impoverished residents. The briquettes are used both for cooking and heating traditional Korean homes. The division and the Gyeonggi provincial government delivered 5,000 briquettes to those residents in the city. (Yonhap)

Family members of U.S. service members stationed in South Korea learn how to make kimchi, the Korean traditional dish made of cabbage and chili pepper paste, at a community center in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, on Nov. 14, 2015. (Yonhap)

I wonder if the Korean National Police requested this or is something USFK has been pushing to do?  Regardless I am always uneasy with pushing personnel in uniform to patrol Korean neighborhoods, especially a college district.  It just helps to legitimize all the leftist propaganda in South Korea about USFK being an occupying force:

U.S. Forces Korea and Seoul police began joint patrols of the popular Hongdae neighborhood over the Halloween weekend and will continue them through the end of the year, officials said Wednesday.

Although Seoul police haven’t released reports of significant incidents involving USFK personnel recently, Hongdae has been the scene of multiple, high-profile arrests over the past decade.

The neighborhood includes a large college student population and several bars and clubs.

Most personnel in South Korea are law-abiding, but such patrols are an additional prevention measure against misconduct, USFK officials said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

This report makes it sound like the US and the ROK will just wake up one day and decide to launch a preemptive attack against North Korea.  The reality is that this “4D” concept would likely happen in response to a North Korean provocation to where there is clear intent to launch missiles against the ROK and the US:

The new operational concept jointly adopted by South Korea and the United States to destroy North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities is expected to prompt the North to launch fresh provocations, sources said Tuesday.

The allies approved the implementation guidance on the “4D Operational Concept” during the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) held in Seoul, Monday, as a means to carry out preemptive strikes against the North’s missile threats, containing nuclear, chemical and biological warheads.

The guidance, which is designed to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend — the 4 “D’s” — has the major implication that the allies have revived the concept of preemptive strikes against the North’s strategic facilities. A ministry official noted on condition of anonymity that “disrupt and destroy” contains the connotation of preemptive strikes.

In an apparent response to the allies’ endorsement of the new operational concept, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed a live-fire exercise for anti-aircraft artillery.

Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA: “We should actively push for the development of a variety of advanced anti-aircraft guns that meet the requirements of modern warfare.”

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told reporters, “The report came right after South Korea and the U.S. approved the 4D Operational Concept. It seems the North had the intention to respond to the allies’ cooperation.”

Officials said Seoul and Washington have prepared the guidance since 2013 while having experienced various provocations from Pyongyang including a third nuclear test in February that year and the test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in May this year.

The preparation comes at a time when the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the North remain stalled since late 2008, due to the insistence by the North that it should join the talks with the status of a nuclear power and without any conditions attached.

The guidance will reportedly be reflected in a new joint wartime operational plan between the allies, dubbed Operation Plan (OPLAN) 5015, focused on preemptive strikes on strategic sites in the North. The allies signed OPLAN 5015 in June to replace the existing OPLAN 5027, which was more about how to defend the South. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

A united group of villagers scuffles with police in front of the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, a U.S. military firing range, in Pocheon, north of Seoul, on Oct. 28, 2015, as they attempt to storm the range in protest of stray bullets from the range. The range, about 24 kilometers south of the tensely guarded Demilitarized Zone, has been a source of grievances for the residents of neighboring towns following a series of ricochets that have come out of the firing range and landed in residential areas. (Yonhap)

US and ROK military forces need live fire training to maintain readiness and there is no where in Korea to do this as well as Rodriguez Range.  I look at this as I would an airport.  People need airports just like the military needs a live fire range.  Should airports be closed as well because of noise and the remote chance of a crash?  How come I have the feeling this has a lot to do with money?

A united group of villagers set fire to bundles of straw near the U.S. military firing range in Pocheon on Wednesday in protest against stray bullets from the range.

The Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, about 24 kilometers south of the tensely-guarded demilitarized zone, has been a source of grievances to the residents of neighboring towns following a series of ricochets that have come out of the firing range and landed on residential areas.

Most recently in October, a 105-millimeter anti-tank shell flew from the shooting range before ricocheting off a house in a neighborhood and landed on a farm.

Earlier that month, a practice projectile was found in a pine field following three similar cases of ricochets in proceeding months.

“Day and night, the sounds of firing never cease in Pocheon, the home to dozens of military bases, camps, a military airfield, ammunition dumps and the Eighth U.S. Army’s Youngpyoung (Rodriguez) firing range as well as the South Korean Army’s ranges,” the villagers’ committee on the ricochet issue said in protest.

The residents near the range started to desert their hometown in fear of stray bullets, they claimed in the protest rally near the U.S. military range.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, U.S. Forces Korea commander provides a lecture on leadership to United States Military Academy cadets during a Comparative Politics class Oct. 19.  [USFK Facebook]