XBradTC

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XBradTC

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ROK to be integrated in 2ID Headquarters

About 30 officers from the South Korean army will become part of the 2nd Infantry Division headquarters Thursday as part of a sweeping and unprecedented restructuring of the American headquarters. The 30 officers, to include a brigadier general, will become part of what officials are calling a combined division stationed in the Republic of Korea.…

About 30 officers from the South Korean army will become part of the 2nd Infantry Division headquarters Thursday as part of a sweeping and unprecedented restructuring of the American headquarters.

The 30 officers, to include a brigadier general, will become part of what officials are calling a combined division stationed in the Republic of Korea. As the division builds its combined structure over the coming months, even more South Korean officers, as well as noncommissioned officers, could be added to the headquarters.

via .

Interesting. I’m not exactly sure how beneficial this is. If the 2ID hasn’t forged a close working relationship with the ROK in the last 60 years, I don’t know how much this will help.

The other interesting issue is 2ID itself. The division headquarters is there, but there is only one BCT of US troops there, and it will be replaced by a rotation of US based BCTs on 9 month tours. How sustainable that will be with other rotational requirements is an open question.

For instance, USARPAC has a new program where rather than sending one battalion to a training exercise with a partner nation, and a different battalion to the next partner nation exercise, instead, one unit will spend approximately 9 months deployed to a series of training events with several different host nations. I’m sure that will be terribly popular with the troops. It was one thing to deploy for a month to the third world and then return to home station. If soldiers wanted continuous 9 month deployments, they’d be sailors.

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  1. Esli

    Plenty beneficial, in my opinion. Much of this is about reassurance. The RAF force aligned with ROK is hugely political. The initial CABs going there (incidentally, my former BN is there right now) were required to be fully manned, fully trained and fully equipped, and to remain such throughout their rotation: i.e. nobody would rotate out of theater for the duration. This is US political commitment to ROK in action. Consider the DIV HQ, now. I am not sure what all US combat capability is left to be called Divisional forces under 2ID as they are deactivating the remaining maneuver BCT there and replacing it with a RAF / rotational BCT. I assume that 2ID would command ROK forces in the event of a fight. Why not have a package of ROK staff augmenting the DIV? Plus you get intangible benefits such as mil-to-mil interaction, exchange of techniques and procedures, and a level of transparency in what the 2ID HQ is doing. Annnnndddd, in an army that is ever thinner, 30 American staff replaced by ROK Army are 30 staffers that are available to go somewhere else. Multinational forces are the way of the future, not only for NATO, but for US forces.

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  2. xbradtc

    Thanks for a different perspective. You make good points.

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  3. timactual

    On the plus side (I guess) there will be no more dependents in S. Korea. Cheaper, less administrative overhead, fewer worries for married servicemen and simpler logistics if the balloon goes up.

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