Some “single” soldiers who ship out to South Korea will now need to spend two years on the peninsula rather than one, the Army said in a recent force-wide message.
The exception to policy, aimed at seven career fields, requires “single soldiers without dependents assigned to the Republic of Korea to serve the accompanied tour length” of 24 months, according to the Aug. 1 memo.
The change applies to soldiers who received permanent change-of-station orders to South Korea on Aug. 1 or later; troops who were placed on orders or who were already stationed in South Korea before Aug. 1 are not affected by the new policy, an Army spokesperson, who agreed to discuss the policy on condition of anonymity, told Military.com on Wednesday.
The assignment will not become an accompanied tour that would allow soldiers to bring dependents along.
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Soldiers in seven career fields are affected, the Army said. Those include air traffic control operators (15Q); UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter repairers and aircrew (15T); military working dog handlers (31K); criminal investigations special agents and warrant officers (31D and 311A); counterintelligence special agents (35L); and signals intelligence analysts (35N).
The change is meant to cut down on turnover in jobs that require significant training once someone arrives in South Korea, and was not spurred by operational needs in the…
