USMC PHOTO

Carpenter Cassano And Brother To Be

A New Name. . . A New Home. . . A New Life

Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 9, 1954

Marine Arranges Adoption of Waif

HQ., 1^ST MAR. DIV., Korea - A carpenter, a homeless Korean boy and a mother and father in the States are the characters in a Korean true story of the struggle against suffering wrought by war.  In the beginning, Shun Shin Hi had a mother and father and a home.  But they were killed by the Communists in 1951.  After that, he took care of himself as best he knew how.

 

One day he found an American Marine camp and his nose scented out the mess hall.  The cooks noticed the little waif outside the compound and decided to take him in.  They fed him, and other members of the leatherneck outfit wrote home for clothes for their collective ward.  Shun did odd jobs around the compound to show his appreciation and to help pay for his keep. Last April Cpl. Michael J. Cassano, a carpenter, joined the unit.  He and Shun became close buddies and the carpenter decided to adopt his little friend.  Cassano, a bachelor, found he could not adopt Chun himself, so he put the problem up to his parents in Syracuse, N.Y.  Their answer was immediate and without hesitation.  "We will be only too glad to take Shun to live with us," wrote Mr. and Mrs. John S. Cassano.  The Cassano's have three other children, but feel they have room for another.

 

SSA-701