Command in Korea changes hands

[unhappycamper]

Command in Korea changes hands
By Lolita C. Baldor - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 3, 2008 7:54:29 EDT

SEOUL, South Korea — Army Gen. Walter L. Sharp, who was promoted to four-star general Monday, took over as the new commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, replacing Gen. B.B. Bell. Sharp, who previously served in the Pentagon, will also head the U.N. command and the combined U.S.-South Korean forces command.

“We must be prepared to fight and win,” Sharp said. “We’re ready to respond quickly and decisively against any attempt to threaten the security of the Republic of Korea.”

Extending the tours of U.S. troops serving in South Korea to three years and allowing them to bring their families is overdue, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday as he arrived in Seoul.

The change in deployments is caught up in the ongoing transfer of military bases to South Korean control, but Gates said it’s time to stop the one-year, unaccompanied tours that forces currently serve here because it is considered a war zone.

“As a matter of principle, I think it’s past time” to extend the tours, Gates told reporters traveling with him on the plane to Seoul. “It communicates that ... our view of the reality here is that the Republic of Korea is literally safe enough for our families to be present.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_gateskorea_060208/