Incident in Korea: A Case Study of U.S. Army Public Affairs Activities inResponse to the Ingman Range Murders in 1981 (Final Report)

摘要

This study examines the procedures of the Offices of Public Affairs assigned tothe 2nd Infantry Division and higher headquarters as a result of the shootings at Ingman Range on June 5, 1981. This study further addresses the public-affairs strategies, planning and coordination between the 2nd Infantry Division headquarters, the Eighth U.S. Army, and the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. While conducting a live-fire qualification course with M-16 rifles at Ingman Range, Camp Casey, South Korea, five U.S. soldiers were gunned down. Four were killed and one was seriously wounded. The individual initially arrested for the shootings was a black soldier from New Jersey who was apprehended at the range after becoming hysterical and claiming to have started a revolution. Two days later, another soldier was arrested who was also black. The victims of the shootings were white. The Ingman Range shootings presented many challenges to the 2nd Infantry Division Public Affairs Office. The newsworthiness of this incident dictated reporting the circumstances to the American public via the news media while appropriately providing information to the internal public of the Division in a manner that would diffuse ethnic and racial tension rather than aggravate it.