Soldiers protect peace on North, South Korea border
By Heike Hasenauer
Soldiers magazine
October 10, 2006
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 10, 2006) – Korea may seem largely forgotten as the world’s attention focuses on war-on-terror fronts. But, communist North Korea became the center of attention yesterday after claims that it conducted its first-ever nuclear test.
In July the nation also launched seven missiles, including a long-range Raepondong-2 that could have reached the United States had it not failed shortly after takeoff.
Despite the inherent dangers of living at the border of a communist-ruled society that boasts the fourth largest army in the world – and within range of several thousand North Korean artillery tubes – an assignment to South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, or ROK, “is the assignment of greatest stability right now,” said Eighth U.S. Army Commander Lt. Gen. David P. Valcourt.
That’s because “Soldiers who arrive here aren’t preparing to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, nor have they just come from those places,” Valcourt said.
When they arrive in the ROK, they are deployed to a real-life contingency operation, where officials take the possibility of war seriously every day.
“Soldiers here can expect programs to support them,” Valcourt said. Among those is an equitable cost-of-living allowance, assignment-incentive programs and a command “that bends over backwards to take care of families.”
Moving South
U.S. military personnel in Korea will soon witness great change, said Valcourt, as they’re relocated farther south from the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to Camp Humphreys and other southern points between now and 2008.
The changes are part of the 2004 Yongsan Relocation Plan, an agreement between U.S. and ROK officials to move all U.S. forces out of the Seoul area and south of the Han River by December 2008. A reduction in force will have reduced the size of U.S. forces in Korea by 12,500 - from 37,000 in 2004 to about 25,000, said EUSA spokesman Maj. Jerome Pionk.
It will be to the U.S. forces’ advantage to move south, officials say, since the only remaining communist stronghold in the world also has the most heavily armed border in the world, and it lies about 25 miles north of Seoul, the current home to many of the 25,000 U.S. servicemembers stationed in the ROK.
“Moving will also allow us to create efficiency, using one commissary instead of eight, and reduce the number of other support facilities,” said Valcourt.
A number of U.S. camps close to the border with North Korea have already been closed.
Twice the amount of money and materiel going into force structure at Fort Bliss, Texas, to accommodate troops relocating to the United States is going into Camp Humphreys, - some $8 billion - to be paid jointly by the United States and the ROK over the next five years, said Valcourt.
“[The buildup of infrastructure] would be the envy of any commander [in the continental United States],” he said.
Despite the changes, critical response units like the 2nd Infantry Division, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 2nd Combat Aviation Bde. are trained and ready for war.
Eighth U.S. Army composes about 80 percent of the force within U.S. Forces, Korea, said EUSA Command Sgt. Maj. Barry Wheeler.
For most of these Soldiers, a tour in Korea is still considered a “hardship duty tour,” he said. “But it’s not because of the location. It’s because most people don’t get to bring their families with them. Ninety-five percent of the time, Soldiers come here on a one-year, unaccompanied tour.”
Since the 1953 U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty, the United States has had troops in South Korea, most notably the 2nd Inf. Div. and several U.S. Air Force tactical squadrons, to help Korea thwart aggression from the North.
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