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The Limey layout is simply stupendous, you trip over Lieutenant-Generals on every floor, most of them doing captains work, or none at all.

-- General Joseph Stillwell

Suwon AB

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Suwon Air Base
Suwon Air Base is a Republic of Korea Air Base, on which is housed the 1st Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery, a unit of the 6th Cavalry Brigade. The unit's mission is to defend against air attack. Suwon Air Base in South Korea is a remote base surrounded with razor-sharp barbed wire and guarded by Army Patriot missiles. It is one of five co-located operating sites that could house deployed forces if war erupts on the bitterly divided peninsula.

In 1992 the US government changed the status of three US air bases in Korea. Kwang Ju Air Base, Suwon Air Base and Taegu Air Base -- previously announced as ending operations -- would instead operate at reduced levels. 16 USAF personnel are assigned to Suwon. Suwon is a USAF base but is the opposite of Osan AB in that the ROKAF (Korean Air Force) has all the planes and does all the flying. A large Army Patriot Battalion is located here but is a tenant unit of the Air Force. Senior NCO's have the option of living off base (in Songtan) and airmen reside in dorms at Osan AB. All commute daily to Suwon (17 miles north of Osan AB). Suwon has a small BX, snackbar, barbershop, laundry services and dining facility (run by the US Army).

The 51st Fighter Wing, headquartered at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, maintains and administers US operations at Osan and five collocated operating bases -- Taegu, Suwon, Kwang Ju, Kimhae and Cheong Ju ? for reception and beddown of follow-on forces. The Wing's 51st Logistics Support Squadron plans, programs and initiates actions for the rapid reception and beddown of US forces deploying to the Republic of Korea during contingencies or wartime by maintaining five collocated operating bases and seven munitions storage sites.

Osan's runway closed for repairs 03 May 2000 causing a diversion of most of the base's flight operations to nearby Suwon Air Base (a Republic of Korea air force installation) until the project was completed 31 May 2000. Osan's fleet of A-10s, F-16s, U-2s, the Osan Eagle and other aircraft operated out of Suwon, but helicopter operations continued at Osan. The base's C-12s operated out of nearby Camp Humphreys. Flightline workers commuted back and forth between Osan and Suwon, and about 60 to 70 people were billeted there full-time. Adding Osan's two flying squadrons to a base that already had a full flying schedule with five flying squadrons of its own really impacted the number of sorties Suwon can support. This caused a reduction in Osan's flight operations during the month.

The United States Air Force has a continuing requirement to maintain adequate supplies of ammunition and explosives within the ROK to support wartime and contingency operational plans. Since capabilities are limited on USAF-controlled installations, the US obtained additional storage capabilities through a concept known as MAGNUM (Munitions Storage Activities Gained by Negotiations of USAF/ROKAF Memorandum). MAGNUMs are a concept unique to Korea, where USAF-titled munitions are stored at facilities which are owned, operated, and protected by the ROKAF. Accordingly, the USAF has very little control over the storage of munitions within these areas and no authority to enforce the maintenance of Q-D clear zones. As a result of encroachment by the Korean civilians into the explosive clear zones, there are large numbers of exposures around the MAGNUMs. There is a permanent exemption from US DOD Q-D standards for off-installation and ROK exposures created by storage of USAF munitions at MAGNUM locations. This exemption applies for all off-installation and ROK violations created by the originally sited net explosives weight (NEW) of storage structures located at the Osan, Kunsan, Suwon, Kwang Ju, Sachon, Taegu, and Cheong Ju MAGNUMs.

Pacific Air Forces ensures its own readiness by holding an annual-and intense-combat ammunition production exercise. Known as CAPEX, the exercise's goal is providing realistic wartime training. CAPEX began in 1987 because most combat-experienced ammo troops had retired between then and the end of the Vietnam War. For CAPEX '96, 842 people deployed to Suwon Air Base Using an integrated concept, CAPEX '96 deployed bomb builders from Air Combat Command's Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and PACAF's Anderson AFB, Guam; Eielson AFB, Alaska; and Yokota and Misawa ABs, Japan. The 354th Fighter Wing, from Eielson AFB, selected as the provisional wing, provided 12 F-16s, six A/OA-10s and 412 people for the live-fire. Ammo troops weren't the only ones building at Suwon. The 354th Civil Engineering Squadron constructed a tent city in a bare, dirt field to house all the CAPEX players. In nine days, the 57-member team from Eielson, working alongside 23 soldiers from the 473rd Quartermaster Company, Camp Kyle, South Korea, constructed 136 tents used for billeting, dining and recreational purposes.

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