New deputy USFK chief to take command this week

A new deputy chief of United States Forces Korea will take command in a change of command ceremony this week, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Bergeson will replace Lt. Gen.

Terrence O'Shaughnessy as the deputy commander of the United Nations Command and the USFK in the ceremony to be held at a U.S. air base in Osan, south of Seoul, the USFK's Seventh Air Force said in a statement.

With the new position, Bergeson will also serve as the chief commander of the Seventh Air Force, as well as the air commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

Shortly before the ceremony, the incoming commander will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, the statement said.

Bergeson is currently the director at the Pentagon's legislative liaison for the U.S. Air Force secretary. He is an F-15 and F-22 pilot who has a career of more than 3,100 hours of flight time, according to the statement.

The outgoing lieutenant general, O'Shaughnessy will assume command of the Pacific Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, it also said.

About 28,500 American troops are stationed in Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war. (Yonhap)