CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — Officials at Camp Humphreys in South Korea plan to launch an Internet Web site laying out specific information helpful to troops slated for transfer to the base.
Area III Support Activity officials are hoping to launch the Web site by the New Year. It would contain more than 300 Web pages of information, said Javier Lopez, Camp Humphreys information assurance manager.
“A 300-page Web site is a lot,” he said.
The site would be “an electronic welcoming packet” for troops assigned to Camp Humphreys and other installations within the Army’s Area III region, Col. Michael J. Taliento Jr, commander of the Area III Support Activity in central Korea, said.
In coming years, the U.S. military plans to transform Camp Humphreys — now a 1,250-acre helicopter base in Pyongtaek’s Anjung-ni section — into a major hub for its forces on the peninsula. Area III also includes camps Long and Eagle and a U.S. Army element at Suwon Air Base, a South Korean air force installation.
“It’s to ease the tension” that can accompany a move to a new and unfamiliar duty station, Taliento said, “to help make the transition easier.”
Taliento, who directed his staff to develop the new service, “wants the ‘best Web site in the Army,’” Lopez said, “full of useful information. So that anyone who is being assigned to Camp Humphreys or Korea would … hit the ground running. Trying to take away that vagueness of coming to Korea … what to expect for the weather, what to expect for the won rate, current policies and laws.”
The Web site would “help answer those frequently asked questions about what’s going on” in Area III, Taliento said.
A soldier, he said, typically might wonder: “‘Hey, I’m going to Camp Humphreys with my family. What’s there? What’s Korea like? What’s the school like? Can I bring my pet?’”
Camp Humphreys information now is provided on a Web site the Army’s Installation Management Agency-Korea Region Office maintains, Lopez said.
The new Area III site, however, is to greatly increase the detailed information available about Humphreys and the other area installations, Lopez said - without divulging the details that could aid terrorists or otherwise jeopardize security.
Like many official U.S. military installation Web sites, the new Web site’s content will include information about on-post services — commissary, post exchange, bank, post office — and the installations’ mission, command staff, history, military units and supporting organizations.
“We have a link to the 607th Weather Squadron, where they can actually see the weather in that specific second,” Lopez said. “It also links to the Korea tourism sites. ... They can go to the actual Web sites Korea provides for foreigners to learn about Korea.
“Basically, what remains to be done is minor tweaking,” Lopez said. “We’re pretty much ready to launch.
“When a person gets here, he or she won’t be out in left field … they can come oriented and prepared for the job.”
