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I have some input you might find useful. I was stationed at Camp Casey Korea for a year in the First Battalion Fifteenth Field Artillery Regiment. My job was fire direction and I know specific details about what you want to know. Most of what I know is still secret because North Korean artillery is still a threat to US forces in Korea. First let me give you some background on North Korean artillery. One US battery of M109 Paladin Self Propelled Howitzers contains six tubes at 155mm. One NK artillery battery consists of over 60 140mm tubes. What they lack in accuracy they make up for in volume. Are North Korean artillery assets a threat to Seoul? The answer: No. Even with RAP rounds,(Rocket Assisted Projectiles) their artillery would not be able to range downtown Seoul. Reason? Intervening crests. An artillery round needs open air to reach it's target. There are to many mountains in the way to get a good trajectory. On the DMZ, US and SK elements maintain a watchful eye on NK. They can see well into North Korea. At any hint of maneuver units advancing down the slot the SK side will become very busy. This is where it gets tricky about secrecy. There is a river called the Im Jin that is about the size of the Mississippi right behind the SK side of the DMZ. NK elements will get stalled there and probably reduced significantly by US air assets from Osan. If they do get across through the harassment of the sustained air attack they come across various obstacles in place and ready to blow. Getting through all these hurdles while under constant pummeling of US ordinance would be next to impossible. While all this is going on all US Forces in the South would be mobilizing and moving to their "go to war positions". All US civilian personnel would be moving south and would be evacuated out of Pusan. All this is assuming the NKA can get through a DMZ that we've had fifty years to prepare. A little long winded aren't I? If you would like to know more look an the Internet for information about Camp Gary Owen, Camp Greeves and Camp Bonnifas also use the acronym JSA. These will all help you educate yourself more. I'll continue to serve here in Germany and if you have any questions regarding military long guns let me know.

Here's another hint I couldn't resist sharing. Get a map and follow the roads north. How many bridges are there that cross the Im Jin on the northern most part of the river? How many roads are there after the bridge? What does the terrain look like around these roads?

make your own conclusions..............

I was stationed at Camp Casey Korea for a year in the First Battalion Fifteenth Field Artillery Regiment.

I was in 8/8thFA in Camp Stanley in 90-'92.Did a month in 4P3 and we were actually the last U.S. artillery unit to man that post before it was turned over to the ROK's.That was as close to North Korea I would ever want to be.We had the M109A2's then.I don't think the Pallidans were there yet.

I was in the 34th Infantry Regiment on the DMZ from November 1955 thru February 1957. (Two Christmases - darn)

Tours of duty then were 16 months. -Tom