By Remember what I said about the building of improvements at Yongsan? Well here you go:
The U.S. military in Korea has scrapped an idea to relocate its key Army headquarters to Hawaii, in a move to reaffirm its commitment to the defense of South Korea, a military source said yesterday.
“I understand that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Army have accepted the proposal by the U.S. Forces Korea that the 8th Army headquarters should remain in Korea as a symbol of (U.S. military commitment) to the defense of the peninsula,” said the source.
The United States has been mulling over moving the 8th Army headquarters to Hawaii by 2012, when the wartime operational control of the Korean military is handed over to Seoul. [Korea Herald]
I have always said that I would have to see Yongsan actually moved before I would believe it would actually happen. I would not be surprised in the least to see 2ID and a few other smaller units being moved to Camp Humphreys with 8th Army remaining on Yongsan. There are decades of inertia and interests on both the Korean and American sides that I have always believed would do everything possible to stop this relocation.
10:18 am on November 6th, 2009 1
Well so much for all that goddamn PowerPoint and Excel we did back in 2006 to show which positions would be MCP (Main Command Post, Hawaii) and OCP (Operational Command Post, Korea).
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November 6th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Do you really think the army staff wants to give up a 4 star billet where they get to live like a king?
Besides, if the Yongsan commissary closed down, Seoul would run out of Oxtails in about 45 minutes. There would be Oxtail riots in front of the embassy.
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November 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
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November 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
8th army is a three star billet, you have it confused with USFK.
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November 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Well, it’s worse than the wasted work, Mark. Many organizations gave up positions because the mission responsibility was transferring to the MCP.
I lost two, and have been sucking it up, but I’m aware of some orgs that lost 60-70% of their mil/civ positions and so far big Army isn’t budging on bringing them back.
It is fair to call it a fiasco.
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12:33 pm on November 6th, 2009 2
I see that it is going to take a “natural disaster” IE 1991 philippines,
to get Korea to give up the americans.
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5:19 pm on November 6th, 2009 3
Well, while the 8th Army HQ will remain, it’s gonna be at USAG Humphreys. I signed off on the floor plan for my new office space over a year ago! Of course, I’ll be long retired (dead?) before the move. Still, keeping the HQ here does not really affect the Yongsan move.
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
John, you are correct. The EUSA HQs, formerly known as OCP-K, is on the KORCOM campus at USAG-H. Both are in progress.
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Unless you work at Yongsan and are privy to the discussions about this matter – I can see why some might think EUSA HQ might stay.
But you’re absolutely right – EUSA along will just about everything else is going and very little is going to stay. And what is going to stay will have to fit on a couple of floors at the Dragon Hill – and that space is already spoken for.
Now…as for when it goes – that’s another story. My guess is that it’ll be sometime between 2018-2020.
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November 6th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Minor point… EUSA will become EA…a field Army vice OCP. Still scheduled to go to the Hump. The big change is that the ASCC/Title X functions will go to USARPAC. That loss of ASCC designation to USARPAC does certainly mean some retooling of the EA wofkforce. Lot of functions would tend to migrate off-shore. So in a sense, the media has it right… the “8″ in EA stays, but some functions head off pen.
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9:00 pm on November 6th, 2009 4
金正日说：“反正都是死，与其饿死，不如战死！”
何健（我）说：“金胖子，您老是共产主义者，具有无比的奉献精神，与其国民饿死，不如您老一家都效仿卢武铉，也许您老的历史评价会有所提升。”[经典]
——摘自《何健语录》，欢迎转载，谢谢支持！
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November 7th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
金正日说：“反正都是死，与其饿死，不如战死！”
何健（我）说：“金胖子，您老是共产主义者，具有无比的奉献精神，与其国民饿死，不如您老一家都效仿卢武铉，也许您老的历史评价会有所提升。”[经典]
——摘自《何健语录》，欢迎转载，谢谢支持！
That’s easy for you to say!
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November 7th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Looks like a bot is circulating through the K-blogs. The same message was posted at OFK. The message is not worth translating.
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12:29 pm on November 10th, 2009 5
Those old generation including me who experienced such a bitter Korean War will know why we need to keep 8th Army Hqs in Seoul,and N.K regime will take advantage of the absence of US troops if US Hqs moves to Hawaii. While suicided Roh was in power, he always insisted nation’s sovereignty, knowingly or unknowingly at the risk of pawning the country to Kim Jong Il.
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