‘Win Tonight’: Men and Women at South Korean Base Poised for War 24/7

NBC ^ | APR 3 2017, | LESTER HOLT and ALEX JOHNSON

[TigerLikesRooster]

‘Win Tonight’: Men and Women at South Korean Base Poised for War 24/7

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — With the stakes on the Korean peninsula as high as they have ever been, life for the men and women here with the U.S. Air Force's 51st Fighter Wing is lived in a state of constant alert.

South Korea has no nuclear weapons, so it relies on the United States' nuclear umbrella to deter North Korea and its erratic leader, Kim Jong Un.

That makes Osan — less than 50 miles from the Demilitarized Zone separating the mortal enemies and home to a large proportion of the 28,500 U.S. military personnel in South Korea — the leading edge of the shield that protects the South from the North.

Hence the base's slogan: "Ready to Fight Tonight."

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[dp0622]

I’d be lying if I said I wanted to be there.

I know they’d take out a LOT of NKs, but aren’t they really there more to make NK realize an attack on SK is an attack on the US?

I know nothing of war.

How much can a group this size accomplish?

[grey_whiskers]

How much can a group this size accomplish?

They can buy time until a Minuteman III or Trident missile can arrive...

[dp0622]

Gotcha.

Where would they come from. Ships in the area?

[grey_whiskers]

Minuteman missles are in silos in places like Minot ND and somewhere in Missouri.

Tridents come from boomers which roam the seas undetected.

[dp0622]

Tridents come from boomers which roam the seas undetected...

I didn’t know that. Wow.

[Tennessee Nana]

Ive been to Osan...

we used to take hops there from Okinawa to get clothes made downtown...

open sewers...

[TigerLikesRooster]

PLA expanding marine corps

13th March 2017 - 11:02 by Gordon Arthur in Hong Kong

-snip-

One of the new units known to have been transferred to the marine corps is the 77th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the 26th Group Army. Located in Haiyang, Shandong as part of the Northern Theatre Command, it is strategically located on the Yellow Sea across from the Korean Peninsula.

Shephard has not yet identified the fourth brigade already transferred.

[Steely Tom]

Tridents come from boomers which roam the seas undetected...

No one knows where they are, not even the senior command back in Washington.

They are given a piece of ocean to patrol. Can be millions of square miles. Their mission is to disappear, completely.

They are so quiet they actually make an acoustic hole in the ocean, a region in which ocean noises that come from behind them are blocked by their bulk.

Every one of them is capable of destroying dozens of cities, from a distance of thousands of miles.

[kaehurowing]

화이팅!

[arrogantsob]

Should NK launch a nuke at that base likely all there would be killed. The strategy has to chance if that lunatic further develops weaponry. It may be too late for that.

[Repeal The 17th]

RE: Boomers... (ballistic missile submarines) ...
We currently have 4 Vanguard Class and 18 Ohio Class on patrol.

[mesoman7]

My old base. Stationed at Osan ‘81-'82. Had to drag me kicking and screaming to get me there. Upon return to the US, I was kicking and screaming to get back. Dealing with a real-world threat day-to-day was a rush. I returned to Suwon Air Base in ‘86, then went to Yongsan (Seoul) in ‘87 for a total of 4 1/2 years. Loved Korea.

Used to brief the U-2 guys. Back then, the aircraft “wasn't there”. Any photos of the bird would land you in a world of hurt. Obviously times have changed.

[dp0622]

This is incredible.

Sounds like something no one would know about.

Obviously it’s known, just not known where they are.

Blowing my mind.

[ThanhPhero]

Actually they are at war 24-7. The Armistice of 1953 was a temporary cessation of hostilities, not a resolution to the war. The UN is still nominally at war with Norkea.

[ThanhPhero]

The Norks could have overrun South Korea at any time up into the 90s were the American troops not there. They are more than a tripwire because they really include some pretty massive assets in Japan(including Okinawa) and Guam, not to mention those B-52s.

[arthurus]

If NK launches a nuke and we are unable to shoot it down a lot of people are going to die if it lands on or near its target. That does not mean that the Americans in place are useless. KJU is probably not so irrational as he projects. That is how to negotiate and make deals from an altogether inferior position. I am sure DJT understands all that very well and will make the appropriate counter moves. In the end he will offer survival of Kim and his country and it will seem like a better deal than the proffered alternative.

[rockinqsranch]

“Loved Korea.”

Agree. Was I Corp. 55th in Uijongbu ‘66-68. Great duty. Lovely people.

[StAnDeliver]

Senseless upon senseless: Krim Young Fat sends 100,000 through the tunnels, and then launches, wiping out his light brigade. Completely, utterly plausible.