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Dmz joint security area presentation camp bonifas
Camp Bonifas was a United Nations Command military post located 400 meters south of the southern boundary of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It was 2,400 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line, which forms the border between South Korea (the Republic of Korea) and North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea). It was returned to the Republic of Korea in 2006.
Contents
- Dmz joint security area presentation camp bonifas
- Camp bonifas camp liberty bell south korea 1988
- Overview
- References
Camp bonifas camp liberty bell south korea 1988
Overview
Camp Bonifas was home to the United Nations Command Security Battalion - Joint Security Area, whose primary mission was to monitor and enforce the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953 between North and South Korea. Republic of Korea and United States Forces Korea soldiers (known as "security escorts") conduct the United Nations Command DMZ Orientation Program tours of the JSA and surrounding areas. The camp has a gift shop which sells DMZ- and JSA-related souvenirs.
The camp, formerly known as Camp Kitty Hawk, was renamed on August 18, 1986, in honor of U.S. Army Captain Arthur G. Bonifas (posthumously promoted to major), who along with 1Lt. Mark T. Barrett (posthumously promoted to Captain), were killed by North Korean soldiers in the "Axe Murder Incident".
Access to the Neutral Nations Monitors (Sweden and Switzerland), on Camp Swiss-Swede, was through Camp Bonifas.
There is a par 3 one-hole "golf course" at the camp which includes an Astroturf green and is surrounded on three sides by minefields. Sports Illustrated called it "the most dangerous hole in golf" and there are reports that at least one shot exploded a land mine.
Keith Sullivan of The Washington Post reported in 1998 that Camp Bonifas was a "small collection of buildings surrounded by triple coils of razor wire just 440 yards south of the DMZ" that, were it not for the minefields and soldiers, would "look like a big Boy Scout camp."
