Major Montrell Russell: All right, so good morning everyone. My name is Major Montrell Russell. I'm from Army Global Communications and Outreach. I want to thank you for joining us for today's media roundtable, hosted by General Taylor. This morning, we are here to talk about readiness and modernization in the Pacific, as well as an important issue, tour normalization.

This interview is on the record. All of the comments made today should be attributed to General Taylor. Again, please keep your questions specific to the area of topic. Should you have something that's outside of the scope, reach out to myself or Colonel Martinez here, and we'll be happy to get those answers sorted out for you.

So we're going to get started. I'm going to turn it over to General Taylor for some opening comments, and then I will call on the reporters by name. So we'd ask you to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Obviously, we've got a large group and only about 30 minutes, so any questions about anything? Sir?

Major General Hank Taylor: First of all, your math doesn't add up, 30 minutes, and thanks for being here. We have obviously more than 30 people to ask questions, but we'll do the best we can. Hey, thanks for being here for everybody. I guess as the PA was saying, this is kind of the batting order. We're first up. I guess we get to be first up. So my name is Major General Hank Taylor. I'm the commander right now of the 8th Field Army, the 8th United States Army, which is all Army forces on the Korean Peninsula. This is my Command Sergeant Major Weaver. So we're here, obviously, from the peninsula and get to be with you this morning.

I want to invite, you know, we're going to talk, you're going to ask me some questions, and I'm going to do my best to give you a decent answer, right? But what we'll be lacking is the real feel of what goes on for our soldiers and their families that are stationed in Korea. It’s about, you know, 13 hours off cycle right now. So this is like 1:00 in the morning for us, so we're excited to be awake and with you. I do want to start and take about a minute to show you just a quick-- just to get our minds in the scope of what it's like, what it looks like if you haven't been there. Some of you have. But why don't we--let's play that, then I'll give a little bit more.

[Video playing]

So I have, I think, a little bit of a unique, I think of it as a great opportunity. I am on just over my seventh year total in Korea. It's my third tour in Korea. I was there in the late ‘90s as a captain, so I had the opportunity to command a troop--a company-level organization in ‘96, ‘98. I went back in ‘14 to ‘17 and commanded a brigade there, and then I've been there from ‘22 to ‘25. I commanded the 2nd Infantry Division, and I was the J3--UCJ3 of USFK, CFC, and UNC, and then I've been the commander of 8th Army for about three months now doing this. And so when I think about Korea and kind of the tie of AUSA, we'll start, you know, those of you, you see the great things that are out on the floor, the talk the secretary gave, just to set expectations. I am the benefiter of all these great things you get to see at AUSA, right? I'm a field commander.

What I do is take all these things that you see here and put it into work and build readiness, execute deterrence, take care of families and soldiers. And so when I think about Korea when I first showed up as a captain in 1997--’96, ’97, you know, to now, ‘25, wow, what a story. You look at it, a great place to be, especially as a commander. What I love about my story and the story of many of our soldiers and leaders that come to Korea is I tie it to purpose and to readiness.

And it's great as a commander to have a real mission, right? You know, when I think about what we do each day, you heard, that was the Command Sergeant Major Weaver's predecessor, Command Sergeant Major Bollmer, when you heard him say, when I say kachi, you say kachida. That means we go together, right, kachi kachida in Hangul there. So if you see Sergeant Major Bollmer, tell him his Korean was really good. But it's a unique opportunity to serve in Korea. When you talk about the relationship we have with our Korean allies, how we build readiness together on a daily basis, it's unlike anything else you'll see. And that's why, you know, if you raise your hands if I could, how many have been to Korea and have been there? All right, so you've seen us. You don't count. So you, and hopefully what I'm saying is it resonates and you feel it.

When I was the 2ID commander, I had about 100 ROK officers and noncommissioned officers that were assigned in my division. So these were, you know, Republic of Korea Army leaders, but they were assigned in my division. So that's why we call it the 2nd ROK-U.S. Combined Division. Nowhere else. Just an amazing thing when you talk about things that are going on in the Pacific. You know, when we talk the Indo-Pacific theater, we talk about trust, relationships, and always having that discipline about an organization. That's something that hopefully as we get into questions, we can kind of pull out of that. And lastly, just kind of my opening comments, and then I'll turn it back over to Juan.

The story of Korea as it ties into the bigger picture of what we're doing now and today really is about being ready, right? It is about being strong. It is about modernizing and ensuring, especially in the Army, because I'm an Army organization, and we're here at AUSA, is in all domains, in all the multi-domains, in all the warfighting functions, is not only modernizing our equipment, but it's the techniques and tactics that we actually employ. And that's what is exciting. So when I come to something like this and I look at all the things that some of you heard the Secretary talk this morning, the things that we're going to bring, that kind of brings me something about, because we get to put this into action, right? And that's what we do. And that's, I think, very powerful for the United States Army is we talk about our forces that are forward deployed, that enduring footprint and organization and the equipment that we have, but mostly important, the people, right? And the soldiers, their families that, you know, I bring about every month. I have turnover, right? Sometimes up to 8% each month, people rotating in and out. And a lot of people, if you think about when you leave the United States for the first time, maybe you've left the country, you've come to Korea, halfway around the world, long flights. As some of you know, even the direct flight, you're going to walk around a few laps on a plane to, you know, keep the blood flowing. But I would tell you and Command Sergeant Major Weaver, you know, just came from U.S. Army Japan and now to 8th Army, people like coming to Korea to serve. So that's really it. It's about the mission. It's about our people and, most importantly, about readiness.

And we talk about that, you know, as we walk throughout, you know, the Army footprint throughout Korea, and we give greetings of the day, we always reply back with, fight tonight, right? And those are one of those things that, like I said, that's been constant in my story, ‘90s, the teens, right? ‘15, ‘18, now the ‘20s, that constant motto of being ready and being able to really truly not only say it, but be able to do it is an important thing I want everybody to take away from here today. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our PA, and let's do some questions.

MMR: All right, sir, thanks for that. MGFT: You're welcome.

MMR: In an effort to, you know, get through as many reporters, I'm going to jump right in. Mike Brest, Washington Examiner. Can you get us started, please?

Mike Brest: Yes, it's very nice to meet you. Thank you for doing this, sir. Talk to us a little bit about what threats keep you up at night.

MGFT: As an Army officer, we always look at all the threats, right? That's what we do. I'm trained to do that. My staff is trained to look at all evolving threats. But that's what I'm paid to do, and that's what we train to do. And I really bring that mostly important about what I think about. I think the answer that I'd like to for that question is how do I prepare every day to do that so that I'm not worried about certain threats but that I understand my mission, and that's something that 8th Army is very unique because we have, you know, all the mission sets from combat operations, sustainment, logistics, you know, protection. We do all those. And so what I think about 24/7, every day, is ensuring that my subordinate commanders and leaders at echelon understand that being truly ready in all domains is what allows us to take what your question is and be ready for that. Thanks for that.

MMR: All right. Tony?

Tony Capaccio: Tony Capaccio with Bloomberg. August of ‘21, you were the face of the Pentagon for the Afghan withdrawal.

MGFT: I was.

TC: We were briefing you, hitting you up every day, so thank you for that thankless task. MGFT: I remember I was the operations officer briefing that day. That's right. That was the key. TC: I wanted to recognize you.

MGFT: No, thank you for that, and I recognize you from those days. TC: Okay, greyer hair, but so what?

MGFT: Platinum. Platinum, we call it. TC: Platinum brunette. On threats---- MGFT: Yes.

TC: One of the great--one of the repeated threats we've heard over the years is that North Korea has X thousands of artillery pieces within X kilometers of Seoul and could obliterate Seoul. I don't remember all the Xs and Os, but that's the broad. Is that the most current threat? And how have you adapted over the years in terms of mitigating that threat in the early hours of a conflict?

MGFT: Sure. Threat is, like I said, is something we're always looking at, regardless of the threat. It always comes back to do I have the capabilities? Do I have the training? Do I have the wherewithal to understand those? And my--yes, we do. I understand what our threats are, what they are, and how to train for those. And so when I think about your specific question, what I know is in my organization, the 8th Army, I am ready for those threats. I am ready. I am prepared. I have the right equipment. I have the right training. I have the right awareness of threats throughout the Indo-Pacific region to be able to do that.

TC: Is that still the most pressing immediate threat in terms of a conflict with North Korea that they could rain hell on Seoul?

MGFT: I look at all domain, right? I look at all the multi-domain capabilities that are out there, and I make sure I can respond to any of that.

TC: Okay, fair enough. Thank you. MGFT: Yeah, absolutely.

MMR: Okay. Jeff, Task and Purpose.

Jeff Schogol: Tony actually asked what I was going to ask, but when you talk about you are ready for the artillery threat, how? Without getting into OPSEC, how are you going to counter the tube artillery, the rocket artillery that can range Seoul?

MGFT: Sure. Like you said, not getting into OPSEC or into techniques or tactics or procedures. The way a commander ensures that you're ready for those type of questions is, one, is making sure we have the most modern equipment that counters those things, that has our own capabilities of that, and we do that, right? And that's kind of the things that you see the Army's long-range precision fires and all the things that they continue to do. We continue to ensure that in the fires domain, we continue to ensure that we are modernizing, and that is something we are doing is we continue to modernize in all those capabilities. And then it is truly having leaders that are trained, right, and understanding the threat, having the early warning and all those things. That's how you protect yourself in those type of environments, is understanding and having the resources available to execute mission. And that comes back to that readiness, right? It all comes back to readiness and training. And lastly, really our mission tells us that that's what we need to be ready for.

JS: How is life for the junior enlisted service member changing on the Great Peninsula?

MGFT: Sure. One, we've got great facilities. So when I talk about the alliance, right, the ROK-

U.S. alliance, and the modernization--the continued modernization of that alliance is in looking how the Republic of Korea has supported. And that's why if we were at Camp Humphreys, the first thing I would do is I would take you around Camp Humphreys, and I would show you the barracks, the DFACs, the gyms, the off-post things that our Korean allies have so greatly supported us with. We have forces that come to Korea, and when they come train with us and they stay with us, they see our--I mean, we have good facilities. We make sure--and I think the biggest thing we do is make sure our leaders understand that not only is their responsibility to take care of their soldiers and families on duty, but it's off duty too. And, you know, we get to travel the entire Indo-Pacific region. So a lot of our soldiers, if you talk to them, they take great benefit of doing travel throughout the area.

And then it always comes back to having been a prior enlisted soldier, I first joined in 1988 as an artillery soldier. Soldiers want to be trained. They want to have purpose. And that's what I feel we do, right? And that's one of the first things I always ask, you know, as I see soldiers who are leaving, as I said, in our turnover, is I ask them those questions. Did you feel you had purpose here? Did you feel that we made you better? And so that's what we try to do, because that's just as important as the barracks room that they live in that I make sure is, you know, provided for. They've got good food to eat, enough protein and those things so they can be warrior athletes that I need them to be. Thanks.

MMR: Kelsey Baker of BI, please.

Kelsey Baker: I don’t have a question right now.

MMR: Perfect. So we're going to go right down. We'll go to Ashley Roque.

Ashley Roque: A couple questions for you. Sort of with the shift towards the homeland and this region, has there been a change to your O&M budget either last year or last year, even though we're in a shutdown, activities that you weren't able to do, training, et cetera?

MGFT: My commanders and I will tell you that we have great opportunity to train, and our level of training readiness is very high. So when I look at the resources that I have, I have everything I need to when I think about live fire training, live flight training, maneuver training, like driving, you know, our vehicles, our strikers and all those things, sending soldiers to individual schools back here in the states. Within 8th Army, at echelon at the divisions down to our brigades, we're highly trained and have the resources to ensure I maintain that high level readiness.

AR: Was there a change to the resourcing, though?

MGFT: Every year there's a change, right? You think about it, but nothing that I've had that I have had to change any of my readiness or have any declines in readiness.

AR: Okay. And any impact that the shutdown is having on 8th Army?

MGFT: I'm here. We're still working. We're ready. You know, at my level, I have my orders and we're doing it, right? And I have confidence and my soldiers have confidence, right? They're being fed this morning. They're still training. My 2nd Infantry Division is out and executing collective division training right now. So we're continuing to ensure that we do what the Army has asked us to do and the people have asked us to do. Thank you.

MMR: [inaudible]

Unknown Speaker: Thank you, and thanks so much for doing this. You're talking a lot about getting ready, and I know that technology plays such a key point in all of it. Can you give us some examples of recent use cases with autonomy, AI, drones, or otherwise that make specific sense for Korea and where you're at for 8th Army?

MGFT: So just readiness as a whole. So as we talk about protection, drone use, counter drones, counter-UAS, medical modernization, aviation modernization, we have something going on in almost every domain of modernization in Korea, right? AI is one thing that, as a commander, it's been very, very interesting for me. Obviously, I've been in the Army a long time, right? And so I was in the Army before computers, right? And so, I mean, think about it. As I, in 1988, in my specialty, in the fire direction specialist, we did not have computers. There were still maps. To now, where we are regularly using artificial intelligence, predictive analysis to look at sustainment, intelligence, and the incredible capabilities of our young soldiers and leaders, right?

So I have six children, right? Six children. Youngest just graduated university. And so when I watch my children's generation right then and how they just jump into it, and I remember getting first leaps and bounds. It's just so amazing to watch. And so what that does, why I say that is, just going to your question, is we are now able to just take things--when I was young, it wouldn't take me this long to do this. Now, we're cutting those down, right? And we just keep, we test, we try, we give feedback. And then, you know, it's great because then we'll get updates, right? And that can be in the AI for, you know, just normally writing regular reports, right? Just being able to write our weekly reports and things--to actually, in the intelligence world, to actually then help us predict things, I think is the biggest thing that really I'm excited about is in that modernization piece.

Unknown speaker: A quick follow-up, and then also, like, I'm curious if you use, like, generative AI at all in your command capacity, building on that. But more importantly, when you talk about equipment, where are the gaps? Where are the technology gaps where your team could be doing better if you had X?

MGFT: Yeah. I think all of us would agree, as we've watched over the last 10, 15 years, how technology changes so fast. I think that's where I, personally, and our team always want to get better, right? So as we look at, and especially when we talk about staying connected as an alliance, right? And as I work daily, right, with ROK organizations who are also modernizing and doing their own excursions with AI and their own pieces, is making sure we learn lessons together. So that's one area that I want to keep, and because we share so well when we do that, we're able to share, you know, different lessons learned to try to close those gaps.

Because that's really what we're trying to do, right, is we all want to make decisions, right? As a commander, I want to make better decisions. I want to make decisions, not faster, but at the right time, right? I want to make sure that I make decisions at the right time to give me the advantage, right? When you start talking about, you know, advantages in the battlefield, decision-making is one of the key areas, right, that helps us get that advantage. So that's one area that I want to keep getting better at.

Unknown Speaker: Okay, what questions are you asking generative AI and chatbots?

MGFT: Oh, boy. So it's a great question, right? Because I have become--chat and I, really close lately, right, in doing that, right, in developing, you know, just in leadership, right? And so one of the things that recently I've been personally working on with my soldier is decision-making, individual--individual decision-making, right, in how, when we make decisions, how we make sure in our own individual lives, when we make decisions is important. And so that's something I've been asking and trying to build models to help all of us, especially in, okay, how do I make decisions, personal decisions, right, that affect not only me but my organization, right, and overall readiness. Thank you.

MMR: All right, thanks. Great discussion. We are unfortunately running close to time. MGFT: I'm talking too much. Sorry.

MMR: Just want to give, we'll give one more question here to Colin from Axios, please.

Colin Campbell: Thank you. I'm curious how you're thinking through messaging in the Indo- Pacific, kind of deterrence, baring your teeth. Obviously we had the Typhoon shock over the dateline recently. You had LRHW in Australia, I believe. And obviously Chinese or Koreans probably don't feel too happy about that. But what do you think in the bigger picture about almost that info warfare side of things?

MGFT: Yeah. This really goes to what I think is not only the message but truly the critical message is that we are ready. We are modernizing, right, that we have capabilities forward in the Indo-Pacific region, right. I'm on the Asian continent, right. I have my feet on the Asian continent with modern equipment, with well-led soldiers, right, that understand that really that messaging comes always back to the soldier, right, back to the organization, that there is an organization called 8th Army and subordinate units that have capabilities in that same region to be able to not only show that but message that.

MMR: Thank you. Adrian, do you have one?

MGFT: Yeah, we could do it. We won't go all day, but let's go. We've got two other hands up, so let's go with two.

Adrian: I just want to ask you about the North Koreans supporting Russia in the Ukrainian conflict. Are they learning anything from that? And also you talked about artillery before. Are drones as much of a concern as artillery has been?

MGFT: I think we've seen the use of drones being very important as we talk about modern-day warfare right now. So we take that very serious, right, and it kind of goes back to your question of, you know, as we look at not only specific modernization but things that we need to learn and we are learning because that's something we've done, right, in the 250 years of our Army has been around is we always look at what's going on around the world and other conflicts so that we learn from it. I mean that's what we do, right? There's things that are out, we'll see probably out on this floor, that are learning lessons that we are bringing in every day, you know. So, yeah, that is very important that we continue to learn those lessons and that we not only modernize our equipment but really our thought process, right, and how we're going to deal with that.

Hope Seck: Hi. Hope Seck with Military Times. Thanks for taking the time. MGFT: Yeah, you bet.

HS: So as of October 1st, Korea is on this 3-2-1 rotation model. So I wanted to ask, you know, if there's any preparation that you all had to take to go to that model and also, you know, how you expect to see the dividends of readiness and stability and all the things that those changes were made for.

MGFT: So recently 3-2-1 is what we call it, a very simple 3-2--three years, two years, one year. So the Army got approval to go into what we call tour normalization. And so now as soldiers are being put on orders, when we mean getting orders to come to Korea, three years will be what we would call a command-sponsored or a normal tour of three years, right, at that pace. And then two years will be a normal, now unaccompanied tour. So I count--and then we'll still have one year for still what we would call restricted tours in certain areas. So when you think about where I manage Korea from, from all the way to the south, all the way to the DMZ, right to the JSA, we did a lot of good preparation. We thought, you know, as we put that request in, we have an implementation model of how we're doing that. We're focused right now where we have immediate capability to do that, which is in our southern area and our Seoul area and more Camp Humphreys. So we're already in this, we call it movement cycle, this cycle, personnel cycle, already starting to receive our first people on three years and two-year tours.

As we look to the north and trying to make sure we can do that throughout the depth back up in the north, that will probably take another three, four years as we rebuild some capabilities because it's really ensuring that we have all the resources available. So as we tell families we're going to bring it, you know you're here. We've got schools. We've got hospitals. We have that care. And that is going really well in, you know, as I said, Camp Humphreys, our Daegu area.

And we'll continue to work and set those conditions up in the north most. So anything else, any detail I left out for you?

HS: Yeah, and just I guess the impacts that you're hoping to see.

MGFT: Yeah, and that's the part I missed. That is creating stability for me, right? So when you think--remember I talked about turnover, right? So when you think about most people are on a one-year and a certain amount of years. There's times where as a brigade commander, 8 percent each month. So that's going to reduce that, right? I'm going to reduce some of that movement. So that's going to increase readiness, right? So, I mean, think about it. We've all been in turnover. You know, when you leave and somebody--there's always gaps. And so we're really taking a lot of those gaps away. And then just think people are becoming more knowledgeable of the mission, their equipment, and they have--so that's what we're really trying to do is increase readiness by reducing that instability of turnover.

MMR: One more. I got a hard stop. Frank's got his hand up. It’ll be the last one. And then we'll close with your remarks.

Frank: Yeah, hey there. Frank. MGFT: Hi, Frank.

Frank: Just on the 25th Infantry Division has switched out some of its 155s for HIMARS. And I'm wondering if you could sort of comment on that, sort of what that might take in terms of RPAC and also just in terms of you had some involvement with future verticals. And I'm wondering in terms of FLARA and that, do you have any thoughts on that going forward? What might that provide?

MGFT: Sure. Both of those--I mean, when you talk about both those programs, those are increases in lethality and capability. So I don't want to talk for the 25th Infantry Division commander because he's walking around, but I know as you increase--you know, that's the benefit of modernization, right? That is already taking systems that we know work, that we know we can maintain. They are useful. That's going to be an increase in readiness, right? And so I think as we bring in all of this new equipment, it's kind of our job as commanders, right, to make sure that we take what they're useful for and immediately generate readiness. So I know General Bartolomei is walking around. That would be a great follow-on for him, but thank you very much.