Inside Camp Humphreys, South Korea: America's Largest Overseas Military Base

Time Magazine ^ | July 12, 2018 | Joseph Hincks

[2ndDivisionVet]

After a 19-gun salute wreathed the parade ground at Camp Humphreys in white smoke on June 29, South Korea’s Minister of National Defense, Song Young-moo, and United States Forces Korea (USFK) Commander, General Vincent Brooks, cut the ribbon at the United Nations Command and USFK’s new headquarters.

The massive $10.8 billion garrison in Pyeongtaek—America’s largest overseas military base—is in the final stage of a more than decade-long expansion project. About 45 miles south of the joint command’s former headquarters in metropolitan Seoul, it is expected to house nearly 45,000 troops, contractors, and family members by 2022, following the largest peacetime relocation program in the Department of Defense’s history. The camp also marks the virtual end of the U.S. military’s 70-year presence in the South Korean capital—something that Washington and Seoul have been discussing since 1987. It is a “significant investment in the long-term presence of U.S. Forces in Korea,” Gen. Brooks told a mostly military audience at the headquarters opening, and “living proof of the American commitment to the alliance.”

That alliance—formalized by the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1953—has successfully preserved what is now one of the world’s wealthiest democracies from the threats made by three generations of the Kim family, who maintain a tight grip north on their bizarre, autocratic state north of the 38th Parallel. But today, despite the show of strength that Camp Humphreys represents, there is uncertainty over the role the U.S. military will play in South Korea’s future....

[2ndDivisionVet]

No, I was at I Corps at Camp Red Cloud (1978-79), 2nd Division at Camp Casey (1981-82), 1st Cavalry Division at Ft Hood (1979-81) and 5th Mech at Ft Polk (1982-83). I’m 58.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Must be. Time Magazine wouldn’t lie.