Pacific Stars and Stripes,
March 22, 1953
AIR LOGISTIC FORCE, Korea,
Mar. 22 (Pac. S&S)- men of the 75th Air Depot Wing in Korea are adding
another heart-warming chapter to the oft-told story of American servicemen's
generosity towards the underpriviledged.
The airmen found a nearby orphanage after their
January landing and soon began shairng their rations with the children,
chopping kindling, and launching a campaign that has brought in more
than $3,000 to bolster the orphanage. Maj. Orvil T. Unger, wing chaplain,
sparks the campaign.
WHEN THE AIRMEN arrived, 140 children, 60 of whom
belong to the 30 widows who also live at the orphanage, were subsisting
on meager rations and only living in a building which had only two
heated rooms.
A scholarly Korean Presbyterian minister, the
Rev. Yak Sin Lee, cared for the women and children. Lee, who has five
daughters and a son of his own, began taking the destitute into his
home in 1945.
But because there were so many war widows and
orphans who needed help badly, the reverend's home soon became overcrowded.
He asked the government for one building, and
then another. He got both buildings and about two and one-half cents
a day from the government for each child.
LEE ALSO WANGLED a small plot of ground from the
Korean navy on which he grows vegetables. Sometimes he finds it hard
to get seeds. The widows and children eat barley mostly, and occasionally
some rice. Rice is rare, however, and so is fish, as both are too
expensive.
Lee, who speaks excellent English, heaps praise
on the nearby Americans for getting his flock safely through the last
months.
And because he ralized that the Americans must
one day leave, he dreams of a small factory equipped with looms, where
his widows and children may weave cloth which can be sold. Before
the 75th arrived, it seemed like an impossible dream, but with more
than $3,000 saved and with more to come, Lee sees his hope approaching
reality.
PSS-214
