Obsession with Search Performance Claims
Marine Corps: "One-Sided Claims, Subject to Investigation"
On the 19th, during the search for flood victims missing in Yecheon-gun, Gyeongbuk, the Marine Corps offered Corporal Chae Su-geun and his company members a 14-night, 15-day reward leave, raising suspicions that they were pressured excessively after Corporal Chae was swept away by a rapid current and died.
On the afternoon of the 19th, near Gopyeonggyo Bridge in Homyeong-myeon, Yecheon-gun, Gyeongbuk, the 119 rescue team recovered the body of a missing Marine soldier during a search and transported it by ambulance. [Photo by Yonhap News]
According to a Yonhap News report on the 23rd, until the day before the accident, the unit members conducted searches on foot only, switching to water searches from the day of the accident. No one was forced, nor were they stopped, and the officers occasionally shouted, "Do not go deeper than waist level."
The Marine who found the missing person was promised 14 nights and 15 days of leave. A unit official stated that this was both psychological comfort for the young person who saw the body and an encouragement measure that could sufficiently achieve the mission goals.
A unit official said, "In fact, there was no soldier unaware that the water could reach chest height," adding, "They just adjusted on their own and searched without going into deep areas."
There was no system to guarantee the soldiers' safety, so motivation was the only factor. Experts reportedly expressed concerns about the artillery battalion, which is not specialized in rescue or search, entering the water recklessly.
A witness on the day of the accident said, "The red Marine is drifting away. He is drifting at a speed like running outside the water," and reported it to 119. The fire department requested joint response from the police, but the Marine Corps, which was commanding the soldiers on site, did not even know about this report.
The Military Human Rights Center stated in a statement on the day of the accident, "Military personnel can be deployed for civilian support duties in disaster situations," but pointed out, "However, assigning inexperienced ordinary soldiers to directly enter rivers and search for missing persons, rather than assisting in flood recovery or missing person searches, is extremely dangerous."
An official from the search authorities also said, "Unlike police officers or firefighters who recognize and act on their own, soldiers act according to orders, so it is generally considered inappropriate for them to be deeply involved in underwater searches because it is difficult to act quickly in emergencies."
At the Kim Dae-sik Hall within the 1st Marine Division in Pohang, where a memorial altar for the late Corporal Chae Su-geun, who died after being deployed to search for a missing person in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, was set up, Corporal Chae's mother is seen crying while gently touching her son's photo. [Photo by Yonhap News]
There are also claims that the Marine Corps requested to assign search areas to locations presumed to have many missing persons in order to increase the search performance.
Regarding the allegations, Lee Gi-won, Public Relations Officer of the Marine Corps 1st Division, denied them as "one-sided claims." He also said, "Since this is under investigation by the independent Marine Corps Investigation Unit, we cannot respond arbitrarily."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
