South Korea Becomes The New Europe (No more hardship tours)

Strategy Page ^ | 6/11/08

[Dawnsblood]

U.S. troops serving one year tours in South Korea will now be there three years, and can bring their families with them. For over half a century, American troops in South Korea were serving what was known as an "unaccompanied" (by family) tour. More colloquially, it was called a "hardship tour," but it was only rough on the married troops. The single guys, and many of the married ones, took advantage of the cheap booze and inexpensive prostitutes to take the edge off the "hardship." But in the last three decades, South Korea has turned into a first world economy, with all the amenities that Americans take for granted. The hookers are not only more expensive, but increasingly illegal.

At the same time, the U.S. forces in South Korea have shrunk from over 100,000 troops, to under 30,000. These days, the well equipped South Korea forces are believed capable of handling any invasion from the north. At the same time, communist North Korea has suffered famine and economic collapse since the end of the Cold War in 1991, and the end of Russian and Chinese subsidies that propped up the mismanaged economy. The North Korean military has, especially in the last decade, declined from lack of fuel for training and money for new equipment. The North Koreans are still a threat, but South Korea is more worried about the human and fiscal fallout from a collapse of the North Korean government, and a reunification of Korea. That chaos will be paid for by the newly affluent taxpayers of South Korea, and the policed initially by South Korean troops. The small American force will, as always, be there mainly to guarantee U.S. reinforcements if the Chinese march into North Korea.

[Centurion2000]

The North Koreans are still a threat, but South Korea is more worried about the human and fiscal fallout from a collapse of the North Korean government, and a reunification of Korea.

Actually if that happens expect a mass invasion from China and a 'new reformed regime' in North Korea before we can blink.

[driftdiver]

This move will probably save a lot of marriages. I expect part of the decision was due to all the other deployments and ‘short’ tours currently taking place.

[Dacus943]

Guys - I was in the process of a divorce during my deployment to Korea late 70's. Young, and considered single by the local girls, I never thought of Korea as a hardship.

Love Korea, the people, I even acquired a life long taste for GOOD kimchi.

Thank goodness someone woke up and changed this tour so families can stay togeter.

[AlaskaErik]

One of my gripes about a tour in Korea is that it qualifies you for VFW membership. Let me see...spend a year in Korea, get drunk, play with hookers, walk the alleys and get great deals and then qualify for VFW membership. I would be too humiliated to show my face at a VFW post if that's how I got my membership. And for the record, I qualified for VFW membership the old fashioned way...I went to a combat zone.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Actually if that happens expect a mass invasion from China and a 'new reformed regime' in North Korea before we can blink.

I'm not so sure.

North Korea has been a liability to China for the last decade or so. They might be just as happy to saddle South Korea with North Korea in the case of a collapse of the North Korean government. It would put a severe economic drag on South Korea and take out a major competitor in the Asian sphere.

[AmericanInTokyo]

When you see well-heeled, cash rich, incredibly beautiful Korean yuppie women, frequenting establishments for lonely GIs, and then paying THEM to leave the bar and go with them on a one night tryst (essentially some US troops prostituting themselves), you know the world has turned 180 from the old days when Uncle Herbert or Grandpa Johnson or Dad was stationed over there, holding their noses as they passed the "honey carts", throwing out sticks of Chicklets to the begging masses.

Some of these young American kids nowadays in uniform in Asia cannot even go off base to have some fun R/R because things are horrendously priced in Japan or Korea if one wanders out the back gate and around the host community with only US bucks in one's pocket.

This is the new reality of Asia.

Do many Americans understand the power of Asian money, the rising standards, and the corrolary decay of American money and influence? An incredible reversal of fortunes. I guess things change.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Yeah, my Dad was in Kunsan for a year and he refuses to get a VFW membership based on that.

[The_Reader_David]

Even so, it would be a net gain for the people in North Korea to live under a prosperous Chinese-fascist style regime, rather than the lunatic more-Stalinist-than-Stalin misgovernment they have now.

[gogogodzilla]

So, will our troops be allowed to drive, ship a car over, live in apartments on the economy, and not be subject to curfew... just like they do in Europe?

Or will it simply be a 3-year hardship tour?

[Spider Dan]

Qualifying for VFW membership, just for serving a tour in Korea, is not a bad thing. If you served in a cushy rear echelon unit, then you might feel a bit apprehensive showing up at a VFW meeting with those that saw action. I know of a couple of units that stayed deep in the heat — the members of the Joint Security Force at Panmunjom and those battalions of 2nd Infantry working the DMZ.

Without question, those people qualify.