Pacific Stars & Stripes, Feb. 15, 1953
DEVER, Feb. 15 (AP)- A memorial of used clothing
piled up here and elsewhere today in honor of a compassionate Air
Force officer who died in Korea fighting for those he wanted to help.
The clothing will go to needy South Koreans at
the request of Maj. Theodore H. Kuch, Jr., former resident of Trenton,
N.J., who was killed in action flying a combat mission last Dec. 5.
Shortly before his death, Maj. Kuch wrote requesting
his wife and parents send him all the clothing they could round up
so he could distribute it to suffering South Korean children.
"That is the Christmas present I want,"
he wrote his wife, Miriam, now living in Trenton.
"Old clothes, small ones, holey ones, any
kind," he wrote. "But send them. Tell the story; let the
people know. These people are our allies and they need and can use
what we throw away-so don't throw it away. Send the clothes to me
and I'll see that they are distributed."
Mrs. Kuch opened the drive at the officer's wives'
club at Lowry Air force Base here. The first shipment went to the
chaplain in the 3d Bomb Group to which Maj. Kuch was attached.
The drive did not let down with word of the death
of Kuch. Rather, the Lowry wives are working harder than ever to
fulfill Kuch's wishes for his new friends in Korea.
PSS-205
