Black Hawks Near North Korea Show Risk in U.S. Command Shift
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On orders from a U.S. instructor, Corporal Kim Jong Chan leaps out of a Black Hawk helicopter hovering near the world’s most fortified border. The South Korean soldier rappels 90 feet down, rehearsing for the day he may have to go behind North Korean lines in the event of a war.
“It’s not often that South Koreans get the chance to participate in one of the hardest training courses of the world’s most powerful army,” Kim said before completing the U.S. Air Assault School training last month at Camp Casey, 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. “We hold our own drills, but the U.S. definitely offers better equipment and training.”