There was a small article in the Stars and Stripes about the ROK purchasing munitions. This is a LONG, LONG story of the ROK trying to get munitions cheap — or for nothing — dealing with the WRSA-K. Anyway, I’m just glad that this fiasco called “negotiations” are finally over.
South Korea has agreed to buy about 250,000 tons of stockpiled U.S. military munitions, a U.S. Forces Korea spokesman confirmed on 7 Oct. South Korea will pay for the munitions, about half of the total War Reserve Stocks for Allies stockpile, by providing about $280 million in services, including “storage, domestic transportation, loading and unloading, and port handling of rejected munitions,” according to an e-mail response from USFK spokesman Dave Palmer.
The U.S. Congress passed legislation in 2005 to authorize the transfer, according to Palmer. The total stockpile is worth about $2.2 billion if bought at today? prices, according to Palmer. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)
HOWEVER, I have just a few questions bouncing around in my old brainpan. The biggest fun question is that in 2007 the USFK maintained 600,000 tons of munitions of 200 different types (including trucks and equipment) worth $5.3 billion. Where did over half of the value of the USFK maintained munitions go in one year?
My second question deals with how did the ROK get their ammo problem under control. In 2005, the ROK only had 10 days of ammo if a war broke out today — because the US-maintained WRSA-K went defunct in 2003 and the two-year grace period had run out. The ROK was running around crying like babies expecting the US to give them the WRSA-K ammo to them free. The Congress authorized the transfer and sale, but the ROK refused to buy it claiming it was “old munitions” and it was too costly. Jump forward to 2008 and the US is still talking of OPCON transfer in 2012 — without the ROK buying any massive amounts of new munitions that I know of. Where did the ROK get the ammo to solve their ammo shortage problem?
In the latest “negotiations”, the types of munitions the ROK was seeking are those that could be modified into JDAMS with kits — along with air-to-air munitions. The WRSA-K fiasco was also tied to the FMS upgrade to NATO Plus Three status. I’m just curious what items they finally settled on from the munitions they claimed were “outdated.”
I know my all my questions will never be answered, but I’m just throwing this out. I’m simply saying two years ago there was a massive stockpile — and over $3 billion in munitions disappeared. Were they disposed of — or transferred with approval? If it is what I suspect, there has been a lot of movement of munitions in the ROK-controlled MAGNUMs from the US stocks stored there. It would have to be authorized by the DoD, Congress and higher. But it is something that was needed to make the OPCON transfer a reality.
No gripes…just curious as to what is the real story.
The range was started in 1951 when the Suwon AB was expanded to accommodate multiple fighter wings during the Korean War. The exact date of its origin remains unknown — but the location of an off-shore island (Nongdo: Target Island 1) and a beach front with a seaward approach were ideal.
Jerry Gergasko of Englewood, OH wrote in 2008, “I spent 7 months assigned to K-55, Osan. The entire time was spent at the Suwon Bomb & Gunnery Range.” He was assigned there as an Air Force Radio Operator between 1954-1955 from K-55 (Osan AB). The range supported all the units in the area. The call-sign for the range was “Turkey Trot”. The troops lived in a quonset hut directly on the beach which housed the radio equipment at the rear. In the main compound on the hill, there was the aircraft control tower. At times he stated that they would handle as many as 20 flights of 4 Sabres each in a day’s work.
Maehyang-ri, was small fishery village in Hwaseong City, located right next to the firing range. The village name combines the meaning of a Japanese apricot tree flower (Maehwa) and the sweet aromatic scent (Hyang). According to Korean reports, there were many apricot trees that were by the village beach in the past. Supposedly 3,200 villagers used to make their living by rice farming and harvesting crab, oyster, octopus, and other fisheries from the sea, which have been an important source of income for generations.
(L) Jerry inside quonset with radio (R) Foul line with 50 gal drums (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
Jerry said, “The first is that of myself taken inside the quonset hut. When I first arrived, all the radio equipment was located in the quonset which was also our quarters and kitchen. The second one is that of the foul line using empty 50 gallon drums painted red and white … these were done when we were getting ready for the FEAF gunnery mee in 1955. The key is the painted tower and foul line which was done in preparation for the meet.” He added, ” … if you look closely, I added text by the main compound, the storage shed and the main tower. At this time we only had 3 buildings. The quonset hut, the storage shed and an outhouse. “
(L) Painted Tower for FEAF Meet (R) Village Elders (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
Workers at Site: Tommy, Sammy and Ace (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
He continued, “The third shows the upper tower and hereto, we had painted it for the coming meet as it was just a drab color. You can see the radio building which was built later and housed the equipment. In the foreground is the panel which was painted red on one side and white on the other. If we had a problem and the range was closed we flipped the panel to the red side up … the white side up indicated we were open. The fourth picture shows the village leaders on a Sunday morning walk as they enjoyed coming to visit. The fifth was taken at a nearby Homer site … I do not recall the name …” Jerry stated, “…all of us at the range got along extremely well with the local villagers. At times they invited us to thing going on and one of our boys was married while I was still there. The old gentleman farmers would take their Sunday morning walks to the range at times and in no way, during my 7 months, were there ever any hostilities between us and the nearby village.” The photo of Tommy, Sammy, and Ace are boys from Maehyang-ri who worked at the range. Their hats say “Turkey Trot.”
(L) FEAF Radio Building (R) FEAF Viewing Area (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
The photos of the Quonset hut that housed the radio equipment for Turkey Trot. In the second photo is the quonset hut decorated with a “Welcome Home” sign after Jerry returned from R&R.
(L) Quonset Hut — Turkey Trot (R) Quonset Hut with “Welcome Home” Sign (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
The technique for “bomb skipping” used conventional bombs to skip the bomb over the surface of the water to impact into the side of dams — and proved very effective in the waning days of the Korean War when all the dams were destroyed in the North. The “Homer” Site was a restricted radio relay site operated by the 1246th AACS. The 1246th Airways and Air Communication Service (AACS) operated sites and control towers throughout Korea.
(L) FEAF Skip Bombing (R) Jerry at Nearby Homer Site (1955) (Jerry Gergasko)
Joshua has a question for everyone, is America too nice to South Korea?:
Is the problem that we’re too damn nice? Or is it just that as long as they sleep under Uncle Sam’s blanket, Koreans will never see their interests and the dangers beyond with anything resembling rational clarity? Of course, the threats of which we speak are much more threats to South Korea than to America, so we have only ourselves to blame if we’re being used. I doubt that most Americans even know we still have troops in Korea, so it’s little wonder they’re not questioning the reason for that increasingly anachronistic presence. [One Free Korea]
This has to be one of the strangest headlines I have written on this blog, but it is totally true:
Around 11:30 this morning, a foreign man went skinny dipping in the moat of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Here’s a video of him in action. The 40-year-old man stripped naked and jumped into the moat, and it took over an hour and a half for police to capture him. As you can see from the video, he threw rocks at anyone who approached him in the water and clearly did not want to be apprehended.
It is not clear why the man went skinny dipping, but it may have had something to do with a group of foreign tourists that had been speaking to officers about a lost bag at a nearby police box at the same time the man prepared to make his jump into the moat. [Japan Probe]
I’m willing to bet this guy had his passport and money in the bag and when the police weren’t cooperative to retrieve it, he took matters into his own hands and things just escalated from there. No excuse for his behavior of course because it was totally ridiculous.
For you all stationed in the 2ID area here is an event going on over the upcoming four day weekend that is definitely worth checking out:
Oktoberfest 2008 is to be held on 11 Oct in Dongducheon. American Steel Motorcycle Club (ASMC) Korea Chapter, has organized the event which is being sponsored by DMZ Car Sales. They plan on having Hooters girls, 6 bands, brauts, and Heineken is providing quite a bit of beer,
Everyone is welcome, biker, GI, Koreans, non-biker, whoever. It doesn’t matter if you have two wheels, four wheels, no wheels feel free to check it out. Over 200 bikes are expected to register in the event. The motorcycle ride will begin at 1130-1430 and entrance fee is only 15,000W for a single rider and 20,000W for dual riders. This cost includes memorable t-shirts. The free concert will begin at 3PM and end at 10PM. There will be plenty of food, beverages, prizes for BEST looking bike and other raffles throughout the day.
Sounds like a great time and definitely worth checking out.
Another month and more court martial results. This month there was only three court martials for the usual stupid stuff. However, this month has the most ROK criminal prosecutions that I can ever remember seeing with ten cases tried. Out of those 10 convictions, three of them were for DUI’s. That now makes 20 DUI’s for USFK servicemembers in 18 months. Not good. The rest of the incidents are nothing serious, just that there was a lot of them this month. It could be because the Korean court backlogged a number of incidents from this summer to be tried in September. Anyway below are the full court martial results:
The Article 32 hearing for the soldier involved in the alleged rape of an Filipina juicy girl on Okinawa Island has completed and a decision on whether to proceed with a trial or not is being awaited:
The defense called it “the sloppiest investigation this island has ever seen.”
The prosecution said “the government met its burden in each and every element of the case.”
Now it’s up to the Article 32 investigating officer to make a recommendation whether Army Spc. Ronald Hopstock Jr., 25, should face a general court-martial for the alleged rape of a bar worker Feb. 17 in an Okinawa City hotel.
The three-day hearing, similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian courts, ended here Monday. Lt. Col. Seth Sherwood, who presided over the hearing, said he will make a recommendation to the convening authority within the next few weeks.
He reminded those present at the hearing Monday that his task was merely to report whether there was enough evidence to warrant a trial. [Stars & Stripes]
The defense made some good points that I think shows that this may not have been a rape:
During three days of testimony, the defense introduced evidence that the woman, known publicly only as Hazel, had many chances to report she had been raped but didn’t until hours later when she was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Lead defense attorney Capt. Tim Bilecki seized upon that delay in his argument for not proceeding to a general court-martial.
“There was no objection to being in the room alone with Hopstock,” Bilecki said, pointing out that the soldier let Hazel call another dancer from the bar, who was in another room with other dancers and a group of Marines.
“She could have told her in Tagalog [her native Philippine language] that she had been raped, but she didn’t even want to talk to her friend,” Bilecki said. “She could have run out of the room. But she didn’t because she wasn’t raped.”
Bilecki argued that the bleeding was caused by Hazel’s rare medical condition. Suffering from androgen insensitivity syndrome, Hazel is genetically a male and has a small vagina but no cervix, doctor’s testified during the hearing. Sex with Hopstock caused a serious internal tear, Bilecki contended.
He said Hopstock immediately stopped all sexual activity when he realized Hazel was bleeding and tried to help her, but she refused to get help from friends or go to a hospital. Later, Hopstock spent his last $20 to pay a cabbie to take Hazel to the Awase house she shared with the other bar girls. But it was just her third day on the island and she did not know how to get home.
The cab took her back to the hotel, where she sat in the lobby, looking pale and woozy, until the hotel staff called for an ambulance.
They testified by telephone Monday that Hazel never mentioned she had been raped.
It will be interesting to see if this goes to trial because of evidence involved or to appease public sentiment on Okinawa.
Here is some news for all you USFK contractors out there:
U.S. Forces Korea officials are denying status of forces agreement visa renewals to many civilian contractors who lived in South Korea under a different visa when they were hired.
Most contractors who lived in South Korea for more than a year under a different visa — even if that was 15 years ago — are considered “ordinarily resident” in South Korea and are ineligible for SOFA status, according to USFK regulations.
The sudden scrutiny comes on the heels of an audit of USFK’s procedures and its compliance with the regulation guiding the invited contractor program.
“An ongoing Army Audit Agency audit has revealed that USFK Regulation 700-19 was not properly enforced by [USFK Chief of Staff, Acquisition Management],” USFK wrote via e-mail following a Stars and Stripes query.
As a result, some invited contractors who have worked with USFK for decades and have top secret clearances are losing their SOFA visas — and in some cases, the jobs that require that status. [Stars & Stripes]
Hopefully none of you contractors out there reading this lose your job over something that is not your fault like this.
I highly recommend this blog posting from Stephen F. Hayes that summarizes quite well the United States’ North Korea policy headed by Christopher Hill:
Do you ever get the sense that if North Korea actually used a nuclear weapon in an offensive attack that Chris Hill and the State Department would still be trying to make a deal?
In response to the latest provocation from the North Koreans, Hill and his colleagues are proposing a new “choreography” for the futile negotiations. Dancing seems somehow appropriate at this stage, given the stories about Hill’s collegial drinking with his North Korean counterparts and his friendly toasts to honor them. (”We pulled out all the stops,” one US diplomat told author Mike Chinoy about the festivities.)
It’s hardly worth going back over all of the twists and turns of US-North Korean nuclear diplomacy in order to look at the Bush administration’s current embarrassing position. The pattern has been set, with relatively minor interruptions of sanity, since 1994: the US makes tough-sounding threats, North Korea cheats/provokes/lies, the US expresses disappointment and then offers second-chances accompanied by generous concessions. [The Weekly Standard via One Free Korea]
I surely hope no one is surprised by the fact that North Korea was using the Geumgang Tourist Resort to launder counterfeit money:
A governing party lawmaker claimed Sunday that the Ministry of Unification tried to cover up the existence of counterfeit U.S. dollar bills in circulation in the Mt. Geumgang tourist zone in North Korea.
Rep. Lee Jung-hyun of the Grand National Party (GNP) said that 62 counterfeit U.S. dollar bills ? 61 one-hundred dollar bills and one 50-dollar bill ? had been identified as being in circulation in the Mt. Geumgang tourist zone, including hot springs and duty-free shops since 2005.
According to documents released by Hyundai Asan and National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, 12 counterfeit dollar bills were reported in 2005 in the area; 36 in 2006; and 14 in 2007.
“The Ministry of Unification consistently denied it. But suddenly it changed its attitude and said recently that it found 10 counterfeit bills, following my tenacious questioning about it,” the lawmaker said. [Korea Times]
This news shouldn’t surprise anyone other then my initial though of, that’s all they spent?:
Poverty-stricken North Korea purchased foreign weapons systems worth $65 million over the past five years despite its lingering food crisis, a lawmaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said Monday.
Quoting documents submitted by intelligence authorities for a parliamentary audit of government agencies, Rep. Kwon Young-se of the conservative GNP said the North spent an annual $13 million on weapons from China, Russia, Slovakia and Germany over the past five years.
Kwon, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Trade, Unification Committee, raised suspicion that South Korea’s aid programs during the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration could be linked to the North’s weapons purchase. [Korea Times]
Keep in min this $65 million is only for foreign weapons purchases. I suspect much of the so called aid money from the Roh Moo-hyun years was used to develop their domestic ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs that made large advances during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.
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