March 9, 200521 yr From Army Times March 09, 2005 Base in Korea closes Associated Press CAMP PAGE, South Korea — Thumping helicopters streamed out of the U.S. military base Camp Page Wednesday, as soldiers packed trucks with equipment to prepare for moving as part of Washington’s plan to reduce its forces in South Korea. The base is to be closed and turned over to South Korea by the end of March in line with U.S. plans to restructure its deployment of overseas forces in order to focus more on anti-terrorism operations. Some 12,500 troops will depart by 2008, leaving 24,500 soldiers in this country as part of the military presence that the United States has maintained here since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. About 3,600 U.S. troops have already been redeployed from South Korea to Iraq. The 120 soldiers from the Army’s 542nd Medical Evacuation Company are to move next week to Fort Campbell, Ky., said Capt. Wesley Pickens. On Wednesday, helicopters from Camp Page — located in Chuncheon, about 50 miles northeast of Seoul — moved to another nearby U.S. base, Camp Eagle. Soldiers loaded trucks and containers with equipment to be shipped to the United States. Bustling soldiers pulled down signs and carried empty drawers from rooms. Washington has insisted that — despite the reduction in forces — the U.S. military could turn back a North Korean attack with the aid of new weapons technology. “Everything is being considered by the higher commands and there is no detriment to the amount of defenses for South Korea,” Pickens said.
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