Gen. Thurman's Speech to the Association of the Republic of Korea Army
General James D. Thurman, commander, UNC/CFC/USFK
The Association of the Republic of Korea Army
Koreana Hotel Seoul, Republic of Korea
12 June 2012
Speech as Delivered
GEN THURMAN:
It is indeed a true honor for me to stand before you this morning and to be introduced by GEN Paik. That is very special. Former ministers, Fellow general officers, Flag officers, members of The Association of the Republic of Korea Army, and distinguished guests, thank you for joining us this morning. GEN Paik and members of the Association of the Republic of Korea Army, thank you for inviting me to speak to this very distinguished group this morning.
I am truly honored to speak in front of so many leaders who have helped build the ROK-U.S. Alliance into the strongest Alliance in the world. It is said that the ROK-U.S. Alliance was built on blood and sacrifice, and today I am honored to speak to those of you who have shed the blood and made the sacrifices that built this great alliance. And we should never forget that.
GEN Paik, I am very honored to call you my friend. You are a true Soldier and a Patriot and a true inspiration to all of us. You have been a driving force in making our Alliance the strongest in the world. Thank you for your wisdom that you have provided to me during my time as the Combined Forces Command commander, because your advice to me has been so true, for me to take on the responsibilities that I have as the commander to ensure that the Korean people are protected so they may live in prosperity, and I take that charge to heart. So, again, sir I thank you for all you have done and continue to do to support all of us as we have very important duties to perform here on the Peninsula to keep this Alliance the strongest alliance in the world.
This morning I will talk to you about the recently issued U.S. Defense Strategic Guidance and what it means to the ROK-U.S. Alliance. The strategy focuses on rebalancing the United States effort to the Pacific. It is my responsibility to make sure our actions on the Peninsula are synchronized with this strategy as I work also close with the PACOM Commander, Admiral Sam Locklear. On the peninsula, these actions are maintaining the highest levels of readiness to one deter aggression and defend the Republic of Korea and modernize and strengthen the Alliance to ensure that we are prepared to face the security challenges of the future.
The strategy reaffirms the United States commitment to our allies and to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. The requirement to deter aggression and defend the Republic of Korea is very clear. Our readiness defines our deterrent capability and we can never allow that to slip. Maintaining high levels of readiness requires having the proper manning, the proper force structure, and the most modern equipment.
From the U.S. perspective, I recently met with our Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odeirno to one, discuss our capabilities, Army capabilities, on the Peninsula and I talked to him about manning, and I talked to him about force structure. The U.S. Army recently issued guidance to increase manning levels in the 2nd Infantry Division. That has just recently happened. And also in our 35th Air Defense Brigade, our Patriots. And we have two Patriot battalions under the 35th Air Defense Brigade on the Peninsula today. I am working to get this guidance to be expanded to cover all U.S. Army units assigned to my command, and I’m working with the other service chiefs with the commitment from them to keep the other capabilities at the highest levels of readiness. Specifically Air Force (inaudible) capabilities; in working with the Marines to be able to rapidly bring Marine capability into the Peninsula should we need to do that. And also working with the Navy to be able to rapidly move Naval, maritime support into the peninsula. I am confident that the Chief of Staff of the Army and the other service chiefs will help me increase the readiness on the Peninsula. And that’s my number one focus and that’s what’s important about this strategy is it refocuses our effort in northeast Asia and the Pacific.
So what I’m telling you this morning, there is true commitment from the United States and common understanding of the importance that northeast Asia has today. One of the things that I deal with as the commander of U.S. Forces Korea is we experience a high turnover rate every year because we are one-year tours for the most part. And you can imagine that we lose, there’s a constant turnover and loss of people coming and going to Korea. I have asked the Army and the other services to help develop options to mitigate this, and I’m confident we will be able to work this, but that one-year tour has been around, as we all know, for the folks that served in Korea.
I have also discussed our current force structure and what modifications should be made to it to enhance our war-fighting capabilities. As I came to the Peninsula last year: one, my focus is on readiness and two, the other focus was on the combined and joint operational focus that we must have throughout the peninsula so we have a strong deterrent. That’s what I’m trying to achieve inside of Combined Forces Command.
In order to enhance war-fighting capabilities I have asked for prioritization to receive an additional Attack-Reconnaissance Squadron to bring our Combat Aviation Brigade [CAB] to full strength. That’s the 2nd CAB. And I’ve asked for increased capabilities in terms of theater ballistic missile defense. The strategy prioritizes resources, and I have also asked that the United States Forces Korea be placed at the top of that list.
Furthermore, we will continue to modernize our capabilities on the peninsula. These are U.S. capabilities to properly posture for the future.
We have completely modernized the 2nd Infantry Division. They have new tanks, the best the United States can produce. The M-1 A2 SEP [system enhancement package] tank. That’s the best tank our country has. We have increased the Bradley’s fighting capability on the Peninsula. We have the best Bradley fighting vehicle that our nation has. We’ve also upgraded our helicopters. We have the “L” model Blackhawk here now. So we have steadily been improving our overall capabilities on the Peninsula. And I will continue to stay focused on that.
We will continue to improve our joint Command, Control, Computers, and Intelligence systems; and we will continue to improve our cyber capabilities. This is a domain that we must be prepared to operate in from a combined and joint perspective. Because this is important to mitigate the risks posed by our potential enemies.
Secretary Panetta stated during the recent Shangri La Conference in Singapore that “while the U.S will reduce the overall size of its ground forces in the coming years…we will maintain the United States Army’s significant presence in Korea.” Statements like this, and my meetings with the U.S. Army Chief of Staff and the other service chiefs continue to underscore the importance of this strategic shift. Because it’s important that our actions demonstrate what’s in that strategy. And that’s what I’m trying to make sure occurs as the commander that’s charged from the U.S. perspective for a stable and peaceful peninsula here in the Republic of Korea. I will ensure that we maintain the highest levels of readiness and that we will continue to improve our overall capabilities.
The strategy also directs the U.S. to work with regional partners and allies to prepare for the challenges we face in the region. Secretary Panetta called this “partnership” a “principle” in the development of the new strategy. The principle of partnership requires our Alliance to modernize its capabilities and organizational structures. That’s what that means.
One of the ways we are modernizing the Alliance is changing how we “think” about things, and that’s our operational mindset. I’m working closely with GEN Jung and my deputy, GEN Kwon, to ensure we have a joint and combined approach to meeting our security challenges. This means having a truly combined, joint command and control structure in place. Combined, joint command and control requires investment in interoperable C4I systems. Essential to this is also having the right manning levels and the proper training. You can overcome the numbers of the enemy if you have been properly trained and you have the right capabilities. I’m confident of that. I believe the actions we are taking to implement Strategic Alliance 2015 will accomplish this.
Additionally, “partnership” will make our Alliance even stronger. The ROK-U.S. Alliance is the strongest Alliance in the world. It is the best military to military relationship I have ever experienced in my 37 years serving in the United States military. And it’s the best because it is built on mutual trust and common values. Which is an unbreakable bond that we must demonstrate every day.
The only way to make this Alliance stronger is to continue to be transparent in our decision making, as well as our information and intelligence sharing. We have demonstrated this through several events since my arrival, and in the day to day contact that I have with GEN Jung and GEN Kwon, what I try to do is increase the whole combined nature of how we operate and we have done that, just by our day to day operations.
In Singapore, Secretary Panetta stated “we are also boosting intelligence and information sharing with the Republic of Korea”. This statement is a testament to not only how important this Alliance is to the new strategy, but how we will become even stronger. The challenge we will face in implementing this part of the strategy is to make sure we protect sensitive information and maintain our Operational Security. That is very important. There have been some challenges that I’ve seen since I’ve been here, and we must constantly work through those.
In closing, I believe the actions our Alliance is taking are fully synchronized with this new refocus to Asia and particularly into northeast Asia, and more importantly, the Republic of Korea. Furthermore, it is my assessment that the new Defense Strategy reaffirms the close relationship the United States enjoys today with the Republic of Korea, and the value it places on the ROK-U.S. Alliance.
I had breakfast with Minister Kim yesterday, the defense minister. And we talked about how closely we operate today, and the collaboration that goes on. And we can only continue to sustain that and make it better and I am committed to doing that, because that’s what it will take to get us through the toughest crisis or problem set that we may encounter. And I’m confident we are doing a good job at that today and I will continue that.
Secretary Panetta also stated our continued commitment to the ROK-U.S. Alliance best when he described the Alliance as “a linchpin of our Asia-Pacific strategy”, I’m sorry, “Asia-Pacific security.” He stated that during this recent Shangri La Conference in Singapore. The new strategic guidance clearly states the threat North Korea poses to the ROK, the greater region, and the U.S. requirement to continue to deter aggression and to defend the Republic of Korea so we may protect the people and make sure that they live in peace and prosperity. I, for one, will ensure that we are ready to execute that task if called upon. That is my sole responsibility and my number one focus.
GEN Paik and members of the Association of the ROK Army, I want to again thank you for inviting me here this morning to share some of these insights. My first year has gone by very fast and I’ve learned just how special the relationship is between our two countries, our militaries, and our people. I am honored to speak in front of so many distinguished leaders who built this relationship. I thank you all for this great organization; I thank you for your sacrifice and your commitment to the ROK-U.S. Alliance. The Association of the ROK Army, for all you have done in your careers and everything you continue to do to support this great Alliance. Your dedication and commitment are what keeps the ROK-U.S. Alliance the strongest in the world.
And so hopefully what I’ve done is I’ve shared with you the top things we’re focused on to implement this new strategy. Bottom line, we’re committed. If something happens on the Peninsula we will bring what assets we need to quickly resolve that situation.
Kam-sa-ham-ni-da
Katchi Kapshida!
I think we have time for a couple of questions
Professor Col (retired) Kwon, Hyuk Chul: General Thurman this is Professor Kwon from the JSC (Joint Staff) College, first and foremost I would like to thank you, General Thurman, for sharing your insights for your lecture.
Professor Kwon: General Thurman I’d like to ask two questions
(Pause)
Professor Kwon: My apologies, the mic (microphone) wasn’t working well. (Paused for translation). General Thurman, my first question is as you know, the newly established U.S. Defense Strategy states the two-war strategy, which is a military strategy of course, and before this strategy was described as a win-win strategy however to my understand this strategy is described as a win-spoil or a one-plus strategy currently. I would like you to ask you to elaborate on what the difference is between the win-win strategy and the new so-called win-spoil strategy. (Paused for translation)
Professor Kwon: And, also, I would like to just lead on to my second question I believe that in the Republic of Korea and the Korean Peninsula if a military contingency occurs I believe that ground engagement or ground warfare is an inevitable situation therefore I believe it’s necessary for us to have more additional ground reinforcements and deployment of those forces and therefore I believe that we must enhance Korean military’s ground forces capability; however, to counter this thought the Republic of Korea military is planning on reducing the number of forces of the ROK military what is your opinion and what are your thoughts about this situation? (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: Okay, thank you Colonel Kwon. First off, let me take the first question. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I haven’t heard the U.S. defense strategy being characterized as one-plus and a win-spoil or whatever you talked about. (Paused for translation). I will tell you based on my discussions with the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Locklear what I will tell you is we will honor our commitments to the war plans that we have in place on this peninsula. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: The guidance makes clear that even if resources decline, we will maintain the capability to meet our global commitments and protect America and her allies. That is paramount in this strategy. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I think it’s also important in this strategy that we think joint and combined, because we have a lot of joint and combined tools in the toolbox that we can rapidly bring to bear should we get attacked. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: Paramount to that is maintaining the right readiness; being properly manned and properly equipped so whenever that call comes we can rapidly bring that capability to bear on any given threat. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: To your last question, I believe that a well trained, well equipped, and well led Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine matters more than numbers if they have the right equipment and they are confident in themselves and they’re confident in that piece of equipment and they’re confident in their leadership. (Paused for translation). Now, what this requires is disciplined, highly trained Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines that can rapidly come together as a true war-fighting team to be able to deliver decisive combat power. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: And what I’ve observed on the battlefield in my time, with my combat experience, has been if soldiers are confident in themselves, their leaders and their equipment, they will deliver, and they will deliver when it matters. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I think the other thing that we’ve learned in this strategy which gets to your point is to make sure that we field the right systems, and the point I raised in my lecture about the importance of interoperability and the need to modernize and stay ahead of the threats so we have those advantages in our toolkit should we need them. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: The other thing we’ve learned after being at war for over 10 years is we know how to deploy. We know how to mobilize our reserve components, and how to rapidly generate forces so if we do have to mobilize very quickly then we can capitalize on that, and we have a very combat experienced reserve component which is part of our strategy as we re-posture to the Pacific. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: The other thing I would leave you with is the ROK military, in my opinion, is a very professional, modern, and capable force. It continues to field more advanced weapons systems and as I said earlier it is important that we factor all of that into the joint and combined arena as we work side-by-side every day providing the necessary deterrence, and if that deterrence fails then we can deliver decisive military power if the need be. (Paused for translation). I hope that answered your two questions.
Professor Kwon: Thank you very much General Thurman
(Translation)
Lt Gen (retired) Kwon, Ahn Do: General Thurman, this is Lieutenant General Retired Kwon Ahn Do. I am currently a member of the Army Association. As we face June which is month before (inaudible), I would like to first sincerely thank General Thurman for taking your time to provide us with some very (inaudible) and insightful lecture on heightening our readiness and also demonstrating our strong deterrence and necessity of other elements in other areas. Thank you once again. (Paused for translation)
Lt Gen (R) Kwon: General Thurman, I’m sure you are already fully aware of this, but I do believe that currently the level of recent North Korean provocation threat has heightened to a serious point, and it’s something we must bear in mind. One instance would be on 23 April, in the name of the Special Operation Action Group of the Korean People’s Army Supreme Command, North Korea threatened to conduct special activities with revolutionary aggression against the ROK government and key media organizations and also demonstrated the high possibility and potential of even striking and attacking these locations. (Paused for translation)
Lt Gen (R) Kwon: And General Thurman, in fact, approximately a week ago, additionally, on June 4th, the Korean People’s Army strongly demonstrated the possibility of attacking these locations by revealing the coordinates of the location of these media organizations. General Thurman, my question is what is your assessment on these recent North Korean provocation threats and what kind of counter-measures or responses do you have in mind, if any? (Paused for translation)
Lt Gen (R) Kwon: And also General Thurman my second question is considering these series of provocation threats and also the recent circumstances including north Korea declaring themselves as a nuclear power and also the increase of provocation threats from north Korea, several professionals speculate that these could have a negative effect on the wartime OPCON transfer which is scheduled in 2015. General Thurman, sir, what is your thoughts regarding this issue?
Gen Thurman: Okay, Lieutenant General Kwon those are very important questions that you just asked me. Let me take the first one. (Paused for translation). First off, any threat to the Republic of Korea I take very serious. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: Our staffs, the ROK JCS, Combined Forces Command, closely monitor the situation for any indications of provocation, and I will tell you that and that is seven days a week for me, 24 hours a day, and I am committed to watching this situation, and I’ll let that be known in Combined Forces Command. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I think key to our efforts are a close and transparent relationship that I spoke of in my lecture between the ROK chairman and myself -- General Jung -- and our staffs and all our intelligence agencies. So we make sure the information we have is credible and it is accurate. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I think over the past year, we have implemented a very effective, collaborative, and transparent crisis management system which we have put into our counter provocation planning which allows us to quickly assess, plan, and act as warranted from an alliance perspective should that situation dictate. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: Key to that is what our national authorities tell us to do obviously, and so that is factored in to this consultative mechanism that I believe will work, and it has been demonstrated with several events that we have worked. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I will not discuss detailed operational matters, but I will say that our number one priority is to remain ready to defend the Republic of Korea against any North Korean provocation whether it be strategic, tactical, or asymmetrical. And that’s what our job is to make sure that we are properly defending and providing the right security on the Peninsula. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: I think to your last point that you brought up about North Korea declaring themselves a nuclear power and whether or not how that factors into OPCON transfer and the schedule for 2015. I think from a military standpoint we’re on track in implementing a ROK-led defense. Our real focus is getting the command and control right. We know the combined structure works, so getting into that and understanding what all that means and how we proceed is important work ahead of us. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: And our militaries today are working very close together to ensure that future command structure is optimized to leverage all of the necessary ROK and US military governmental capacities to deter North Korean aggression, and defeat that aggression should deterrence fail. I believe that both the US and the ROK military are on track to reach Strategic Alliance 2015. And I do not think for the first minute that this strong rhetoric should deter what we’re doing. We need to remain constant in what we’re doing and we need to move ahead. The important part is getting the command and control right. (Paused for translation)
Gen Thurman: And last, Strategic Alliance 2015 is a milestone. But to be clear, the United States is completely committed to this alliance, and will remain so after 2015. And I think that needs to be understood and as we find ourselves today in 2012 looking at, our command and control is probably the most important thing we can be doing. (Paused for translation).
Gen Thurman: So hopefully, I answered your question. It has been indeed an honor General Paik to be with you all this morning and hopefully my lecture has been meaningful to you. And the questions were very, very good. Any time I can help anyone, you know where to find me. And so, again thanks so much for the reception that you have given me, as I have been given this wonderful opportunity to lead one of the finest organizations that our militaries have and I am just truly honored to be able to do that, and I accept that responsibility, and I will deliver my duties as I work that very hard every day.
Kam-sa-ham-ni-da
Katchi Kapshida!