thedrifter
03-02-05, 11:27 AM
02-28-2005
Making Korea a Nooky-Free Zone
By Nathaniel R. Helms
The U.S. Army is at war on the Korean Peninsula, but not against Kim Jong-il and his wacky band of nuclear nutcases. It is a far more sinister struggle than that, a “national security challenge” facing our military as it tries “to create secure, stable situations in several countries in this world,” according to a top U.S. military official.
What is this remorseless enemy?
Nooky.
In response to this grave crisis, the U.S. Army’s top dog in South Korea has ordered his Military Police to crush the bimbos and their running-dog lackeys who prey on the hapless young GIs and DoD civilians alone and vulnerable to the temptations of the flesh.
According to a General Order dated Dec. 23, 2004 from Army Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of all U.N. and U.S. forces in Korea, there is now a curfew in effect from midnight until 0500 for all military and DoD civilians within the jurisdiction of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The order prohibits them from going anywhere in Korea during the witching hours unless on official business.
According to the General Order, signed by USFK Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, “An off-installation curfew is in effect from 0001 to 0500 daily. During these hours, unless conducting official business, service members must be either (1) on a military installation; (2) in a private residence; or (3) in their place of lodging for the evening, which may include a hotel room off the installation.”
The order was issued to ensure “force protection, safety, good order, discipline, and optimum readiness,” explains the USFK website.
Remember when Animal Mother, the deep-fried Marine in the movie “Full Metal Jacket” is looking down on his slain lieutenant and says, “If I’m going to die for a word, my word is poontang (ironically GI slang for sex that originated in Korea)”? To steal a phrase, that statement is no longer operable, at least not in South Korea if General LaPorte, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. State Department have anything to say about it.
According to Paragraph 5 of the General Order, it is a “punitive order” applicable to both those under the jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and civilians under military jurisdiction. Anyone seeking poontang or any other illicit pleasures of the flesh anytime, and particularly after midnight and before 0500, can and will be prosecuted.
So say goodbye to “saranghay” (I love you in Hangul once heard at the Blackjack Club, the Grand Illusion and the naughty Xzone outside Camp Hovey). Same-same at the Starbutt in Area II and the Wonju Train Station, the Hanseong Red Light District, and the infamous Crown in Daegu. And you boys at Camp Casey better not even think about rocking and rolling at the Shakedown. Those days are over!
LaPorte’s order has really gotten up the dander of some of the DoD civilians and contractors who work for the Army in South Korea. They have published a Web Site called “Free Fed” that decries what the enraged Americans call a violation of their 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. It seems America’s forefathers somehow divined the potential for American civilians being denied the right to consort with South Korean prostitutes someday and moved to protect them from such abuses.
Free Fed was created by a large and very vocal group of DoD civilians, many of them retired service members, who contacted DefenseWatch to voice their displeasure and report the burgeoning crisis in the Land of the Dwarfs.
“Is the general saying his Army is not ready to fight?” the Free Feds plaintively ask on their site. “Then why so many training holidays?”
Good question! What do soldiers need time off for if they can’t go downtown to consort?
State Department representative John R. Miller is apparently the man with the answer to that toughie. Miller is director of the State Department's office that monitors and fights human trafficking, of which prostitution in South Korea is a symptom, he said. Last September Miller, along with LaPorte, Defense Department representative Charles Abell (DoD's principal deputy undersecretary for personnel and readiness), and DoD Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz testified before the House Armed Services Committee how the U.S. military is working to deter the patronization of prostitutes and human trafficking.
“Demand drives” sex trafficking, Miller told the august panel on Sept. 21, 2004. He did not mention how his team had uncovered that amazing revelation. It is the “demand side of the issue” that is coming under closer scrutiny, he added. Miller’s erudite team of experts also discovered that “national forces going from one country to another” drive up the demand for prostitution and increase the number of trafficking victims as well. Miller’s study also discovered that peacekeepers, contractors and aid workers are all equally guilty.
The Free Fed folks see it differently. They claim that because of “command encouragement” and “aggressive briefings,” the Military Police have been over-zealous in enforcing the curfew. Such badge-heavy behavior has led to “further violations of Constitutional rights, injuries and animosity between the Command, the Military Police, and the U.S. Forces in Korea at large,” the website says.
Abell, DoD’s principal civilian executive for personnel and readiness (for anyone who might have forgotten), characterized the new policy “as straightforward and easily understood.”
“It is a policy of zero tolerance,” Abell testified. “It is a policy of command responsibility to recognize, prevent and to assist local law enforcement when it comes to trafficking in persons in any way, shape or form.” This is a remarkable turnaround in a country where the local police often work extra jobs as security guards in the local *****houses to supplement their meager incomes.
Not so, claim the Free Fed folks: “The time has come to review the provisions for Due Process at overseas military facilities. The modern military has too many civilians and too many contractors whose civil rights cannot be ignored. Any impartial assessment will probably find that the Due Process afforded American citizen civilians in overseas commands is lacking.”
Apparently that is not how General LaPorte sees it. “The conduct of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines as well as the Department of Defense civilians and invited contractors and their family members is of paramount importance to our command,” LaPorte testified in his guise as the military’s moral guardian in Korea. “These Americans are our nation’s ambassadors, and how they behave is as much a reflection of our own national character as it is a statement of our military readiness and discipline.”
Yeah, right, the folks from the Free Feds no doubt sarcastically say. They have provided the disenchanted with a portal to channel their complaints to the Pentagon leadership and the news media. “Provided here are links to media you can use to help spread your story about the curfew, the house arrest, being suffered by the U.S. Civilians, Contractors, and Dependents of the U.S. Forces Korea,” the instruction for getting out the word to the media explains. “ We've made this easy, to email all the contacts below, just click the image of an envelope. It’s already addressed and we've even put a subject and a ‘starter’ message in it for you. Modify to suit your message and click send.”
Amazing! There is no salsa at Mortaritaville, no Kentucky Fried Chicken at Camp Victory, and carnal knowledge is now banned in Korea, all in the name of freedom and democracy.
Maybe it is a good thing we have a war going on, otherwise the generals would have too much time on their hands.
DefenseWatch Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. “Nat” Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker’s Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. Send Feedback responses to* dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch%202005.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=46&rnd=568.0618256392295
Ellie
Making Korea a Nooky-Free Zone
By Nathaniel R. Helms
The U.S. Army is at war on the Korean Peninsula, but not against Kim Jong-il and his wacky band of nuclear nutcases. It is a far more sinister struggle than that, a “national security challenge” facing our military as it tries “to create secure, stable situations in several countries in this world,” according to a top U.S. military official.
What is this remorseless enemy?
Nooky.
In response to this grave crisis, the U.S. Army’s top dog in South Korea has ordered his Military Police to crush the bimbos and their running-dog lackeys who prey on the hapless young GIs and DoD civilians alone and vulnerable to the temptations of the flesh.
According to a General Order dated Dec. 23, 2004 from Army Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of all U.N. and U.S. forces in Korea, there is now a curfew in effect from midnight until 0500 for all military and DoD civilians within the jurisdiction of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The order prohibits them from going anywhere in Korea during the witching hours unless on official business.
According to the General Order, signed by USFK Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, “An off-installation curfew is in effect from 0001 to 0500 daily. During these hours, unless conducting official business, service members must be either (1) on a military installation; (2) in a private residence; or (3) in their place of lodging for the evening, which may include a hotel room off the installation.”
The order was issued to ensure “force protection, safety, good order, discipline, and optimum readiness,” explains the USFK website.
Remember when Animal Mother, the deep-fried Marine in the movie “Full Metal Jacket” is looking down on his slain lieutenant and says, “If I’m going to die for a word, my word is poontang (ironically GI slang for sex that originated in Korea)”? To steal a phrase, that statement is no longer operable, at least not in South Korea if General LaPorte, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. State Department have anything to say about it.
According to Paragraph 5 of the General Order, it is a “punitive order” applicable to both those under the jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and civilians under military jurisdiction. Anyone seeking poontang or any other illicit pleasures of the flesh anytime, and particularly after midnight and before 0500, can and will be prosecuted.
So say goodbye to “saranghay” (I love you in Hangul once heard at the Blackjack Club, the Grand Illusion and the naughty Xzone outside Camp Hovey). Same-same at the Starbutt in Area II and the Wonju Train Station, the Hanseong Red Light District, and the infamous Crown in Daegu. And you boys at Camp Casey better not even think about rocking and rolling at the Shakedown. Those days are over!
LaPorte’s order has really gotten up the dander of some of the DoD civilians and contractors who work for the Army in South Korea. They have published a Web Site called “Free Fed” that decries what the enraged Americans call a violation of their 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. It seems America’s forefathers somehow divined the potential for American civilians being denied the right to consort with South Korean prostitutes someday and moved to protect them from such abuses.
Free Fed was created by a large and very vocal group of DoD civilians, many of them retired service members, who contacted DefenseWatch to voice their displeasure and report the burgeoning crisis in the Land of the Dwarfs.
“Is the general saying his Army is not ready to fight?” the Free Feds plaintively ask on their site. “Then why so many training holidays?”
Good question! What do soldiers need time off for if they can’t go downtown to consort?
State Department representative John R. Miller is apparently the man with the answer to that toughie. Miller is director of the State Department's office that monitors and fights human trafficking, of which prostitution in South Korea is a symptom, he said. Last September Miller, along with LaPorte, Defense Department representative Charles Abell (DoD's principal deputy undersecretary for personnel and readiness), and DoD Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz testified before the House Armed Services Committee how the U.S. military is working to deter the patronization of prostitutes and human trafficking.
“Demand drives” sex trafficking, Miller told the august panel on Sept. 21, 2004. He did not mention how his team had uncovered that amazing revelation. It is the “demand side of the issue” that is coming under closer scrutiny, he added. Miller’s erudite team of experts also discovered that “national forces going from one country to another” drive up the demand for prostitution and increase the number of trafficking victims as well. Miller’s study also discovered that peacekeepers, contractors and aid workers are all equally guilty.
The Free Fed folks see it differently. They claim that because of “command encouragement” and “aggressive briefings,” the Military Police have been over-zealous in enforcing the curfew. Such badge-heavy behavior has led to “further violations of Constitutional rights, injuries and animosity between the Command, the Military Police, and the U.S. Forces in Korea at large,” the website says.
Abell, DoD’s principal civilian executive for personnel and readiness (for anyone who might have forgotten), characterized the new policy “as straightforward and easily understood.”
“It is a policy of zero tolerance,” Abell testified. “It is a policy of command responsibility to recognize, prevent and to assist local law enforcement when it comes to trafficking in persons in any way, shape or form.” This is a remarkable turnaround in a country where the local police often work extra jobs as security guards in the local *****houses to supplement their meager incomes.
Not so, claim the Free Fed folks: “The time has come to review the provisions for Due Process at overseas military facilities. The modern military has too many civilians and too many contractors whose civil rights cannot be ignored. Any impartial assessment will probably find that the Due Process afforded American citizen civilians in overseas commands is lacking.”
Apparently that is not how General LaPorte sees it. “The conduct of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines as well as the Department of Defense civilians and invited contractors and their family members is of paramount importance to our command,” LaPorte testified in his guise as the military’s moral guardian in Korea. “These Americans are our nation’s ambassadors, and how they behave is as much a reflection of our own national character as it is a statement of our military readiness and discipline.”
Yeah, right, the folks from the Free Feds no doubt sarcastically say. They have provided the disenchanted with a portal to channel their complaints to the Pentagon leadership and the news media. “Provided here are links to media you can use to help spread your story about the curfew, the house arrest, being suffered by the U.S. Civilians, Contractors, and Dependents of the U.S. Forces Korea,” the instruction for getting out the word to the media explains. “ We've made this easy, to email all the contacts below, just click the image of an envelope. It’s already addressed and we've even put a subject and a ‘starter’ message in it for you. Modify to suit your message and click send.”
Amazing! There is no salsa at Mortaritaville, no Kentucky Fried Chicken at Camp Victory, and carnal knowledge is now banned in Korea, all in the name of freedom and democracy.
Maybe it is a good thing we have a war going on, otherwise the generals would have too much time on their hands.
DefenseWatch Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. “Nat” Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker’s Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. Send Feedback responses to* dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch%202005.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=46&rnd=568.0618256392295
Ellie