Home Editorial Activities Stories Links
  Saving Lives Feature Stories Having Fun Culture Conflict    
  Kiddy Car Airlift Orphanages Adopting Children Help from Home    

 

Pacific Stars and Stripes, March 11, 1951

Korean Waifs Aided By Navy

Inchon (UP)- It's not cold anymore for the 45 Korean war waifs who were found huddled in a shell-marked building on a tiny island off Inchon. The cruiser St. Paul is seeing to that.

The starving orphans were found on the island by a shore party from the big Navy warship which went ashore to investigate a light which had gone out.

Led by Lt. Edward H. Bahr, of Long Beach, Calif., the men found the children with two women and a man in the only building on the island that still had a roof.

There was no heat. The food had given out. And the tattered rags the children wore were little help in the cold.

Bahr went back to the cruiser, told the story and gathered armfuls of woolen clothing, gloves, stockings, food, candy, soap and other gifts from the crewmen.

Next morning one of the St. Paul's whaleboats docked at the island. A ship's doctor Lt. Francis J. Linehan examined the orphans while the supplies were doled out to the tots, who accepted each gift with bows and shy "thank-you's" in Korean.

Later, working parties from the St. Paul brought hammers and saws from the ship and repaired the orphanage. Foraging parties went into Inchon and returned with a pot bellied stove which they set up in the building.

A work party cleared up a badly polluted well where the children had been getting water. And the ship's doctors keep a running check on the health of their solemn-faced charges.

While the St. Paul rocks at anchor in the harbor hurling shells inland at communist troops, her crew is keeping a steady flow of food and clothing going to the youngsters of Fusshi-to.

PSS-069


Home  |  Editorial  |  Activities  |  Stories  |  Links