By For those in the US military you may be aware of the new “AF-PAK Hands” program that is being initiated to create subject matter experts in language and culture for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Over at the Small Wars Journal a Special Forces Colonel writes a short article in response to the new program that poses the question of whether the US military should start other “Hands” programs such “Korea Hands”?:
Given the above, while we applaud and support the AF-PAK hands program (I agree it is the right thing to do – but better late than never), we should be asking ourselves what other “hands” program should there be? Should we have a “Korea Hands” as the outcome to the “Korea Problem” is going to bring challenges as complex as we have ever seen and understanding North Korean culture is going to be critical to dealing with the challenges there. Should we have a “China Hands” program (though perhaps a little different than the China Hands we had in the pre-WWII Marines and in the State Department) anticipating China’s rise to a near peer competitor and at least a regional hegemon? Should we have an “Africa Hands” program as we anticipate the future challenges on that continent? Of course we could go on and call for “Hands” programs around the world. [Small Wars Journal]
You can read the complete article at the link.
I think it is a great suggestion, but I just don’t see this happening simply because the Army reactive by nature, not proactive. It tooks eights years of war in Afghanistan before such a program was initiated and the US has been 60 years in Korea without such a program. The biggest reason for this is manning. It is hard to justify locking down hundreds of soldiers to become regional experts when there currently is not a crisis in that region.
However, expanding the military and properly funding it to allow for such a program in different regions around the world could easily be funded with the $2.5 billion Congress spent on buying aircraft the Pentagon didn’t even want. So obviously the issue of creating such a program is a problem larger than the military.
6:36 am on January 3rd, 2010 1
Yes there are "Korea Hands" who are mostly all FAO's who work at very high levels in USFK. However, a Korea Hands program should be spread down to at least the battalion level which means it would take man power to do this. Can you imagine the difference it would be for a battalion commander to have his own officer working for him that can speak the language and knows the culture Korea instead of relying on KATUSA's? Plus it would really change perceptions of USFK when Koreans see all these soldiers engaging them in Korean.
I think to become a hand someone should at least be post-Company Command so they have a diverse Army background before becoming a regional expert. As far as homesteading I have been hearing for years now that the Army wants to stabilize soldiers at posts for longer periods of time and for the most part that hasn't happened yet. A lot of it has to do with schools, promotions, deployments, and needs of the Army.
11:21 am on January 3rd, 2010 2
I actually know quite a few people in USFK who can be classified as “Korea Hands”. One in particular has been in the peninsular mix for 34 years, speaks Korean like a native, and is probably one of the commander’s best assets for understanding Korea. I know at least a dozen other people just like him, and by and large, they are working where they should be.
But as I write this, I have to note that my friend is doing a tour in Iraq, either because it’s his turn in the box, or someone in charge feels that he needs some career diversity.
I don’t know about the other services, but it would seem that in the Army, becoming a regional “hand” is the kiss of career death. If a guy spends too much time on peninsula, career managers accuse him of “homesteading”.
Perhaps things have changed since I was working the problem, but back in the day, Korea was considered a tactical outlier, and none of the Army’s doctrine was written with another Korean war in mind. Everything was centered on fighting the Soviets in Germany. Now I suspect that counterinsurgency in SW Asia is all the rage, doctrinally speaking.
So far as I can tell, only the Marines have a decent program to manage officers with specialized experience in working with foreign governments. The Army has a FAO program, always has, but I have actually seen few FAO’s make it past O5/O6.
3:39 pm on January 3rd, 2010 3
Koreans take utter delight when a big nose speaks Korean.
The last time I visited Korea was in '97 and I made the mistake of speaking some Korean to the customs guy. He spent the next 15 minutes telling me all his woes and how he wanted to emigrate to the states, much to the chagrin of all the folks behind me in line!!!!!
Even in Itaewon i usually got a very warm reception when I spoke Korean, and then eating Kimchi to boot….
12:24 am on January 4th, 2010 4
In officerdom, specializing in Korea is highly discouraged. I remember seeing a pattern where extending once was always in order. After that…no. My assignment after Korea was with 7th ID at FT Ord. I told a number of officers of my intention to get back to Korea ASAP. Generally, this was met with mild contempt. I found my fellow officers also didn't much care for my interest in the country and its people. This was strange given this division was on the short list to head over there if something bad were to happen. Further, I would note the Army seemed to have a higher tolerance for those with this mindset directed at Germany.
From a practical standpoint, I could see difficulties with "Korea Hand" officers and career progression. We were expected to advance by getting various command and staff positions within our branches and the opportunities in Korea alone were limited. I also think Soldiers of any rank miss out by being too exclusive. I have a friend who is a retired Military Intelligence/Korean Linguist NCO. He was at DLI in 1989 and got transferred to 7th ID to take part in Just Cause. I asked him what he thought about that. He said he was initially miffed but in hindsight it was a great experience for him. Sure, he was clueless as to Spanish. But he found the chance to employ supervisory/leadership skills in such a situation invaluable.
5:16 am on January 4th, 2010 5
A Bn Cdr doesn't have to rely on KATUSAs anymore – as you'd be hard pressed to find a battalion in Korea that doesn't have at least one Korean-American officer who can speak Korean well. Just go to the Yongsan commissary on any weekday around 1700 hrs. and I'll bet you see at least a half dozen Korean-American officers. And I'm not just talking LTs and CPTs – there are a lot of Korean-American field grade officers now. Used to be the only place you saw a Korean-American field grade officer was at 121 – but that's not the case anymore. For example, the SOCKOR commander is a Korean-American Colonel.
Having said this – it's also becoming more and more common for Korean-Americans to show up for duty in Korea who can't speak Korean well or not at all in some cases.
12:09 pm on January 30th, 2010 6
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