Camp Bonifas

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The golf course at Camp Bonifas

Camp Bonifas^[1] is the a Republic of Korea Army post (with a United States Army force of the United States Forces Korea present) located 400 m from the southern part of the Korean Demilitarized Zone and 2400 m from the center of the Zone, closest to the Joint Security Area and Panmunjeom, along 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).

Camp Bonifas is home to the United Nations Command and the United Nations Command Security Battalion–Joint Security Area, which patrols the DMZ and JSA. South Korean and American soldiers (known as "security escorts") conduct the United Nations Commander 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 was formerly named Camp Kitty Hawk, but was given its current name August 18, 1986, in honor of U.S. Army Captain Arthur Bonifas (posthumously promoted to major), who was killed by North Korean soldiers in what has become known as the Axe Murder Incident.

There is a par 3 one-hole "golf course" at Camp Bonifas that includes a "peeling Astroturf green" and is surrounded on three sides by minefields.^[2] Sports Illustrated called it "the most dangerous hole in golf" and there are reports that at least one shot exploded a land mine.^[2]

Kevin 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."^[2]