S Korea vs. US Army

[Guest 4Life]

For those of you who don't know me, I am a member of US Army. I served with the drive of this vehicle for 12 months until he left on assignment to Korea. I can tell you one thing, I probably would have viewed this whole situation differently, but because the driver was a real fuckup back when I knew him, changes my whole opinion of this "incident".

 

Here are some disturbing pictures of these two girls after they were crushed by AVLB.

picture 1

Presentation

 

 

 

A Tragic Accident

 

On June 13th along a road in south Korea, a US Army Tank ran over two female junior high school students. It is correct to call this accident a tragedy. The victims suffered a horrible death. The families and friends of these girls will be haunted by the deaths, as will those soldiers involved in the accident.

 

The accident itself in which Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun were killed, though tragic, is of a type all too common in Korea. One Korean news report states that approximately 82 children are killed or injured in traffic accidents every day in Korea and 70% of those accidents involve children walking on or along a road.

 

The accident occurred along a narrow road near Yangju, north of Seoul, on a route commonly used by US military vehicles to travel to and from the Twin Bridges training area near Uijongbu, south Korea. Shim Mi-Son and Shin Hyo-sun were on their way to a birthday party, walking on the edge of the road. Sergeant Mark Walker was driving an AVLB, an M-60 tank designed to carry a tank bridge, as the third vehicle in a seven vehicle convoy moving to the Twin Bridges Training area. According to published reports, the AVLB adjusted its position away from the center line of the road in order to not collide with an approaching convoy of Bradley Armored Personnel Carriers. The AVLB was actually wider then the lane it was traveling in, so this brought the right track of the AVLB directly behind where the students were walking. When this happened, the students were in a blind spot caused by part of the bridge laying apparatus on the AVLB. The track commander, Sergeant Fernando Nino tried to warn the SGT Walker, but he had configured his radio system to talk to his company commander and he was unable to hear the warning of SGT Fernando.[ii] The girls were crushed by the right track of the 54 ton tank. SGT Walker stopped on top of the girls, then backed the tank off of where their bodies lay.

 

An Injustice for the Soldiers?

 

The US military in Korea has gone to extremes to address Korean’s concerns over this incident. The 2nd Infantry Division investigated the accident and presented their explanation. The unit involved held a candlelight vigil. The commander of US Forces Korea apologized.[iii]

 

Despite these efforts, the US military has not been able to placate outrage over this accident. In part, the US was incompetent in dealing with this situation because of the efforts of increasingly well organized anti-US Non Governmental Organizations seeking to turn this accident into a political incident. In addition, electioneering politicians[iv] of all parties attempted and continue to attempt to use this issue to show their independence against the United States by condemning the US and calling for the prosecution and punishment of the two soldiers primarily involved in the accident in Korea’s courts.

 

As a result, the Walker and Nino have now been charged with negligent homicide[v] by the US military and the Korean government is calling for them to be turned over to Korean authorities for trial and punishment[vi] even though initial investigations by Korean police and US Forces[vii] clearing these soldiers of having acted intentionally or negligently[viii] and despite their having been at the time of the accident performing under orders which they were legally required to obey on a route they were required to follow in a manner specified by their commanders and the military. As such, a tragedy is about to become an injustice.