USFK has emergency evacuation blueprint, but concedes things may not go as expected

USFK has emergency evacuation blueprint

A long-scheduled U.S. Forces Korea exercise to practice evacuating noncombatants was supposed to start Thursday and run through this weekend. But the annual Courageous Channel drill was cancelled earlier this week “to avoid the appearance that it was scheduled in response to the March sinking of a South Korean warship or the subsequent investigation,” USFK said in a statement Tuesday.

U.S. military officials said actual evacuations could be ordered due to natural disasters, rising tensions, political instability or the resumption of hostilities with the North. They said any evacuation would be ordered by the U.S. Embassy in South Korea and could range from a “voluntary departure” to a full-scale evacuation coordinated by the Department of Defense.

So the DoD is conceding that in case of renewed tensions on the Korean peninsula, evacuation procedures could be quite chaotic and unprecedented. And there is a possibility that such evacuations might have to be completed in the backdrop of a North Korean assault.

And by the way, for some more speculations and conspiracies, please look at the date of the article .

By Jon Rabiroff, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, May 22, 2010

reply to post by order in chaos


I don't get it. It isn't May 22 yet, even in the Koreas. I suppose the article was meant to not be published untill the 22nd. Who knows. I'd be surprised if USFK DIDN"T have an evac plan of some kind.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the war in Korea was never officaily declared over was it? Just an armistace declared?

reply to post by JJRichey


Yes, technically, the Koreans are still at war. I think that perhaps this is an article that must have been published tomorrow but instead it has been uploaded today itself.