2ID’s 1st ABCT to deactivate
Reuters reports the Army announcement to deactivate the 2d Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team in Korea. The mission of the brigade will be assumed by units rotating into the country from some-damn-where;
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the move was long-planned and did not represent a reduction in U.S. commitment to South Korean security. In fact, he said, similarly sized, fully trained units would be rotated into South Korea for nine-month tours.
Defense officials said the rotation of units that had trained together beforehand, rather than individuals who had to get to know their fellow soldiers upon arrival, could improve unit cohesion and readiness of U.S. forces in South Korea.
“There’s not loss in capability,” Warren said. “Some would argue that the capability might even be slightly higher because it’s a trained unit that arrives there in Korea.”
The Military Times says that the first unit to rotate into the slot will come from Fort Hood, Texas and the 1st Cavalry Division;
The Army plans to start rotating a BCT into South Korea in late summer 2015.
The first brigade to go is 2nd BCT, 1st Cavalry Division, of Fort Hood, Texas. About 4,600 soldiers from the unit will deploy in June, the Defense Department announced Thursday.
The plan is to rotate one BCT at a time into South Korea “like we’ve done in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 13 years,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno has said. “There’ll always be a brigade in Korea, but they’ll rotate from the United States.”
The Army tested its rotational model with battalion-sized units, beginning last fall when 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, was sent there for a nine-month tour.
In February, the Army deployed 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment to Korea.
I think the Army did the same thing in the mid-70s in Germany, but they abandoned the plan after a while because of costs involved with moving entire units into the theater, and then the units weren’t as familiar with the AO as units that were stationed there. There was no institutional memory related to the terrain and the mission in a particular area of operations. Everything old is new again.
Thanks to Andy for the Reuters link.
Category: Military issues
teh stupid strikes again.
12th Cav Regiment.
My last assignment before I retired.
I don’t necessarily think this is a bad move for an Army that is supposed to be more focused on expeditionary capability.
As the ME deployments stop it would be easy to fall back into garrison mentality and usually logistics capabilities suffer.
It was called Operation Gyroscope in West Germany way back in the day. It did not work so the units that rotated in stayed forever and ever.
IMO a far better solution would be to permanently forward-deploy one brigade of a division that is scheduled to reinforce Korea during a contingency. That would have the advantage of giving the reinforcing unit some people with local familiarity, while at the same time keeping personnel turbulence and costs to a manageable level. If the replacement personnel for 1-year unaccompanied tour rotations were drawn mainly from elements of the two divisional BCTs not forward-deployed, you’d also retain the bulk of your area knowledge at home station too.
Just my opinion. Must make too much sense for the folks in the 5-sided asylum to approve.
Idiotic… cost less money to maintain a single unit in place not to mention more a more cohesive and stable Unit there and from wherever the units rotating in and out are from.
This experiment has been tried before and ultimately abandoned. I took part in a Company, and then a Bn. Sized rotation between the 82d and SETAF with the 4th/325th ABCT and it was a cluster fuck. We didn’t even have an active war at the time, and the NORK’s have not suddenly started behaving, or become a diminished threat across the DMZ…
The idiocy just continues to grow in D.C.
Was that around 1995? I remember a lot non Airborne guys wearing our patch and berets.
Well,I’ll go ahead and give it an acronym right now. It shall henceforth be known as REFORKOR,so listen up Five Sided Asylum,I’ve already done your job for you.
My proposal – in the tradition of named Korean exercises like Team Spirit and Ulchi-Focus Lens – would be to treat this unit rotation/swapout as another annual exercise, and name it “Giant Cluster”.
It’s no longer called “Ulchi Focus Lens”. It’s now “Ulchi Freedom Guardian”
NICE!
I can see the news headline now: Change of Responsibility Ceremony Hit By Direct Artillery Fire. Update at 11.
CLAW131….LMAO!!!
“similarly sized, fully trained units would be rotated into South Korea for nine-month tours.”
Okay, that’s about enough time to get accustomed to the country and climate, the people, the customs, get drunk, catch the clap, get treated for same and then…rotate home.
There should be as before a permanent force there, well versed in the country and local people, knowledgeable of ROK forces and tactics and ready to withstand anything. But what the hell do I know?
Also, for all the poor troops coming from Iraq/Afghanistan tours into Korea. It ain’t the desert brothers. It’s colder than a well digger’s ass in winter! Of course this WILL mean…new camo patterns as well. The Pentagon is already on that one! Since when making fucked up decisions, that’s their go to playground of “We’re gettin’ shit fixed. Yea, new camo patterns for the new troops headed to Korea, that’s the ticket!”
Sparks, they can have all my stupid Blue Navy digi ones. I never wanted or used them. I mean they are in French Rifle Condition. It will match their noses and peckers when the Bush Bunnies call.
I believe the company that manufactures the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal/Korean Defense Medal is behind all of this. Because you know the AFEM/KDM will be awarded to all deployed troops. The Adjutants at the VFW/AL posts will be busier than one legged men at ass kicking contests just trying to keep up with all the new applicants.
Sparks, Don’t forget the songs “Get on your Turtle and Ride” and “Back to the Land of the Big PX” will be played a lot during the 9 month deployment.
I’m surprised they are not filling the gap by making this a permanent Guard mission ala Kosovo rotations.
JAGC..There ya go. An oldie but a goodie.
And of course since it will be a “deployment” GO #1 will be in effect for the whole 9 months of deployment. Plus the 3 months of pre-deployment MOB training. And the 2 week DEMOB.
Morale will sky rocket./sarc
Hey! I’m Guard. Don’t make jokes like that. Those knuckleheads in the Pentagon would probably think this is a good idea!
@JAGC,
Active duty took over the primary responsibility for KFOR in 2013. Some augmentees are still NG as well as the lift piece, but HQ is Active Duty.
Starting with KFOR 20, it will be back with the ARNG after three rotations of the active component. 256th BCT out of LA will be the HQ.
Marine Corps has been doing this for years in Okinawa. 4th Marine Regiment is a HQ only. The three infantry battalions that constitute the muscle of the Regiment all come from the United States on 6 month rotations. East Coast and West Coast battalions are on the hook to supply the units. The MEU that operates out of Oki is also a rotational unit.
In a related story:
LtCol Jimmy “Swollen Nuts” Full Moon Still Water Laughing Rabbit Yellow Snow, who is the Director of the Pentagon’s office of “Unit Consolidation Due to Inappropriate Use of Native American Images and or Likenesses” and a full blooded Indian said, “truth be told, the Redskinned Native American was just too much to bare”.
As I said in the “bar girls” thread, why do we even have troops in Korea anymore? The ROK army is as well equipped, trained and capable as any on the planet including ours. If NDtBF were to cross the MDL, they would stomp a mudhole in his troops (who would probably be more interested in deserting so they could get a meal of something other than grass and weeds.)
I understand that there was a time when we needed a combat presence in Korea to stiffen ROK resolve, to show the Soviets (who were the patrons of Kim Il Sung) that we were determined to defend the peninsula, and to reassure the ROK citizens that we would protect them against the godless commie hordes, but those days are long in the past.
At most all we need to keep in the ROK is the garrison at Yongsan and the support units South of Seoul. That’s enough of a “tripwire” to ensure that NDtBF would know that if he attacked the ROK he was attacking the US.
There should not be one American GI North of Uijongbu. Not one. Let the ROKs handle that, as they are eminently capable of doing.
FYI-
Units are INACTIVATED not Deactivated.
You are correct, and so many get it wrong. Army Regulation 220-5 details the terms.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s they tried a theme on this with the COHORT units, it didn’t work as planned, and was eventually abandoned.
Having spent considerable time (2 1/2+ yrs) in 2ID as a CPT in the mid 90’s, I don’t believe that this will either increase or decrease readiness to any appreciable extent. What you gain in unit cohesion and stability, you are going to loose in terms of area/cultural familiarization.
I don’t think this is a cost saver to the tax payer, as the entitlements for being deployed for only 9 months far outweigh the cost of PCSing a soldier (especially a single soldier) for a year.
My guess, is that this provides the Army with the carrot and stick of having everyone on some sort of deployment cycle and shows Congress that there are no permanent have and have not units (especially in specific districts).
“2 1/2+ yrs”-
and i thought 13 months was bad.
In all honesty, if I had known that it was going to be that long when I stepped of the plane (on a -5 degree evening in Kimpo), I would have cried.
I was there long enough to see some people PCS to the States and then be sent back several years later. Then LT/CPT Steve Warren (the Pentagon spokesman mentioned in the article above) was one. He had me beat by a long shot in terms of longevity: 3ys in 5/20 INF as an LT, following the advance course he put in another 3 yrs in the same unit after its conversion to 2/9 INF as a CPT.
Captains tended to stay longer in Korea as company command opportunities were generally dangled in front of them at some point. In the Army of the early and mid 90’s that was not something that was easily turned down, as (if you were lucky and got another TOE assignment) you would start at the bottom of the OML again upon PCSing to CONUS. LT’s follow on assignments were also leveraged, as the choice of duty following Korea for combat arms types was pretty limited to TDA assignments.
The oddity was that most unit institutional knowledge tended to reside with the LT’s and CPTs putting in 2 and 3 year tour and not the NCO’s who generally just did their 365 days.
Well, except for the fact that to keep 1 BCT “deployed” for the long term on a rotating basis actually takes 3 BCTs: 1 deployed, one recovering from the previous deployment (and thus not readily available for other contingencies), and 1 prepping to deploy (and thus not readily available for other contingencies).
This inane idea just took the equivalent of 3 BCTs out of the inventory of forces available for contingencies elsewhere. Brilliant.
They don’t call the Pentagon the Five Sided Asylum for nothing.
Hondo,
Thats true enough. But you can sell to a Congressman that their deployed and deploying units are at the cutting edge or readiness and budgeting.
It’s a shell game, but it’s much easier than having to explain to Congressperson X that the units in his/her post are going to be on the Army’s “have not” list for the next decade.
As a single officer/SR NCO one would be much better off financially being in a deployment status still collecting their BAH while in Korea, then having to give it up for being PCSd and living in (substandard) quarters.
The deployment also means that the Army doesn’t have to deal with the issue of not permitting 2ID soldiers to drive or have cars, and as someone mentioned earlier it might mean that we will see a much stronger G.O. 1 in effect for “deployed” troops than would otherwise be the case.
Luddite: “readiness” in 2id is a joke anyway. I was there a few years earlier than you, I think (91-92) and we used to say that you spent 5 1/2 months trying to learn your job, then you took a 30 day leave, and when you came back from that, you spent the next 5 1/2 months saying “SHORT!”, laughing at the new “turtles” and trying to figure out where your next assignment would be.
I never so so much reinventing-of-the-wheel as I did in Korea. There was NO institutional knowledge there (and I worked in Division G2.)
Hmmm,I wonder what will happen when everybody on the deployment goes on a meal card and BAS/Separate Rations are suspended for the duration? I’m sure that will go over big on the home front,especially for the married lower enlisted. Another excellent recruiting incentive from the head shed.
Oh,isn’t the current BAS rate up over $350.00 a month now for enlisted? That’s a pretty good chunk of money to learn how not to live with,especially if you have a few crumb snatchers to care for.
Or will they initiate a Family Separation Allowance in the same amount when the BAS is suspended to compensate? Same amount of money,just with another name. Lots of things to think about if this goes forward.
I’m gonna be my usual contrarian self on this…
I think it’s a good idea.
Movement of large bodies of troops and equipment is a military skill set in and of itself. It’s one the US Army could use any excuse to work up in coordination with the USN and USAF.
The Corps uses the MEU and MEB works to keep those skills up to date and relevant.
If its a money issue, end the contra constitutional federal welfare programs. That’d free up coin for actual federal constitutional mandates, like, you know, defense.
I wouldn’t think that we’d be seeing to much movement for equipment. I’d bet money that the major end items will remain in place and only some individual equipment (if that) would accompany the troops.
I could easily see a large advance party (commanders, supply dudes, other admin types) that arrive early to basically condcut a change of command inventory and then have the “new” soldiers fall in a week or so later.
With today’s communications, you could also have had the BN/BDE staffs working the training schedules months out, so that resources are already in place for training when the new unit arrives.
Just another way to keep the soldiers on the Camp and away from the drinking girls.