Pacific Stars and Stripes,
Nov. 30, 1952
WITH ROK I CORPS, Nov. 30-
If the Nak San orphanage begins looking like a United States Navy
boot camp in a couple of weeks the responsibility can be traced to
the generosity of sailors on a cruiser and to a marine who doesn't
mind asking a favor.
Children at the orphanage have just become the
recipients of half a ton of Navy dungarees, whites, woolens, caps,
and pea jackets-gifts of the sailors.
THE CLOTHES will have to be cut down a good bit
since Korean orphans come in mighty small sizes. That's where the
two week's delay comes in.
The marine comes in as the person who arranged
the whole thing. He's T/Sgt. Paul Cohen. As a radioman assigned to
an artillery coordination center near the coast of Korea, Cohen maintains
and repairs radios used to direct Navy gunfire on communist targets
a short distance inland.
He gets time off from duty occasionally, and on
one recent day off, went sightseeing to the beautiful Nak San temple
nearby. The orphanage, located on the same grounds, is run by the
temple's Buddhist priests.
COHEN, A FAMILY man whose wife, son, and daughter
live in Sand Diego, Cal., spend most of his time with the orphans
and got a good look at the ragged condition of their clothes.
A quick source of clothing, Cohen reasoned, was
the cruiser stationed off shore. So on his next trip with its gunnery
officers, Cohen's boss, Navy Lt. John Sikich, New Orleans, carried
with him a request from Cohen to the men of the ship to donate any
garments they could spare.
THEY COULD spare plenty-enough to pack a helicopter
three times for the ship to shore transfer.
Since cruisers are replaced by others at regular
intervals, Cohen figures he's tapped a never-ending source of clothing
supply and hopes to outfit many more orphan boot camps before he moves
to a new assignment.
PSS-229
