Tag: USFK

Here is some good news that these USFK family members tested negative for MERS and have been released from quarantine:

Two U.S. military families in Seoul were released from quarantine Wednesday after testing negative for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a virus that has killed 27 South Koreans over the past month.

U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan described the quarantine as a precautionary measure in a Facebook post Tuesday. The families, who had been under medical supervision since last week in line with South Korean government guidelines, were described as asymptomatic and not contagious.

Each family had a member who was treated at an off-post hospital affected by the MERS outbreak. The families were quarantined from the time of potential exposure.

No other U.S. Forces Korea families or individuals are under quarantine for the virus, the Facebook post said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

No details on what caused this death other than the soldier was found unresponsive on post in the middle of the day:

The 8th Army said Tuesday that a soldier has died while attending the Warrior Leader Course at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Camp Jackson.

The soldier was found unresponsive by South Koreans near the base’s northern boundary Monday, taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 12:52 p.m., according to an 8th Army statement.

The incident is under investigation. The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.  [Stars & Stripes]

It just wouldn’t be a major construction project in Korea without a bribery scandal of some kind and USFK is not immune to this:

Police said Tuesday that they have raided SK Engineering & Construction Co. and its construction site on a U.S. base in central South Korea over slush fund allegations involving a U.S. military official.

The National Police Agency confiscated materials including account books and computer hard disks from the head office of SK E&C in Seoul and its work site at the U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

An SK E&C subcontractor allegedly stashed away about 1 billion won (US$890,000) and handed it over to a then USFK official in 2010, according to the official. The now-defunct subcontractor is headed by a former South Korean field officer.

The police have already obtained witness accounts from former employees of the subcontractor. They are currently investigating whether SK E&C was involved.

They have also sent investigators to the U.S. to ask U.S. law enforcement authorities for cooperation in searching for the former USFK official.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but $890,000 bribe has got to be one of the biggest bribery scandals in USFK history.  That is a lot of money.  If anyone is wondering, corruption involving USFK personnel is nothing new. What is important is that these people are caught and punished to discourage others from trying to pull off the same scams.

It will be interesting to see where this important airbase is relocated to and if the Patriot missile units located there will follow them:

U.S. military officials have yet to determine where a Patriot missile battery will be stationed after its current site, a South Korean air base, closes.

Suwon Air Base, roughly 20 miles south of Seoul, will be relocated following noise and damage complaints and a formal request from the local government, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense recently announced.

Four batteries with the U.S. 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade are stationed there along with South Korea’s 10th Fighter Wing. A U.S. airman from the 607th Materiel Maintenance Squadron is also permanently stationed at Suwon.

The base’s relocation, which could take a decade, is projected to cost $6.3 million, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency has reported. The defense ministry said the search for a new site will begin soon. No particular sites are under consideration for the relocation of the base or the U.S. forces stationed there, an MND spokesman said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but fortunately the ROK Air Force has given themselves 10 years to figure out where the new airbase will go.

Hopefully these two USFK servicemembers under quarantine will eventually test negative for the MERS virus:

U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan said Monday evening that two others in Seoul — a servicemember stationed at K-16 Air Base and the family member of another servicemember stationed at Yongsan — are under quarantine, though neither has shown MERS symptoms and are not contagious. The garrison said USFK health officials are closely monitoring both, and the quarantines are a precautionary measure.

The K-16-based troop is under isolation in off-post quarters, while the family member is under quarantine at on-post quarters.
The three are the first members of the military community acknowledged by USFK to have been tested for MERS since an outbreak of the potentially deadly virus began in South Korea last month, with 150 cases reported as of Monday evening.

Sixteen people have died since the initial patient — a man who had traveled to the Middle East — was diagnosed, Yonhap News Agency has reported.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but fortunately the USFK servicemember who was quarantined on Camp Humphreys was ultimately found to have tested negative for the virus which was good to hear.

Here is a pretty cool story about how a USFK civilian was able to save a co-workers life using CPR:

As heart attacks go, Jerry Giefer’s timing was impeccable.

Giefer, 64, doesn’t recall much about what happened Dec. 30 at his office at the Army Corps of Engineers compound in Seoul.

One moment he was working and the next, everything went black.

It was 11:30 a.m., and co-worker Robert Lamoureux walked in after his lunch break tofind Giefer on the floor, his head bleeding from the fall.

Lamoureux, who first learned CPR as an 11-year-old Boy Scout, was about to use his training for the first time.

Lamoureux felt a pulse and then turned Giefer over. He asked a co-worker to call for an ambulance and returned his attention to his fallen friend.

Giefer’s face had turned purple, indicating an airway obstruction. Lamoureux cleared Giefer’s mouth and gave him a breath, but Giefer’s chest didn’t rise. He showed no sign of a pulse.

Lamoureux knew that his friend might not survive.

“If I’d have been here a minute later, that would’ve been it,” he said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but great job Mr. Lamoureux.

Via a reader tip comes news that a USFK servicemember stationed on Camp Humphreys may have contracted the MERS virus:

USFK Service Member in quarantine

YONGSAN, South Korea – A USFK service member at Camp Humphreys self-reported a potential exposure to the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome virus and is experiencing some symptoms associated with MERS.  The service member previously received treatment at an affected Korean hospital before the hospital was identified as having a MERS patient. USFK is continuing to monitor the service member’s health and the individual has been isolated to on-post quarters, pending test results to assess infection.  If test results establish that the service member has been infected, the individual will be placed into a special-care facility for MERS treatment and isolation.

For the most current MERS information, please go to USFK.mil and listen to AFN radio and television.  [Camp Humphreys Facebook page via a reader tip]

I checked the USFK webpage for any updates and it is currently down.  The USFK Facebook page however has a message on there from U.S. Forces Korea commander, Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti directing service members, civilians, and their families to contact their chain of command and healthcare providers prior to completing any off-installation hospital referrals within the Republic of Korea.  Let’s all hope that if this USFK servicemember does in fact have MERS that he has a speedy recovery.

This is probably a good idea considering that all of the transmissions of the MERS virus has occurred in Korean hospitals:

U.S. Forces Korea is recommending that troops and civilians avoid South Korean hospitals as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome continues to spread across the peninsula.

USFK is also recommending that members of the military community who have been seen since May 15 at any of two dozen South Korean hospitals affected by the potentially deadly virus call their health clinic for a phone evaluation and guidance.

Those who have been treated at other hospitals and are displaying MERS symptoms – fever, cough or shortness of breath – should contact their military medical care provider.

The South Korean government on Sunday listed hospitals that have treated MERS patients, all of whom have contracted the disease in hospitals.

No U.S. troops or USFK civilians have been diagnosed with MERS.

As of Monday morning, 87 people in South Korea had been infected with MERS, including the first teen to contract the disease on the peninsula, and six patients have died, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.  By the way here is a complete list of the hospitals in Korea that the government announced had cases of MERS:

MERS affected hospitals

Samsung Seoul Medical Center (ER)

365 Seoul Yeolin Hospital (Outpatient Clinic)

Pyeongtaek St. Mary’s Hospital

ChoongNam Asan City Asan Seoul Hospital (Outpatient Clinic)

Daejeon Seogu DaeCheong Hospital

Seogu GeonYang University Hospital (ER, 10th Floor)

Seoul Asan Hospital

Seoul Asan Medical Center (ER)

Yoido St. Mary’s Hospital (ER)

Hanaro Clinic

Yoon Chang Ok internal Medicine Clinic

Pyeongtaek Good Morning Hospital

Pyeongtaek Pooren Hospital

Pyeongtaek 365 Yonhap Clinic

Pyeongtaek Park Ae Clinic

Pyeongtaek Yonsei Hub Family Medicine

Dongtan Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

St. Vincent Hospital (ER)

Medihalls Clinic (Outpatient Clinic)

Bucheon St. Mary’s Hospita21 Gunpo City St. Mary’s Family Medicine Clinic

Osan Hanguk Hospital

CheonAn Danguk University Hospital

Daecheon 365 Yonhap Clinic (Outpatient Clinic)

Soonchang Choi Seonyeong Internal Medicine Clinic (Outpatient Clinic)

It appears most of the hospitals are in the areas of southern Seoul and the Pyeongtaek area.  So people living in those areas should be a little bit more vigilant in regards to washing their hands and going to public places until this outbreak is contained.

When I was first stationed in Korea 15 years ago I can remember people both Korean and retired Americans telling stories about how a black soldier was hung by Korean civilians outside of Camp Humphreys for killing a Korean man.  I was always skeptical of this claim, but as it turns out there was a grain of truth to the story.  I recently decided to research this story to see if I can make a GI Flashbacks article about it.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the always informative Popular Gusts blog had already researched this very topic. The site posted an article from the Stars and Stripes that was published in 1971 that explained what caused a race riot to occur in the Anjeong-ri ville just outside of Camp Humphreys:

Black GIs on Rampage
Riot-Torn Anjong-Ni—Why It Happened

By M. SGT. JIM FREELAND and JIM LEA
S&S Korea Bureau

ANJONG-NI, Korea—A sign hangs on the rear wall of the security guard house at the Camp Humphreys main gate which lists the names of 12 bars.

Beside each is a pair of nails from which a small plaque is hung to tell American GIs who are the life’s blood of this village of perhaps 2,000 population, 60 miles south of Seoul, the situation in each bar. A black plaque means the place is on limits; a yellow one means it is off limits.

Since 9:30 p.m. July 10, all the plaques have been yellow. The sign will remain that way for a very long time, Camp Humphreys commander, Col. John C. McWhorter, says.

A few minutes past 9 p.m. that Friday, 50 black soldiers from Camp Humphreys walked into Duffy’s Tavern, one of the plushest of the bars which line a pathway GIs call “the alley,” climbed up on the stage and told everyone to leave the club. In minutes, they had demolished it and moved on to three other clubs which, they say, discriminate against blacks. Those were demolished too. “They didn’t stay around each place very long,” McWhorter said.

“They hit one place, then moved to the next. Some news stories have said there were whites involved, but that is not true. This was between a group of black soldiers and Koreans.”

More than 200 MPs and Korean National Police swarmed into the area and struggled to separate the combatants. McWhorter ordered the village put off limits and the MPs began moving Americans back up Anjong-Ni’s single dusty street.

“We had about 80 men who were moving back toward the gate with a crowd of Koreans following them. The Koreans started throwing rocks and, to break up the crowd and protect the camp, we used tear gas grenades/’ he said.

“Some shots were fired from .45 cal. pistols.

“No one was shot down here. There are rumors that some people were shot but that isn’t true. All the shots were fired into the air to break up the crowds.”

Four bars were extensively damaged. Four days after the riot, young Korean men loafed amidst the wreckage, playing go (Japanese chess), coming alert only when newsmen came in too look at the damage. Then, they hobbled about.

The bar owners are claiming 20 million won ($54,000) damage and the 8th Army Claims Office is accepting claims. If they are legitimate, they will be paid, an Army spokesman said.

The damage does not appear that extensive.

There were no houses damaged. One shop window was broken, apparently by a rock, and the Koreans reportedly were throwing the rocks.

By 11:30 p.m., most of the Americans were out of the village and safely behind concertina wire which had been stretched across the gate. About 10 U.S. dependents were moved out of the village and onto the compound.

“There was one man down here on leave with his wife. We brought them on the base Friday night and moved them out the next day,” McWhorter said.

Saturday, U.S. MPs swept through the village twice in a door-to-door search for other Americans.

“There was a lot of anger out there, a lot of tension. The men who got caught in it went into hiding. They were afraid,” McWhorter said.

One man, a Negro, was caught by villagers as he tried to make his way back to Camp Humphreys Saturday and was beaten. Police rescued him. Another man, who was injured Friday night, was found during a search and was taken back to the post dispensary.

“This man was not involved in the riot. He’s one of my best EOT (equal opportunities and treatment) men, and he definitely was not involved in it.

“We don’t know, yet, exactly who was involved. We’re investigating, but no one has been charged yet. There were many people hurt, but just because a person was hurt doesn’t mean that he was involved in it. Many were simply bystanders.

Anjong-Ni is not an unusual village.

Its single unpaved, pot-holed street is lined with vegetable stores, a hotel — which the manager says soon will boast a miniature golf course and a swimming pool—tailor and shoe shops which hawk the outlandish fashions of the young and souvenir stores which offer everything from peace beads to intricately etched Korean brassware.

The 12 bars which dot “the alley” are by GI bar standards in Korea, plush, but they are like GI gin mills anywhere. Camp Humphreys is Anjong-Ni’s major industry. It is the reason the village was built and the people and the village could not exist without it.

Its future is now shrouded in a cloud which has put the economy of other towns, other people, in jeopardy: racial discrimination.

Duffy’s, where Friday night’s riot began, is a major source of the discrimination, blacks say.

“We have no place here to relax. The bartenders don’t like to serve us, the girls don’t like to sit with us,” they say.

These are the same complaints that other GIs in Japan, the Philippines, in other areas of Asia, have. They are difficult to prove.

In Friday night’s riot, 14 Americans and Koreans were injured and were treated at U.S. military medical facilities. One Korean, a slim man nicknamed “Johnny,” the manager of Duffy’s, was evacuated to the 121st Evac. Hospital in Seoul for treatment of three stab wounds in the abdomen.

In town, people were saying Johnny was dead and a secret funeral had been held for him Monday.

Monday afternoon, Johnny was returned from Seoul and he was driven from the base to his home in a Pacific Stars and Stripes station wagon, one of the few U.S. forces vehicles allowed into the village that day. As we moved through the concertina wire at the gate, people in a crowd glared at us. The crowd had gathered a few moments earlier when base officials decided to allow Korean women through the gate to visit their boy friends.

Then someone recognized Johnny and word that he was not dead spread quickly down the street. In seconds, the hostility vanished and people ran alongside the car, shouting welcome home and smiling for the first time in four days.

As we took him home, Johnny told us about his club and about what happened.

“I was in the club about 9 p.m. and a bunch of black soldiers came in and told everybody to get out. I ran next door to call the police. We’ve had a lot of trouble here before and I knew, there was going to be trouble again.”

“When I got back to the club, I couldn’t get inside because the black soldiers had pushed everybody out. I could hear them tearing up the place. When they left, I followed them to the street. There were a lot of people around and suddenly someone stabbed me. I don’t know who did it. There were too many people around.”

“I don’t know why they did it. Somebody said it was because there was fight between a black soldier and a white soldier at my club early in the evening. That’s not true. There wasn’t any fight before 9 p.m.

We asked point-blank if there was racial discrimination in Duffy’s.

Johnny lowered his head and answered very quietly, “no.”

“Is the service you give whites any different than that you give blacks?”

He ignored the question and waved out the window at a woman who was running beside the car, waving at him.

The manager of another bar gave at least one piece of concrete evidence of discrimination.

“A lot of it has to do with credit. Many of the bars use chit books. When a soldier doesn’t have any money he can use the chits and pay on pay day. We had a bar owners meeting and some of us argued that the chit books are no good. They only cause problems.”

He said other bar owners will extend credit to white soldiers, but not to blacks. He said his bar does not extend credit, to anyone.

Some people in town — and some on base — say that gangsters have been brought into town to keep the blacks out. They say the gangsters are being paid two million won ($5,400) for the job.

“All I know,” an MP said, “is that since Friday a lot of girls have been leaving and a lot of men have been coming in.”

“Those are rumors,” McWhorter said. “We’ve heard that’s being done and are investigating, but so far we haven’t confirmed it.”

The riot at Anjong-Ni Friday night has served one purpose: It has brought the black soldiers and white soldiers a little closer together.

Monday, when GIs were allowed to go back into the village with an MP escort to pick up their belongings, blacks were not allowed to go.

“No sweat, man,” white GIs said time and again, “I’ll get your stuff for you.”

Anjong-Ni’s bars now are faced with a choice: Either clean up their town and end discrimination or go broke.

“The village will stay off limits indefinitely,” McWhorter said. “It will be off limits until each man who goes out the gate receives the same treatment as the next man.”  [Popular Gusts]

I highly recommend reading the whole Popular Gusts article which begins with Part 1 at this link and Part 2 at this link.  The comments section above Part 2 is especially informative since servicemembers who were in Korea during this time frame provided further context of what happened.  What appears to have happened is that a group of black servicemembers decided to riot in protest of the segregation of the clubs and general discrimination against them in the Anjeong-ri ville. During the riot one of the popular club managers named “Johnny” was stabbed and evacuated to the 121 Hospital on Yongsan Garrison. It is interesting that Johnny and other Koreans that were injured were treated at the military hospital at the time because such a thing would not happen today.

Korea Times article from 1971

However, rumors spread that Johnny had died which caused anger with the Koreans in the Anjeong-ri ville.  The Koreans started to hunt down servicemembers in the ville which caused many to go in hiding and wait evacuation, some by helicopter to escape the vigilantes.  Despite the vigilantism there was no such incident as a black GI ever being hanged.  It seems like this was just a rumor that spread just like the one saying Johnny had died. Fortunately no one did die from this riot in Anjeong-ri, but it shows that Camp Humphreys and Anjeong-ri have had historically a love-hate relationship at times.  Some recent example are the Braveheart style battles that occurred in 2005 over the Camp Humphreys expansion and the nasty fight over off limits club bans in 2006.

Back in 1971 the protests did spread to other bases in Korea such as in the TDC ville outside of Camp Casey which saw only two people injured.  However as the above Korea Times article shows three black GIs attacked and stabbed a white GI to death in Busan.  It is incidents like this that show how far the Army has come since 1971 and hopefully we never seen anything like this ever happen again.

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: 

A U.S. soldier wears a military uniform with a patch of his unit during a ceremony at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, on June 3, 2015, to mark the formation of a landmark South Korean-U.S. combined division. The division will consist of a brigade from the South Korean Army and the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, with each entity to carry out normal duties in its assigned area during peacetime. (Yonhap)