The commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Far East District, Col. Jeremiah Willis, center, prepares to break ground on a new emergency services facility at Camp Walker, South Korea, April 16, 2026. (Alejandro Carrasquel/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP WALKER, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean officials broke ground this month on a $38.5 million emergency services facility on this Army base in Daegu, aiming to improve coordination among fire, police and medical response units.
The project, funded by South Korea, will consolidate emergency services now spread across multiple aging facilities into a single, centralized location serving several U.S. Army installations.
“Today, we broke ground on what will be a new emergency services station combining police, fire and emergency medical services under one roof,” U.S. Army Daegu Garrison commander Col. Jeffrey Noll told Stars and Stripes after the April 16 ceremony.
The South Korean Defense Installations Agency awarded the contract in December, according to an April 3 email from Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Rachel Napolitan.
The more than 68,000-square-foot facility will include three vehicle bays, a centralized dispatch center and two detention rooms to support daily emergency operations, she said.
Col. Jeffrey Noll, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Daegu, speaks during the ground-breaking ceremony for a new emergency services facility at Camp Walker, South Korea, April 16, 2026. (Alejandro Carrasquel/Stars and Stripes)
Camp Walker, about 200 miles southeast of Seoul, serves as a key logistics hub for U.S. forces in South Korea. Nearly 10,000 U.S. service members, family members, civilian employees and South Korean personnel live and work across installations in the area, according to the garrison’s website.
Noll said the current emergency infrastructure is outdated and geographically dispersed, limiting coordination among the response teams. The new facility will support Walker as well as nearby Camps Henry and George.
“By bringing a fire department, military police and medevac teams under one roof, we are enabling a higher level of coordination and responsiveness,” Col. Jeremiah Willis, commander of the Corps of Engineers’ Far East District, said at the ceremony.
The facility will include advanced communications systems, backup power and secure operational spaces to ensure continuity during emergencies.
Construction will take place in two phases, with the main facility expected to be completed by August 2028 and a multilevel parking structure by December 2029, Willis said.
“This is a [South Korea]-funded project … it supports the alliance and readiness,” he said.
The project is part of broader efforts to modernize infrastructure at U.S. installations in the region, many of which date to the Korean War era, Willis said.
