Some “single” soldiers who ship out to South Korea will now need to spend two years on the peninsula rather than one, the Army said in a recent force-wide message.
The exception to policy, aimed at seven career fields, requires “single soldiers without dependents assigned to the Republic of Korea to serve the accompanied tour length” of 24 months, according to the Aug. 1 memo.
The change applies to soldiers who received permanent change-of-station orders to South Korea on Aug. 1 or later; troops who were placed on orders or who were already stationed in South Korea before Aug. 1 are not affected by the new policy, an Army spokesperson, who agreed to discuss the policy on condition of anonymity, told Military.com on Wednesday.
The assignment will not become an accompanied tour that would allow soldiers to bring dependents along.
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Soldiers in seven career fields are affected, the Army said. Those include air traffic control operators (15Q); UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter repairers and aircrew (15T); military working dog handlers (31K); criminal investigations special agents and warrant officers (31D and 311A); counterintelligence special agents (35L); and signals intelligence analysts (35N).
The change is meant to cut down on turnover in jobs that require significant training once someone arrives in South Korea, and was not spurred by operational needs in the Pacific, the Army spokesperson said. It’s expected to affect fewer than 200 soldiers each year.
“The main reason we’re doing this is not related to any personnel shortages or anything in those fields,” the spokesperson said. “These changes [are] to improve the efficiencies and utilizations of the soldiers in these occupations.”
By the time soldiers in those seven occupations are certified as fully able to perform their mission, the spokesperson said, they sometimes have fewer than six months left on the job before they prepare to return to the United States.
“In order to get the most out of these soldiers and for them to become proficient in these roles, the extra time is needed to keep them in Korea,” the spokesperson said.
U.S. Forces Korea will revisit the policy each year to decide whether it should be extended or whether the list of affected careers should change.
Single soldiers in the affected fields who are already serving unaccompanied tours in South Korea are not required to extend their stay, but will be encouraged to do so.
Soldiers comprise most of the approximately 28,500 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea, according to the Congressional Research Service. The United States has maintained a presence on the peninsula since the Korean War to fend off North Korean aggression and as a staging area for military operations around the Pacific.