Camp Kyle

In October 2005 Camp Kyle closed and preperations were made to transfer ownership of the facility to the Republic of Korea. Mention of this shift was made in US-ROK Land Partnership Plan in 2002, when the expected date of closure was 2007.

Camp Kyle was named after Medal of Honor recipient Second Lieutenant Darwin Kyle. More than 130 American servicemen were awarded the Nation's highest honor for actions during the Korean War. Many of those honored names were bestowed on camps and facilities throughout the Republic of Korea.

Camp Kyle was one of the 42 camps north of Seoul authorized Hardship Duty Pay of $150 per month as of 1 January 2001. The Hardship Duty Pay is paid to troops who are permanently assigned to areas where it is authorized or who serve 30 consecutive days of temporary duty in those areas. Several factors are considered in determining whether a location qualified for the pay: climate, physical and social isolation, sanitation, disease, medical facilities, housing, food, recreational and community facilities, political violence, harassment and crime. The extra pay provides meaningful financial recognition to troops assigned in areas where living conditions are substantially below US standards.

After the Gulf War, AMC, and CECOM in particular, increased its reliance on contractor support for sophisticated communications-electronics and weapon systems. CECOM deployed numerous contractors and Army civilian personnel to ensure continuous sustainment support. What was needed was some way of managing these multiple service sources. The solution was a structure that would join all of these service providers into a single, cohesive support entity. The ESSC's provide that structure on a regional basis by acting as an umbrella for all service providers. The "umbrella" was the ESSC staff. A CECOM civilian at each of 4 regional facilities coordinated these efforts and was backed up by a management cell at Fort Monmouth. The 4 ESSC's were located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Hood, Texas; Friedrichsfeld, Germany; and Camp Market, Korea. These 4 centers provided support that was diverse enough to support 6 Intelligence Electronic Warfare Regional Support Centers (IEW RSC's). IEW RSC's were located at Fort Bragg; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Fort Hood; and Fort Lewis, Washington. There also was one in Germany, at Friedrichsfeld and Bad Abling, and one in Korea, at Camp Kyle and Camp Humphries. The Tobyhanna forward repair activities were at Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Germany, and Korea (all collocated with IEW RSC's) and Hawaii. The MSE RSC's were located near the Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Germany, and Korea ESSC's. IEW RSC's combine CECOM's contractor logistics support and interim contractor support contractors and the major Army commands' limited number of general support-level soldiers into a repair and maintenance force in one general area. This work force provided a broad range of engineering, management, logistics, and technical services. Experts provided over-the-shoulder training to soldiers with lower skill levels and to soldiers at the units.

On 13 September 2000, the DSCP Food Service Business Unit modified its Prime Vendor contract with USFI Foods to make USFI Foods the distributor of the Unitized Group Ration A Option Ration (UGR-A) in Korea. Under the terms of the contract action, the DSCP Operational Rations Business Unit would order UGR-A from its CONUS contractors, and push the UGR-A rations as Government Furnished Materials (GFM) to the USFI GOCO facilities in Pusan, Camp Humphreys, and Camp Kyle. USFI would store an inventory equivalent to 45 days of estimated demand. The in-country inventory would result in a 7-day order-lead-time for USFK activities, and assure a prompt response for any contingencies. The DSCP Pacific Region Korea Subsistence Support Office at Camp Kyle was newly established, and was not initially staffed.

Responding to a call for help from the South Korean government, US Forces, Korea, soldiers reacted quickly to assist after the collapse of Seoul's Sampoong department store. Among those participating in the rescue efforts were heavy-equipment operators from Camp Kyle's 61st Maintenance Company, 227th Maintenance Battalion, firefighters from Camp Casey and Camp Red Cloud, and an engine and heavy-rescue company from Camp Humphreys. In addition, members of the US Army Corps of Engineers' Pacific Ocean Division, Far East District, arrived from Hawaii with sophisticated sound-detection equipment. Firefighters worked to contain flames in the third basement level so rescue operations could begin. Crews equipped with cutting torches opened a 4-foot-by-4-foot section of the building so USFK and Korean rescue teams could enter the building and reach survivors. Once inside, crews used drills, hammers and torches to tunnel through the debris. Eventually, the crews freed 24 people who had been trapped for more than 50 hours.