Some US soldiers in South Korea will now serve 2-year tours

Certain soldiers embarking to South Korea will call it home for longer than usual, according to an Aug. 1 Army memo.

The memo calls for “single soldiers without dependents assigned to the Republic of Korea to serve the accompanied tour length” of 24 months versus the typical unaccompanied one-year tour length.

The extension applies to specific occupational specialties and concentration areas, including air traffic control operators (15Q), UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter repairers (15T), working military dog handlers (31K), criminal investigations special agents (31D), counterintelligence agents (35L), signal intelligence analysts (35N) and criminal investigation division special agents (311A).

Soldiers with the listed specialties who have no dependents, are not married to other service members and are on permanent-change-of-station orders to South Korea must serve the 24-month accompanied tour length.

The revision does not apply to soldiers assigned to the defense attaché system or security cooperation organizations or to assignments in Korea without an approved accompanied tour, according to the memo.

The extension also does not affect soldiers who were placed on orders or already in South Korea before Aug. 1, according to a service spokesman.

“This affects between 100 to 200 soldiers overall in those military occupational specialties,” said U.S. Army spokesman Christopher Surridge.

The 24-month requirement, according to the memo, aims to improve readiness in the listed specialties “that require soldiers to undergo extensive training and or certification requirements prior to being fully mission capable.”

“For these seven occupations, it takes an extended amount of time to get them trained and certified to be fully mission capable for the unit,” said Surridge.

The first U.S. troops, including soldiers and Marines, arrived in South Korea on July 1, 1950, in response to North Korea’s capture of Seoul during the Korean War.

The U.S. has maintained its military alliance with South Korea ever since, seeking to deter armed conflict in the region, according to the Department of Defense.

Approximately 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea as of 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service.