Korean National Police officers tour a maintenance shed at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea, in April 2003. Base officials were to host a visit Wednesday by the KNP’s newly assigned police chief for the Camp Carroll region. (Franklin Fisher / S&S)
PYONGTAEK, South Korea — The South Korean police official whose blue-clad officers guard Camp Carroll’s gates was to get his first look inside the big logistics base Wednesday, Army officials said.
They’ll give Korean National Police official Yi Hyon-hui, Chilgok County’s recently assigned police chief, a tour and brief him on the base’s importance to the military’s big picture in South Korea, said Wilfred Plumley, Camp Carroll’s installation manager.
Camp Carroll, in Waegwan, part of Chilgok County in southeastern Korea, is a major U.S. military supply and repair depot in South Korea. Among items it houses are pre-positioned stocks of weaponry, ammunition, medical and other war-fighting supplies.
“All the law enforcement personnel in Chilgok County are under his control,” Plumley said of Yi. “We want to ... establish a good rapport with him. ... You want to maintain a good relationship with those guys because their KNPs are what provides security at our gates.
“We have KNPs 24 hours a day at our gates. They’ll stand security in case of demonstrators. They’re the guys who are right on the scene,” Plumley said. “Of course, that’s the same throughout all of Korea. KNPs are a big part of our peacetime defense of the installations.”
Yi and his staff will be shown key aspects of the installation, including the Army’s Materiel Support Center-Korea, where tactical vehicles, communications gear and other military hardware undergo major upkeep and repairs.
Yi’s visit can give “a better understanding of what is at Camp Carroll so he can understand the seriousness if somebody would breach the perimeter,” said Plumley. “And just the courtesy of opening up our doors to him helps to build a good friendship.”
Later, Camp Carroll also will host events for Yi’s officers, Plumley said, possibly including soccer, swimming, a base tour and a lunch in the dining hall.
Similar events have been sponsored as part of the ongoing Good Neighbor Program, set up in 2003 by the U.S. military command in Seoul to foster improved relations with the South Korean public.
The Good Neighbor effort includes a component designated the “Korean National Police Appreciation Program,” said Kevin Jackson, chief spokesman for the Army’s Area IV Support Activity in Taegu, which oversees U.S. Army installations in the Taegu-Pusan region, including Camp Carroll.
KNP-related Good Neighbor events in the region have included a visit by dozens of KNP officers to Camp Carroll for a day of outdoor barbecue and sports with U.S. soldiers at the base. More recently, on March 18, the 8th U.S. Army Band hosted a Korean National Police Appreciation Concert and dinner in Taegu for about 700 KNP officers, officials said.
