YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea (Oct. 12, 2012) -- Eighth Army leaders discussed the way ahead in South Korea during an on-site conference here, Oct. 10-11.
Leaders and spouses from Eighth Army and major subordinate commands in Korea gathered to discuss many service-wide and peninsula-specific topics during the two-day conference at the Dragon Hill Lodge.
Eighth Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson also recognized customer service personnel who provided outstanding service to incoming troops over the summer, calling them "heroes of the summer transition."
The leaders visited the original Eighth Army headquarters building on the former Seoul National University campus together with retired Republic of Korea Army Gen. Paik Sun-yup, a Korean War hero who was the ROK Army's first four-star general.
Eighth Army used the building as its headquarters during the Korean War from June 1951 to September 1953. It then moved to Yongsan Garrison where it has remained ever since.
Spouses visited Camp Humphreys, site of the future headquarters for U.S. forces in South Korea. The spouses also had tea with South Korean First Lady Kim Yoon-ok at the presidential palace or Blue House in Seoul.
The conference enabled the leaders to discuss the transformation of Eighth Army to a Field Army headquarters.
As a part of the U.S. Army's Pacific integration, Eighth Army has changed from an Army Service Component Command to a Field Army, capable of commanding multiple multinational corps-level combat formations. Eighth Army trained for its new role during recent peninsula-wide exercises.
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