Ex-USFK commander awarded for enhancing S. Korea-US alliance

Former commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Burwell Bell

By Jun Ji-hye

The former commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Burwell Bell was conferred with the ICAS Annual Liberty Award earlier this month for his contributions to enhancing the Seoul-Washington alliance, according to ICAS, a non-profit international research organization. ICAS stands for the Institute for Corean-American Studies.

Kim Sang-joo, senior fellow and vice president of the organization, said, “The ICAS Liberty Foundation conferred General Bell the award and the title of ICAS Liberty Foundation Distinguished Fellow at a celebration dinner held on Dec. 5 in honor of him at the U.S. Congress in Washington D.C.”

Bell was recognized for his distinguished military service to the nation and the people, and making significant contributions to elevating the quality of humanity, said ICAS.

During his acceptance remarks, the retired United States Army general said, “I accept the award on behalf of all the military personnel with whom I have soldiered over my 39 years of service in the U.S. Army.”

He said most, both U.S. and foreign military, served with courage and honor, but too many were injured or wounded in the course of their duties and some of the very best gave their lives in service to their respective countries.

“All understood that they served to protect their citizens’ lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” Bell said.

He then recalled a memory when he commanded the USFK and ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command from 2006 to 2008.

“There was 27-year-old Sergeant Yoon Jang-ho, a soldier with a South Korean engineer unit in Afghanistan. Very few had ever heard of Sergeant Yoon as he quietly pursued his duties of protecting Korean and coalition lives,” he said. “On Feb. 27, 2007, Yoon was killed by a coward’s suicide bomb attack at the front gate of Bagram Air Base there… With his family present, we forever memorialized Sergeant Yoon in a peaceful grove on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul.”

He continued that there are millions of modern day patriots who have donned the uniforms of their country to meet and defeat those who would deny the people their freedoms, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“These patriots are at work for us tonight,” he said. “Mostly in anonymity, they stand in the frigid cold of Korea’s first snow this year along the Demilitarized Zone to prevent the tyrant Kim Jun-un from fulfilling his dream of the enslavement of all Koreans.”

Along with the North Korea’s young leader, Bell also cited Al Qaeda and ISIS as today’s tyrants that withhold fundamental truths of the human condition.

“Most soldiers were and are anonymous, living fairly hidden and normal lives until the clarion call to duty came. But when that call came ― the call to march to the sound of the guns ― these unknowns have always banded together into powerful forces for good,” he said.

ICAS has been promoting bilateral relations with activities to promote cooperation and peace and prosperity, with a special emphasis on multilateral relations between the U.S. and Asia-Pacific rim nations.

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