KATUSA

This does not cite its .
You can Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.

-->

KATUSA(Korean: 카투사) stands for Korean Augmentation To the United States Army. Service in the armed forces is mandatory in The Republic of Korea for all male citizens, many Korean men who have learned to speak English compete to become KATUSAs so they can serve their time in a unit in the United States Army rather than in the Republic of Korea Army. It's widely known in Korea that the U.S. military is generally less strict than the Korean military, and allows for more personal freedom. There were roughly 4800 KATUSAS (compare with 25,000 USFK) serving in 2005.

The purpose of the KATUSA program, in general, is to allow the U.S. military to have soldiers that speak Korean in order to allow them to function and manuver throuought the Korean peninsula with a lesser degree of difficulty. They not only serve a great purpose as translators between the local populace and economy and the U.S. Army, but also serve to help the U.S. manuver around in an unfamiliar terrain, and often (though informally) help U.S. soldiers new to the peninsula understand Korean ways, customs, and a bit of the language.

KATUSAs were formerly chosen by the Military Manpower Administration/MMA through standardized tests as well as through the Second Training School. Today all KATUSA applicants must go through the MMA. The KATUSA tests are highly competitive, and application is limited to once per person per lifetime.

The KATUSA program began in July of 1950, during the Korean War. Although there is no formal written agreement, the KATUSA program has been maintained as a de facto liaison between the armed forces of both nations. According to Article 600 Section 2 of the USFK Regulations, KATUSAs are granted equal prerogatives as their American counterparts, even though they are still officially members of the ROK Army. This is a unique case in which members of the military are recruited by one nation, but serve under the jurisdictional command of another.

Current Issues

One of the criticisms reguarding the KATUSA program is the discrepancy in the rank promotion system of both nations. Since the ROK Army promotes its enlistees on a quota/time basis and not through the achievement system, at times the KATUSAs will become seniors in rank compared to their American counterparts, even though they might have significantly less field experience.

Some of the recent criticisms from the South Korean side include alleged forced-recruitment during war time, when the US 7th Division needed reinforcements for the landing at Inchon. These so-called "First KATUSAs" included 313 men from Pusan (the South Korean side claims they were taken from refugee camps, but whether they volunteered or were forcefully incorporated is still a matter of dispute).

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.