korea tour length us army

 KOREA TOUR LENGTHS

Good information if you are Hot for a Remote..

 1. Request widest dissemination of this message. 2. The under secretary of defense (personnel and readiness) approved tour length changes for service members permanently assigned to Korea.

Tour lengths now include the following:

• Korea (except as indicated) - 36/24 months accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Chongju AB - na accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Dongducheon (Camp Casey, Hovey, Mobile, Castle) - 24 months accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Gwangju AB (ROK) - na accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Joint security area - na accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Kunsan AB - na accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Mujak/pohang - na accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied
• Uijeongbu (Camps Jackson, Red Cloud, and Stanley) - 24 months accompanied; 12 months unaccompanied

3. Members will be eligible to serve accompanied tours only when offered and accept command sponsorship. Service members not eligible to serve accompanied tours will serve unaccompanied tours. 4. To increase volunteers for extended service and promote unit/personal stability, eligible members may elect Korea Assignment Incentive Pay (KAIP). $300.00 monthly payments will be authorized for members agreeing to serve the following tours:

• 24 months unaccompanied
• 36 months unaccompanied
• 24 months accompanied (offered and accept command sponsorship) in Dongducheon and Uijeonbu
• 36 months accompanied (offered and accept command sponsorship) detailed program requirements and application/processing procedures will be specified in subsequent message.

5. Members assigned to locations with limited command sponsorship benefits (Dongducheon and Uijeonbu) are required to be counseled/acknowledge in writing limited benefits and may be eligible to request an overseas housing allowance (OHA) waiver if applicable. 6. AF implementation is scheduled for 2 Jun 09. A PSDN outlining complete program specifics will be forthcoming from AFPC/DPA. 7. This is a coordinated AF/A1P and AFPC/DPA message.

Copyright © 2009 AFMENTOR. All rights reserved.  View Terms and Conditions of Use . Revised: 10/21/09.

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U.S. Commander in South Korea Wants to Examine Tour Lengths

Washington, district of columbia, united states, story by jim garamone  , office of the secretary of defense public affairs   october 2023">     july 2023">     may 2022">     april 2022">     february 2022">  .

By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON - The U.S. commander in South Korea wants to re-examine the tour length for personnel assigned to the peninsula. Army Gen. B.B. Bell said in an interview that he will speak with defense leaders this week about making more assignments to Korea accompanied tours. "We contribute to a continuation of this separation of service members from their families," he said. "Almost 90 percent of my force is still on a one-year unaccompanied tour." Only certain assignments in South Korea are two-year accompanied tours. The U.S. assignment policy has not changed in South Korea for generations, yet the basis for making the decision for unaccompanied tours has changed tremendously. South Korea has made significant economic progress in the last 30 years and is now the 11th largest economy in the world. South Korea is a first-world economy with first-world facilities. Thirty years ago, American families would have faced real hardships if they were assigned to Korea, but that is no longer the case, Bell said. The general said deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan are adding to the time service members spend away from their families. He told of meeting a young Army captain who had deployed to Iraq, went back to Fort Lewis, Wash., and then received orders for Korea. The officer, now assigned near the demilitarized zone, had a daughter who was 2-and-a-half years old. "He had only seen her for eight months," Bell said. "We can do better than that. We need to look at accompanied tours." A number of aspects complicate any proposal changing the assignment policy, the general said, and he will discuss the whole situation with senior leaders on the Joint Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "I am arguing for a slow, but real movement to more accompanied tours over there," he said. Under agreements with the Republic of Korea, U.S. forces are moving out of camps established at the end of the Korean War in 1953. As the U.S. forces move from the DMZ and from the headquarters in Seoul, U.S. officials have the perfect opportunity to re-examine the short-tour approach to assignments, he said. There are downsides, the general said. More infrastructure such as schools, clinics, day care centers and shopping facilities, would be needed. Defense leaders would have to determine if troops in South Korea on long tours would be available for deployments out of the country. "The global force pool issue has to be a part of any decision," he said. All these issues would be subject to discussions with South Korean allies. Families are indirectly telling defense leaders they want the long tours. Spouses are free to travel to Korea already, Bell said. "Over 2,000 families have traveled there to be with their service members and to connect with service members in spite of the fact that they are not authorized," he said. "They would rather be together as a family with some complexities than spend another year apart. They are speaking with their feet and their passports." Any change would take years to accomplish, Bell said. It would be hand-in-hand with consolidation of U.S. forces in the country. That movement is proceeding, as South Korea takes on the major portion of the ground defense of the nation. The stationing of American troops in South Korea was based on the theory that U.S. forces would block the traditional invasion corridors across the DMZ as a signal that the United States was "ready to fight tonight," Bell said. The western corridor already has been turned over to the South Korean 1st Infantry Division, and the theory now is that American forces would consolidate at main operating bases. The biggest is scheduled to be built in Pyongtaek – out of artillery range, but not missile range, of North Korean forces on the DMZ. More than 1,000 trucks a day are working at Pyongtaek, adjacent to Camp Humphries, to establish the base. "This allows us to consolidate, while at the same time doing something that is desperately needed: changing the quality of life for American troops in South Korea," he said. The move also takes American troops out of high-visibility areas, and places them in areas where training can take place. The move will cost $10 billion, with South Korea paying the lion's share of it.

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Some US soldiers could see $5K bonus for extending their South Korea tour

Black Hawk helicopter mechanics are among the soldiers eligible for up to a $5,000 bonus for extending their tours in South Korea by one year. (Travis Mueller/U.S. Army)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — Eighth Army troops in jobs on a critical shortage list may earn up to $5,000 for extending their tours in South Korea for another year.

Career specialties on the critical list are eligible for that incentive; jobs deemed “understrength” could be offered $3,600, Eighth Army assistant chief of staff Col. R. Arron Lummer said by email Tuesday.

The critical list includes fire control specialists, rocket system crew members, Black Hawk helicopter mechanics, information technology specialists, satellite communication systems operators, military working dog handlers, preventive medicine specialists, wheeled vehicle mechanics, culinary specialists and AH-64E Apache helicopter pilots.

Understrength jobs include combat engineers, joint fire support specialists, air defense enhanced early warning system operators, air traffic controllers, cavalry scouts and utilities equipment repairers.

The bonuses are dispersed to eligible soldiers in a lump sum on the first day of their extended yearlong tour in South Korea.

The incentive program is part of Eighth Army’s annual funding request to the Department of the Army, Lummer said. The program gives commanders “a financial incentive tool to increase unit readiness and team cohesion,” he said.

The lists of undermanned jobs are reviewed monthly and are changed depending on “impacts to mission readiness,” Lummer said.

Most soldiers are eligible for the $3,600 bonus “and we encourage anyone interested to talk to their command team and unit personnel office so they can choose the best option to remain on an assignment of purpose here in South Korea,” Lummer said.

Soldiers may receive the incentive pay twice; however, they may be eligible for other bonuses if they wish to extend, such as an in-place consecutive overseas tour or a foreign service tour extension bonus.

Soldiers who are accompanied by their families in South Korea typically serve two-year tours; unaccompanied soldiers serve one year.

Roughly 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, most of them at Camp Humphreys, about 40 miles south of Seoul.

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Single Soldiers to Face Longer OCONUS Tours

Single soldiers will soon see longer tours at duty stations in Europe and Japan as Army officials look to decrease the costs of moving families worldwide.

Right now, soldiers with no dependents are typically sent to Europe and Japan on 24-month rotations, while those with dependents get 36-month tours with their families or 12-month tours if unaccompanied.

Starting June 14, however, tours for single soldiers will be extended to 36 months, Army officials announced Tuesday in a news release. No changes were announced to tour lengths for soldiers with families.

"This policy applies to all soldiers without dependents, who receive PCS orders to the approved locations in Europe and Japan after June 14, 2019," the announcement states. "The Army estimates that this policy will affect approximately 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers every year."

Officials said the longer overseas tour burden on single soldiers will not only slow the turnover in impacted units, but also lower the cost of relocating those who move with family members.

"The change in the overseas tour length policy will improve readiness by increasing soldier stability for commanders," the release states. "It will also increase permanency for soldiers and their families at assigned locations and ultimately help to reduce PCS-related costs for the Army."

The new Army policy comes as the Pentagon is looking for ways to reduce military move costs by privatizing the system and stem the tide of move-related complaints.

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at [email protected] .

Amy Bushatz

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Gates discusses Korea tour lengths, Army deployments

CAMP CASEY, South Korea: Tour lengths for servicemembers assigned to South Korea and the Army’s deployment cycles were on the minds of Soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team when they met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates here today.

After making prepared remarks to about 300 Soldiers at this post about 20 miles from Korea’s demilitarized zone, Gates opened the floor to questions.

One Soldier wanted to know if the standard tour length for unaccompanied servicemembers would be doubled to two years.

Gates replied that he approved the idea of “tour normalization” in South Korea a couple of years ago. “What we’re looking at is a two-year tour for single members of the service and three-year [tours] for families,” he said. “We’re proceeding with the first phase in terms of families.”

It’s a long-term process, the secretary explained, partly because greater numbers of command-sponsored families means more infrastructure is needed to support their needs.

“We think the circumstances are such … that this is a place where American families would be comfortable and would be safe,” he said, “and would make the service of our men and women in uniform more bearable for the families.”

Gen. Walter “Skip” Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, pointed out to Gates that the decision has begun to have an effect. Two years ago, about 1,600 U.S. military families were living in South Korea, a number that has reached more than 4,200.

“Even up here at 2nd Infantry Division, they have about 600 families that are command-sponsored right now,” Sharp said. “[We’re] making sure that we build the infrastructure in order to be able to have even more families come, to the point where we can eventually allow all families to come, to get to about 14,000 families [in South Korea].”

Another Soldier wanted to know what Gates thinks about Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr.’s desire to reduce combat deployments for Soldiers, which now are a year long, to nine months.

“One of the reasons that the Army has had 12-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, in contrast to [the other services], among other things, has just been the logistics,” Gates said. “Trying to move as many forces as the Army had in Iraq and Afghanistan on nine-month centers has just been beyond our capability.”

Gates said he believes Casey expects that as stress on the force comes down with drawdowns in Iraq and upon reaching the authorized strength in Afghanistan, the Army can go to one-year combat tours followed by two years at home stations, and then work from there toward a 1-to-3 ratio.

“And I know that it is his goal, once we’re not involved in these two wars simultaneously, to be able to get to nine-month deployments, which would obviously be a lot easier on troops and their families,” Gates said.

“But I won’t kid you,” he added. “I still think it’s a long ways away.”

Gates, who had begun his formal remarks by offering his thanks to the Soldiers for their service and to their families for supporting them, took time after the question-and-answer session to shake hands with each Soldier, pose for pictures with them, and present them with his commemorative coin.

The secretary later met with Defense Minister Kim Tae-young in the South Korean capital of Seoul, and tomorrow he’ll join Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Korea’s demilitarized zone. The two cabinet officers are visiting South Korea this week to participate in the first “Two-plus-Two Talks” between the long-time allies.

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• MILITARY HISTORY DISCUSSIONS

Korean War Tour of Duty

By emccomas, December 8, 2010 in MILITARY HISTORY DISCUSSIONS

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For someone who was drafted in the US Army in 1950, and was sent to Korea an an infantryman, three questions:

1. How long would this person normally have served in country in Korea.?

2. How long would this person have served in the Army total, assuming he did not re-enlist?

3. If this solder was subsequently assigned as an instructor on the M1917 water cooled .30 caliber machine gun, where

would that assignment have taken place (what base, assuming it was stateside).

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2, Two years

1. No tour - he would have served from arrival until it was time to come home for discharge. Tours began in VietNam.

3. Any Infantry Training Base where he nay have been assigned.

My 2-cents -----Bobgee

• 12 years later...

S.ChrisKelly

Hope this helps.  It dispels the myth that there was a "points system" (the Adjusted Service Rating or ASR) only during World War Two.  Check out the additional information in the sources.  The narrative below is quoted from source 1).

In September 1951 the Army had introduced a point system that tried to take into account the nature of individual service when determining eligibility for rotation home to the United States. According to this system, a soldier earned four points for every month he served in close combat, two points per month for rear-echelon duty in Korea, and one point for duty elsewhere in the Far East. Later, an additional category-divisional reserve status-was established at a rate of three points per month. The Army initially stated that enlisted men needed to earn forty-three points to be eligible for rotation back to the States, while officers required fifty-five points. In June 1952 the Army reduced these requirements to thirty-six points for enlisted men and thirty-seven points for officers. Earning the required number of points did not guarantee instant rotation; it only meant that the soldier in question was eligible to go home. Nevertheless, most soldiers did return home shortly after they met the requirement.

The point system was a marvelous palliative to flagging spirits, as it gave every soldier a definite goal in an otherwise indefinite and seemingly goalless war. Every man knew that typical frontline duty would enable him to return home after about a year of service in Korea. The system also helped boost the spirits of loved ones back home. This was of some consequence in helping to maintain public support for what was an increasingly unpopular war. Yet for all of its psychological and political benefits, the program was not without its costs.

The constant turnover generated by the policy-approximately 20,000 to 30,000 men per month-was terribly inefficient from the vantage point of manpower administration and created tremendous strains on the Army's personnel and training systems. The program also hurt military proficiency by increasing personnel turbulence and by producing a continuous drain on skilled manpower. No sooner had a soldier become fully acclimatized to the physical, mental, and technical demands of Korean combat than he was rotated home, only to be replaced by a green recruit who lacked these skills. This was true not only of the enlisted men, who were rushed to the front with little or no field training, but of the officers as well.

Indeed, by the fall of 1952 most junior officers with World War II combat experience had been rotated home and replaced by recent Reserve Officers' Training Corps graduates who had neither command nor combat experience. In a sinister twist, the system also reduced the effectiveness of many veteran soldiers, who became progressively more cautious and unreliable in combat as their eligibility for rotation neared. All of this meant that combat proficiency tended to stagnate in American units during the course of the war. This contrasted sharply with those Communist units that had avoided heavy casualties and managed to keep their morale intact. In these units battlefield acumen steadily increased as the war progressed thanks to the Communists' rather Draconian personnel policies. In the Red Army, victory or death were the only ways home.

https://history.army.mil/brochures/kw-stale/stale.htm#:~:text=According to this system%2C a,of three points per month.

https://greensboro.com/point-system-flaws-become-evident-in-korea/article_7f0fb634-350a-5b25-a076-8ed37f1a4c32.html

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Previously, J-Hope wowed fans with his iconic performance at Lollapalooza . Now, fans are curious if J-Hope will fulfill their wishes post-military with a solo tour.

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pic.twitter.com/Xnqska6jDp — tiketX Official (@tiketXid) June 26, 2024

Fans speculated based on their passed tweets that whenever a silhouette of an artist is posted, they eventually confirm their upcoming concert.

yall they tweeted the same thing for bruno mars in 2023 and they just confirmed his concert this year wtf we’re getting a world tour next year what😭 https://t.co/fCB0wFffgQ pic.twitter.com/iRrZ4Q42V3 — emanon“ots” (@hixt4pecult) June 26, 2024

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Tensions escalate at ukraine border as eu drops new sanctions on russian ally belarus.

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Tensions are growing at the border Ukraine shares with Belarus, one of the Kremlin’s strongest allies in its ongoing war against the Eastern European nation.

“The situation on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border is characterized by increasing tension,” Vadim Lukashevich, a deputy commander of special operations forces for the Belarus Armed Forces, told state-owned media outlet BELTA . “A coalition of Western countries has unleashed a heated conflict near our territory. They are attempting to drag our country into war.”

Russia sent troops into Ukraine from Belarus during its initial invasion in February 2022, but the country has largely stayed out of the conflict.

Now, Belarus is accusing Ukraine of getting ready to attack by sending more troops, weapons, and US-supplied military equipment to the northern region of Zhytomyr, which borders Belarus.

“We have information that Ukraine is amassing troops, weapons, and military equipment near our borders,” Lukashevich said. “In particular, American infantry fighting vehicles, multiple launch rocket systems, heavy long-range artillery, and other equipment have been deployed in the Zhytomyr region.”

Belarus in response bolstered its air defense forces at the border to take down any inbound drones deployed “to collect information about the Belarusian border infrastructure,” he continued.

He claimed Ukranian defenses set up on the border have “passages” through them that can be used “to penetrate into our territory in order to to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts here on our Belarusian soil.”

“We are ready to decisively use all available forces and means to protect our territory and the population of the Republic of Belarus from possible provocations in the airspace,” Andrei Severinchik, commander of the Belarusian Air Defense Forces, said in a statement.

But Ukraine insists it “ poses no threat ” to Belarus.

“On the contrary, we are forced to defend ourselves, including on the Belarusian front, as Belarus continues to support terrorists and previously opened its border to Russian invaders,” said Colonel Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service.

The friction at the border came as the European Council agreed to add more sanctions against Belarus, designed to close a loophole used to circumvent sanctions already in place against Russia.

“These comprehensive measures aim at mirroring several of the restrictive measures already in place against Russia, and thereby address the issue of circumvention stemming from the high degree of integration existing between the Russian and Belarusian economies,” the European Council said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are petitioning the European Council to build a defensive line along the bloc’s borders with Russia and Belarus, to protect the union from potential military incursions by Moscow.

In other developments:

• Ukraine has reportedly started using recently-acquired F-16 fighter jets to carry out strikes against Russia. The International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine has yet to confirm their use.
• The United Nations Security Council claimed to have compelling evidence Russia has used North Korean missiles in attacks on Ukraine. Inspectors reviewed the charred remnants of several missiles, determining they originated from North Korean.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will restart production of intermediate range missiles, after backing out of a treaty with the US. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, signed in 1988 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan, banned the manufacture of ground-based nuclear and conventional missiles capable of hitting targets between 300 and 3,400 miles away.

With Post wires

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South korea fires warning shots as north korean soldiers cross border again, japan sanctions china-based firms accused of supporting war in ukraine, can putin’s diplomacy help him counter western isolation.

“[The aircraft carrier’s arrival] demonstrates the strong combined defence posture of the South Korea-US alliance and their firm resolve to respond to the escalating threats from North Korea,” it said on Saturday.

The carrier is expected to participate in joint exercises with South Korea and Japan this month. Pyongyang has always decried similar combined drills as rehearsals for an invasion.

The leaders of the three nations had agreed at a summit in August 2023 to hold annual military training drills. Earlier this month, their defence chiefs announced new exercises aimed at sharpening their combined response in various areas including air, sea and cyberspace.

The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group comes a day after South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest against deal reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week. The pact pledges mutual defence assistance in the event of war.

Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years.

South Korea says the agreement between the two isolated nations poses a threat to its security and warned that it could consider sending arms to Ukraine to help fight off the Russian invasion as a response.

North Korean soldiers have also recently been engaged in activities such as laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads and adding what seemed to be antitank barriers near the border, according to the South Korean military.

The two Koreas have been locked in a tit-for-tat “balloon war” , with an activist in the South confirming on Friday that he had floated more balloons carrying propaganda north.

Pyongyang has already sent more than a thousand balloons carrying rubbish southwards, and Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong warned on Friday that the North is likely to retaliate.

Decades after war, North Korea still builds borders, draws warning shots

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Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Heinrich

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