FINALLY…Kunsan AB has an Open House … well, kind of … er, sort of. It’s really a ROKAF ”open house” on Kunsan AB. It’s NOT a USAF open house — but the USAF is participating in the Korean air show and most certainly will have its aircraft on static display — perhaps along with other USAF aircraft from Osan (if they get an invite). But the main point is that there is FINALLY going to be an open house at Kunsan AB after over thirty years – even if it is for the ROKAF.
For those who may not know the significance of this open house, this is the first time in over thirty years that Kunsan AB has opened its gates to the public. I have a photo of an old friend, now long deceased, Mr. Kwan then with the base Public Relations office, posing for the Korean press in front of an aircraft in the mid-1970s. However, after the student unrest of the 1970s spread throughout the Cholla area — and culminated in the Kwangju Uprising — the gates were slammed shut to the public and have remained so until now.
Yes, the press and selected groups have been allowed on the base for photo ops and small tours by the USAF since the early 2000s, but the general public has always been blocked at the gates. The ROKAF being a “tenant” on the base — a rather strange arrangement from the 1980s — really didn’t have much to show off with its F-5Es – nor did it want to show off as ROK military units are very secretive.
However, things have changed dramatically. The 38th Fighter Group (ROKAF) at Kunsan AB have now been outfitted with F-16s. They have been working with the 8th Fighter Wing in joint training missions now that they both are flying F-16s. Thus the ROKAF has something to brag about with their new aircraft.
Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, will open part of its grounds to the public in early October for a free air show put on by the U.S. and South Korean air forces.
The Oct. 4-5 show will be the first hosted by the base and Gunsan City and is expected to attract thousands of visitors, said Maj. Stephen Pinchak, assistant director of operations for Kunsan’s 35th Fighter Squadron.
The show will include flying demonstrations on both days above the nearby Saemangeum seawall and an aircraft display on the base’s emergency landing taxiway on Saturday. Visitors will be able to walk through larger aircraft and look inside the cockpits of fighter jets.
The aerial events will include a four-ship formation of U.S. and South Korean jets flying together, an aircraft rescue demonstration, and a parachuting demo by the U.S. Wings of Blue Air Force Academy jump team. Flights are expected to take place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on both days, though a schedule has not been finalized.
“This is a base effort. Everyone on the base has some role to play. Everyone is involved,” Pinchak said.
The show will coincide with Gunsan City’s international auto parts expo. Pinchak said about 50,000 people are expected to attend the auto show each day, and “we’re expecting somewhere in that neighborhood” to attend the air show.
Chae Mi-young, a spokeswomen for Gunsan City’s tourism department, said getting to visit the U.S. base and see how troops live is a “big deal” for Gunsan City residents.
“Everybody knows about the air force and its capabilities, but they have never had the chance to see it or feel it, even though it takes up a big part of our hometown,” she said.
The air show is a significant part of the city’s yearlong tourism campaign, Chae said.
Pinchak said parking at Kunsan Air Base is discouraged, and visitors should park at the expo center and take a free shuttle to Kunsan Air Base.
I have long been a proponent of having an Open House at Kunsan for many years simply because of the public relations value. I have always felt that the base lost its connection with the local populace after it slammed its doors shut in the late 1970s — remember those were the days of the radical protests culminating in the Kwangju riots.
Remember that the Kunsan City Mayor still controls the fate of the Chikdo Range and good public relations is essential. I sincerely believe that a lot of the animosity that has existed between the base and the local populace could have been headed off it there had been a modified form of Open House — JUST LIKE THEY ARE DOING NOW!!! In fact, in one of the mini-tours for village leaders a few years ago, the comments were all positive and saying why the base didn’t do this years before to help them understand the base’s mission.
The aircraft parking is on “neutral territory” on the “emergency runway” – which for those not into history, was the original runway before the new runway was built in 1953. It was also the overflow parking area in the Pueblo Crisis in 1968 when the 4th TFW brought all their three squadron’s aircraft to Kunsan in the initial standoff — even while the nuclear alerts were going one separately — and loads of other “specialized” aircraft were landing on the tarmac.
The auto show has been going on for a long time…and very popular with young men as they always have the standard models posing. As for me, I liked looking at the specialty vehicles that they always had on display. The buses will shuttle them from there making it a sort of tack on package — auto show first and then the Kunsan AB show — and back. Good idea.
The airshow viewed from the seawall is just a short walk from the autoshow — with Kunsan AB seen right across the water that will soon be gone as the Saemangeum project encloses Kunsan AB.
Bottom line is that though Kunsan AB is not the sponsor, it can only win with opening its gates. This is something that is long overdue — like over thirty years overdue.
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