S&S - Troops in South Korea have new tour option

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes

Troops in South Korea have new tour option

By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes

Pacific edition, Sunday, April 12, 2009

SEOUL — Troops in much of South Korea will be able to serve two-year accompanied tours, offering them another option under a new policy that will let more servicemembers bring their families to South Korea, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp announced last week.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"When Sharp announced the tour normalization policy in December, he said troops in northern South Korea, also known as Area 1, would be able to get three-year, command-sponsored tours but did not extend the two-year option to them.

However, under a revised Joint Federal Travel Regulation approved by the Department of Defense on March 2, troops in Pyeongtaek, Osan, Daegu, Chinhae and Seoul can now apply for two- or three-year command-sponsored tours.

Under the tour normalization policy, about half of the 28,500 servicemembers in South Korea eventually will be allowed to bring their families with them. "