Eighth United States Army
Eighth Army Shoulder Insignia
Active	1944, 10 January - Present
Country	United States
Branch	Regular Army
Type	Field Army
Garrison/HQ	Yongsan Army Garrison, South Korea
Commanders
Current commander	David P. Valcourt

The Eighth United States Army—often abbreviated EUSA—(the acronym EUSA was deemed unauthorized by LTG Charles Campbell in 2002) is the commanding formation of all US Army troops in South Korea. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Regular Army is the permanent force of the United States Army that is maintained during peacetime, as opposed to those persons who may be part of a reserve or national guard outfit. ... A nations army is its military, or more specifically, all of its land forces. ... The Yongsan Garrison is a US military base located in Seoul, South Korea. ... It has been suggested that United States Army values be merged into this article or section. ...

History

World War II

The first activated on 10 June 1944 in the United States, being commanded by Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger. The Eighth Army took part in many of the great amphibious assaults in the Pacific during World War II, eventually participating in no less than sixty. The first mission of the Army, in September 1944, was to take over from the Sixth Army in New Guinea, New Britain, the Admiralties and Morotai, in order to free up Sixth Army for operations in the Philippines. June 10 is the 161st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (162nd in leap years), with 204 days remaining. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Robert Lawrence Eichelberger (9 March 1886 – 26 September 1961) was a general in the United States Army, who commanded the US Eighth Army in the Pacific during World War II. Eichelberger was born at Urbana, Ohio, on 9 March 1886. ... Pacific redirects here. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... The US Sixth Army was activated in January 1943, commanded by Lieutenant General Walter Krueger. ... (This article is about the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. ... The Admiralty Islands are a group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago. ... Morotai Island (695 sq mi/1,800 km²) is an island located in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesias Maluku Islands (Moluccas). ...

December saw Eighth Army again following in the wake of Sixth Army, when it took over control of operations on Leyte on December 26. In January, the Eighth Army entered combat on Luzon, landing the XI Corps on 29 January near San Antonio and the 11th Airborne Division on the other side of Manila Bay two days later. Combining with I Corps and XIV Corps of Sixth Army, the forces of Eighth Army then enveloped Manila in a great pincer movement. Eighth Army's final operation of the Pacific War was the clearance of the southern Philippines, including the major island of Mindanao. It was occupied with these operations for the rest of the war. Leyte (pronounced LAY-teh or LAY-tee) is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. ... ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... San Antonio is a municipality in the province of Zambales in the Philippines. ... Shoulder sleeve patch of the 11th Airborne Division. ... Manila Bay Ü is the harbor which serves the port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. ... Unit crest of the United States Army I Corps, Americas Corps. ... The history of XIV Army Corps in World War II dates from December, 1942. ... The City of Manila (Filipino: Lungsod ng Maynila), or simply Manila, is the capital of the Philippines. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. ...

Occupation

Eighth Army was to have participated in Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan. It would have taken part in Operation Coronet, the second phase of the invasion, which would have seen the occupation of the Tokyo Plain on Honshū. However, instead of invading Japan, Eighth Army found itself in charge of occupying Japan peacefully. Occupation forces landed on 30 August 1945, and Eighth Army assumed responsibility for the occupation of the whole of Japan at the beginning of 1946. Four quiet years then followed. During this time Eighth Army gradually deteriorated from a combat ready fighting force into a soft, minimally trained constabulary. Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker took command in 1948 and tried to re-invigorate the army's training but was largely unsuccessful. This was to have disastrous consequences. Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II. It was scheduled to occur in two parts: Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, set to begin in November 1945; and later Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo, scheduled... During World War II, there were two Operations Coronet, one of which was executed and the other only planned: The planning name used for the capture of Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands, off the eastern tip of New Guinea, by U.S. forces on 30 June 1943. ... Tokyo (東京; Tōkyō, lit. ... HonshÅ« (本州 Literally Main State) is the largest island of Japan, called the Mainland; it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait. ... Belligerent military occupation occurs when one nations military occupies all or part of the territory of another nation or recognized belligerent. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Walton H. Walker was a World War II Corps commander in the U.S. Army. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ...

Korean War

United States 2nd Infantry Division GIs during the Korean War

The peace of occupied Japan was shattered in June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. American naval and air forces quickly became involved in combat operations, and it was soon clear that American ground forces would have to be committed. The occupation forces in Japan were thus shipped off to South Korea as fast as possible to stem the North Korean advance. The lack of training and equipment told when many of the initial American units were destroyed after being little more than speed bumps for the North Koreans. However, the stage was eventually reached where enough units of Eighth Army had arrived in Korea to make a firm front. The North Koreans threw themselves against that front, the Pusan Perimeter and failed to break it. In the meantime, Eighth Army had reorganised, since it had too many divisions under its command for it to exercise effective control directly. I Corps and US IX Corps had been reactivated in the United States and then shipped over to Korea to control the subordinate divisions of Eighth Army. Download high resolution version (1191x798, 223 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1191x798, 223 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants United Nations: Republic of Korea  Australia  Belgium Canada  Colombia Ethiopia  France Greece  Netherlands  New Zealand  Philippines South Africa  Thailand  Turkey  United Kingdom United States Medical staff:  Denmark  India  Italy  Norway  Sweden Communist states: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea People’s Republic of China  Soviet Union Commanders Syngman Rhee... The Pusan Perimeter was the area in extreme southeast Korea that was held by US and South Korean troops during the furthest advance of the North Korean troops, in the summer and fall of 1950, during the Korean War. ...

The stalemate was broken by the Inchon landings of X Corps. The North Korean forces, when confronted with this enormous threat to their supplies, combined with a breakout operation at Pusan, broke and fled. South Korea was liberated, and North Korea was almost entirely occupied. X Corps was a unit of the United States Army that took part in the invasion of Leyte under Sixth Army during 1944. ...

However, once American units neared the Yalu River, the frontier between North Korea and China, the Chinese intervened, and drastically changed the character of the war. The Eighth Army was decisively defeated at the Battle of the Chongchon River and forced to retreat all the way back to South Korea. General Walker was killed in a jeep accident and replaced by Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway. The huge manpower reserves of China meant that they steadily drove the American forces south. Although not pushed back to anything like the Pusan perimeter, US forces again lost Seoul, the South Korean capital. The Eighth Army's morale and esprit de corps hit rock bottom. It was widely regarded as a broken, defeated rabble. The Amnok River, or the Yalu River, is a river on the border between China and North Korea. ... Matthew Bunker Ridgway (March 3, 1895–July 26, 1993) was a United States Army general. ... Seoul (Sŏul[1] 서울)   is the capital and largest city of South Korea (Republic of Korea). ...

General Ridgway forcefully restored Eighth Army to combat effectiveness over several months. Under his leadership, it slowed and finally halted the Chinese advance at the battles of Chipyong-ni and Wonju. It then counter-attacked the Chinese, liberating Seoul and driving communist forces back above the 38th parallel into North Korea, where the front stabilized. Jipyeong-ri is a village in Jije-myeon, Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea. ... Wonju is a city in Gangwon province, South Korea. ... The 38th parallel north is a line of latitude that cuts across Asia, the Mediterranean and the United States. ...

When Ridgway replaced Douglas MacArthur as overall U.N. commander, Lieutenant General James Van Fleet took command of Eighth Army. After the war of movement during the first stages, the fighting settled down to a war of attrition. Ceasefire negotiations were begun at the village of Panmunjom in the summer of 1951 and dragged on for two years. When the ceasefire was finally agreed, Eighth Army had succeeded in its mission of liberating South Korea, but the realities of limited war in a world of nuclear weapons had become obvious. North Korea still survived as a state and the pattern of the next 53 years had been set. Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 - April 5, 1964), was a famous American general who played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II. He was poised to command the invasion of Japan in November 1945 but was instead instructed to accept their surrender on September 2, 1945. ... James Alward Van Fleet (March 19, 1892 - September 23, 1992) was a U.S. Army general during World War II and the Korean War. ... Panmunjeom (Panmunjŏm) in Gyeonggi province is a village on the border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War was signed. ...

Post Korean War

In the aftermath of the Korean War, Eighth Army remained in Korea, but the forces under its control were steadily reduced as the demands of first Europe and then Vietnam increased. By the 1960s, only I Corps, controlling the 7th and 2nd Infantry Divisions, remained under Eighth Army. In 1971 further reductions occurred. 7th Division was withdrawn, along with I Corps, leaving only 2nd Division to watch the frontier. Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States Army 7th Infantry Division (Light). ... Patch of the United States Army 2nd Infantry Division. ... Map of the Korean DMZ. The DMZ is given in red, the demarcation line runs in the middle of the DMZ (black line). ...

The occasional armed clash aside, relations between the two Koreas remained as stable as could be expected. The US forces in South Korea were by the end of the Cold War regarded as a tripwire force, not so much deployed for their military, but their political value. An attack on South Korea by North Korea would mean an attack on the US as well. However, in 2003, plans were announced to move almost all of Eighth Army back from the border. It would mean that the US forces would be more able to operate in a militarily correct fashion, but it would reduce their political value greatly. This provoked a heated debate in South Korea, where the future of Eighth Army is a contentious topic.

The Headquarters of the 8th Army is currently Yongsan Garrison but it is scheduled to move south to Camp Humphreys around 2007. But the move is disputed among the United States Army because of the lack of preparation completed to date. The Yongsan Garrison is a US military base located in Seoul, South Korea. ... Chinook helicopters at Camp Humphreys Camp Humphreys is a major United States Army base located in the Pyeongtaek province of South Korea, at . ...

It is unclear how long US forces will remain in South Korea, but it is likely that for as long as they do, Eighth Army will as well.

General Information

Command Group

• Commanding General: Lieutenant General David P. Valcourt
• Command Sergeant Major: Command Sergeant Major Barry C. Wheeler

Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. ... This article is about a military rank and position. ...

Units of Eighth Army

U.S. Eighth Army Band

U.S. Eighth Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy

U.S. 19th Sustainment Command

2nd Infantry Division (United States)

U.S. 1st Signal Brigade

U.S. 501st Military Intelligence Brigade

U.S. 8th Military Police Brigade

U.S. 18th Medical Command

U.S. 175th Finance Command

Combat Support Coordination Team 1

Combat Support Coordination Team 3

U.S. 19th Military Police Battalion (Criminal Investigation Division)

UNC Security Battalion-Joint Security Area

U.S. Special Operations Theater Support Element

Logistic Support Element Far East

Joint U.S. Military Affairs Group-Korea

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Far East District

U.S. 129th Medical Detachment

U.S. 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade

The 2nd Infantry Division is a formation of the United States Army. ... US Criminal Investigation Division External Links CID home page GlobalSecurity. ... This article is about the actual Joint Security Area. ...

External links

• Eighth Army homepage
• GlobalSecurity: Eighth Army