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All U.S. Forces Korea personnel will be allowed to take their family with them on their tour here for up to three years. The benefit was so far only available to officers.
USFK commander Gen. Walter Sharp told reporters at the forces' Yongsan base Seoul on Thursday, "As the infrastructure support becomes available, accompanied tours at Pyeongtaek, Osan, Daegu, Jinhae, and Seoul will be for 36 months. Accompanied tours for Uijonbu and Dongducheon will be 24 months. Unaccompanied tours at these installations will remain at 12 months except for those in key and essential billets, which will remain at 24 months."
This measure means the U.S. has classified Korea as a "safe country." Among regions where U.S. troops are not actually engaged in hostilities, Korea has been the only one where three-year family accompanied tours were not so far granted to service members.
At the moment, out of about 28,500 USFK service members, 2,135 members are accompanied by families. Their service period is two years when they are on family-accompanied tours and one year when unaccompanied.
Sharp said he expected the number of soldiers accompanied by their families to increase to about 4,350 by early 2010, up from about 2,135 today.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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