Korean Military Advisory Group: Development Challenges During Ongoing Conflict

On July 1, 1949, Brigadier General W. Lynn Roberts initiated the Korean Military Advisor Group. This element had been approved by both the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as President Truman, and served as the primary advisors, mentors, and trainers for the South Korean Army. Initially consisting of five hundred men, this element would soon be tested as tensions, and eventually war, began with North Korea. US advisors that were assigned to the Korean Military Advisor Group contended with a multitude of issues that prohibited the completion of their assigned tasks. The solutions that they adapted enabled them to minimize many of the cultural and societal differences during their training, created a system that could be maintained by the Koran Military upon their departure, and created a training program that could be implemented during ongoing hostilities with North Korea. For the past eleven years United States military forces have conducted similar training in Iraq and Afghanistan. How the Korean Military Advisor Group conducted their training, equipping, and eventual transition of ongoing alliance operations during the Korean War to indigenous Korean military forces has direct applicability to current military operations in Afghanistan.