Free Republic

The U.S. Air Force is ready to respond immediately if hostilities between the two Koreas escalate, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Wednesday. Schwarz told reporters after North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island, "The bottom line is that U.S. Forces Korea cetainly is monitoring the situation carefully." He mentioned Osan and Gunsan in South Korea, Kaneda in Okinawa, Japan, and other U.S. Air Force bases in the Pacific to emphasize that the U.S. has plenty of firepower in the region. Schwarz added USFK Commander Gen. Walter Sharp "has operational control of Air Force assets that reside on...

SEOUL — U.S. Forces Korea soon will get a name change. USFK commander Gen. Walter Sharp has announced that the 28,500-strong U.S. presence here will become the U.S. Korea Command later this year, one of the changes the U.S. military will undergo as the South Korean military prepares to assume wartime control of its own troops in two years. A date for the change has not been set, USFK spokesman David Oten said Tuesday. However, troops moving to South Korea this summer will fill billets for KORCOM, as the command will be known, he said. Oten said KORCOM will have...

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — The Air Force plans to publish a twice-monthly print and online newspaper for its two big fighter bases in South Korea, officials said Wednesday. They hope to start publication of the Crimson Sky in the spring, but no start date will be set until the publishing contract gets approval from the U.S. military’s contracting officials, said Maj. Denise Kerr, spokeswoman for 7th U.S. Air Force (Air Forces Korea). Its news pages will be devoted largely to the two U.S. fighter units on the peninsula: the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek...

SEOUL — Col. Robert Givens assumed command Tuesday of Kunsan Air Base’s 8th Fighter Wing, which includes 15 squadrons and 2,600 airmen. Givens is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as commander of Kunsan’s 35th Fighter Squadron from 2003 to 2004. An F-16 command pilot, he has flown more than 100 combat sorties in operations Desert Storm, Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom. He has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster and valor device for his service in Iraq. He takes over for Col. Jerry Harris, who became commander in November 2008....

Kunsan Air Base’s commander was relieved of his duties Monday by Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Howie Chandler due to lack of confidence in the colonel’s performance, according to U.S. Air Force spokesmen. Col. Bryan Bearden, 45, had commanded Kunsan’s 8th Fighter Wing since May — completing six months of a one-year tour. "The decision was driven solely by duty performance factors," according to a Kunsan news release on Monday. The wing includes roughly 2,700 airmen and 15 squadrons, including two F-16 squadrons. Col. Jerry Harris, 13th Air Force director of operations at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, is to...

KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — It’s 9 p.m., still early for a Saturday night, as airmen trickle into the mom-and-pop restaurants in this dimly lit neighborhood for bulgogi, ramen and greasy fried mandu. Clusters of airmen stand outside and smoke, and around the corner, where the diners turn into juicy bars, music is already starting to blare. Welcome to America Town, a tangle of narrow streets and neon lights where generations of airmen from tiny Kunsan Air Base have gone to eat, drink, buy souvenirs and meet women. "It’s like a legend. Everybody knows about it in Korea. People...

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Although he retired last week after hitting the 30-year mark, a father has passed a legacy of Air Force service to his son at Kunsan Air Base. Chief Master Sgt. Owen Powell retired during a Wednesday ceremony at Kunsan’s Loring Club. During the same occasion, his son, Staff Sgt. Jon Powell, re-enlisted. “I tried to think of doing something to make my father’s last year in the Air Force a memorable one,” Jon Powell was quoted as saying in a wing news release. Service at Kunsan isn’t the only connection the two have to South Korea:...

SEOUL — An F-16 squadron from South Carolina led a combined large-force exercise at Kunsan Air Base earlier this month, the first time a squadron stationed outside South Korea has completed the task with American and South Korean jets. Twenty F-16s, including two South Korean jets, flew in the 1½ hour nighttime mission in early March. Ten of the American jets were from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and eight were from Kunsan. More than 300 airmen from Shaw arrived at Kunsan in January as part of an Air and Space Expeditionary Force deployment, which typically lasts four months. “It...

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Apache helicopter crews carried out an important training stint Friday in which they launched live Hellfire anti-tank missiles at a target range off South Korea’s west coast. Fifteen Apaches from the Army’s 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade took part in the live fire over Chikdo Range, an island cliff that juts out of the West Sea about 20 miles west of Kunsan Air Base. The training was scheduled to begin March 10, but fog and yellow dust grounded the helos until the end of the week. “This is one of the very few times they actually get...

Servicemembers at Kunsan Air Base awoke Christmas morning to find gifts left not by Santa, but by the people of Lubbock, Texas. Volunteers from the city made, filled and shipped about 3,000 Christmas stockings for the airmen and soldiers in an effort to spread holiday cheer. Spearheaded by the mother of a Kunsan-based Air Force officer, the donation began as a church project then ballooned into something much larger. “The amazing thing about this project is that after hearing about it, so many people wanted to become a part of it,” project coordinator Dona Nussbaum said during a phone interview...

The white, black and gray aircrafts will be used as aggressor planes assigned to Eielson AFB, Alaska for training exercises to include Red Flag Alaska. This is the first time an arctic scheme has been used. Currently the Air Force has three aggressor squadrons that have the mission of replicating potential adversary aircraft in order to provide training for U.S. and coalition combat air forces, said Col. Eddie Osteen, 354th Operations Group deputy commander. There are three different paint schemes applied to Eielson's aggressors to be used during throughout the year. "The aggressor paint scheme is used to help 'friendly'...

KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AFPN) -- Firefighters from the 8th Civil Engineer Squadron assisted local fire departments in response to an industrial fire in Gunsan City here Dec. 3. At approximately 9 a.m. the Kunsan Air Base fire department received a call and quickly dispatched 11 personnel and two fire trucks to help local Gunsan City firefighters. With the additional support and local resources, they averted a greater loss, according to base fire department officials. "We have a mutual aid agreement with the surrounding fire departments, for cases such as when a fire is so large that either they...

Aviano squadron rotating to South Korea By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes European edition, Saturday, June 16, 2007 AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — Almost half the firepower of Aviano Air Base will soon be on display in the Republic of South Korea. The bulk of the 555th Fighter Squadron and its F-16 aircraft have been participating in a Red Flag exercise in Alaska. Air Force officials confirmed Thursday that the Italy-based squadron will continue on to South Korea after the exercise and serve a four-month rotation there. Capt. Tiffany Payette, public affairs chief for the 8th Air Force based at...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A U.S. plan to cut the number of its troops in South Korea by one-third by the end of 2005 will force the South to shoulder more responsibility for defending itself against any North Korean military aggression. The U.S. plan calls for withdrawing 12,500 of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, according to a statement released Monday by the U.S. military in Seoul. The statement coincided with the beginning of talks between the two allies on another sensitive issue: moving U.S. troops farther south away from the tense border with North Korea.

The Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea Sept. 8 — An American fighter jet crashed into the sea during a training flight in South Korea Tuesday, and its lone pilot ejected safely, the U.S Air Force said. The F16 belonging to the 35th Fighter Squadron was on a routine training mission in southern South Korea when it went down about 555 miles southwest of the Kunsan Air Base, the Air Force said in a news release. It said the cause of the crash was being investigated. The plane "went down over water" and the pilot "looks OK," said 1st Lt. Herb...