If this decision is made it wouldn’t be the first time troops stationed in South Korea deployed to the Middle East:

The United States’ top military officer said Thursday that the Pentagon is discussing whether troops will deploy from South Korea to the Middle East in coming years, as more servicemembers are stationed in the Asian nation on longer tours with their families.

“That’s something we’re looking very specifically at,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told several hundred troops in a town hall-style meeting in Seoul. “We really haven’t closed on whether it’s going to be one way or the other.”

Troops have traditionally been deployed to South Korea on one-year tours. But under a tour normalization policy announced late last year, about 14,000 — roughly half the U.S. troop strength here — will eventually be stationed with their families on two- and three-year tours.  [Stars & Stripes]

It makes sense that units with soldiers doing 3 year tours in Korea would get deployed much like the Marines on Okinawa do to the Middle East.  I had just gotten back from Iraq when arrived in the 2nd Infantry Division in 2004 and the decision was made to ship out the 2nd Brigade Combat Team to Iraq.  So I was tasked to help that unit train for their deployment and in my opinion that brigade received no where near the training I received before deploying due to the lack of time and training facilities.  The casualties the 2BCT took in Iraq I believe is a direct testament to the lack of proper pre-combat training.

So the moral to the story is that if troops are going to be regularly deployed from South Korea they need to be able to receive the same quality of training that troops stationed in the US get from the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, CA.