Secretary of the Army Pete Geren stands a few feet away from a curious North Korean soldier while standing within the Conference Row Building T-2 at the Demilitarized Zone’s Joint Security Area on Monday. North Korean soldiers rarely come that close during regular tourist visits, soldiers said. (Photo By Erik Slavin/S&S)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Longer tours for soldiers in South Korea will happen "in the not-too-distant future," according to the Army’s top civilian leader.
"It’s an issue that is in front of the Department of Defense today," Army Secretary Pete Geren said Monday during an interview at American Forces Network-Korea studios on Yongsan Garrison.
"I feel confident that we’re going to have tour normalization in the not-too-distant future," Geren said, adding that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has personally endorsed the idea.
The move toward "tour normalization" is a long-term goal for military leaders within U.S. Forces Korea. Currently, about 80 percent of U.S. soldiers in South Korea serve one-year tours without DOD-sponsored accompanyment of their families
Commanders would like to increase the assignment to two years for soldiers who come without families and three years for those who have permission to bring their dependents. Most other commands in Europe and the United States use these longer tours.
Geren also said that no other units currently assigned to South Korea are slated to move permanently off the peninsula.
Earlier this month, military officials announced that half of the Army’s Apache helicopter force will leave South Korea in March for a new home at Fort Carson, Colo. The move will allow the battalion — currently part of the 2nd Combat Aviation — to ready for a deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan about a year from now.
A dozen A-10 jets will arrive in South Korea next March as part of a rotational deployment to replace the Apache forces, Geren said.
Geren is in South Korea to tour military bases and meet with soldiers before the Thanksgiving holiday. On Monday, he also toured the Joint Security Area, part of the Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea and South Korea.
At Camp Bonifas, which borders the DMZ, he thanked the soldiers of the United Nations Command Security Battalion for spending their Thanksgiving at the remote base.
He then toured the Joint Security Area’s Conference Row, where three buildings sit directly on top of the military demarcation line.
While inside one of the buildings, North Korean soldiers came up to the windows and stared at Geren and the roughly 20 soldiers and guests in his entourage. North Korean soldiers rarely come so close for regular tour groups, soldiers said.
After finishing the JSA tour, Geren visited "The Third Tunnel," one of four infiltration tunnels dug by North Koreans that have been found. The narrow tunnel, found in 1978, is about 240 feet below ground.
A former congressman from Texas, Geren began working at the Pentagon in 2001. He became secretary of the Army in July 2007.
Geren also was visiting with soldiers and commanders early this week to promote November as "Warrior Care Month," an effort to put wounded soldiers and their families first.
Currently, 90 percent of soldiers wounded at war survive, Geren said. Some will need medical care for the rest of their careers and lives.
Wounded soldiers’ outpatient care came under sharp scrutiny two years ago after reports of lax care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Since then, the Army has created Warrior Transition Units to provide more support for soldiers as they heal.
"We are reaffirming our commitment to our wounded, ill and injured," he said, "and also saying thank you to the extraordinary personnel in Army medicine."
