HQ., U.S. 24TH DIV., Korea-Operation Helping
Hand ended up as Operation Family Man for SFC Clarence E. Shaffer, of
I Co., 19th Regt. here. Shaffer was in charge of an assistance
program, dubbed Operation Helping Hand, for the children of Isbel orphanage
in Pusan last year. During his frequent visits there, "Little Stevie
was the first lad I tried to talk with.
One day, when I started walking out of the place,
Stevie tried to follow me."
"I began writing my wife, Win,
who is attending Fayetteville, N.C. State Teachers College, all about
Stevie. The little fellow is so cute that I began to grow attached
to him. I didn't say a word about this to my wife, however.
"Then one day, I got this letter from Win. It was almost as though
she were reading my mind. She suggested that we adopt Stevie. I didn't
need any coaxing."
AFTER THE ADOPTION decree was granted, Stevie moved
out of the orphanage and into the 24th Div. with his father.
He eats now with daddy in the Top Three Graders dining room, where the
men made a high chair for him. Stevie sleeps in a bunk below his father
and falls out in time for reveille, since "he usually gets me up about
5:30." The three year old gets lost "every now and then between here
and other companies of the battalion, but somebody always returns him
home," his father reports.
Shaffer rotates in June and is working on visa papers
for Stevie, who is becoming "a little too popular" with the battalion,
Family Man Shaffer admits. "I'm afraid of getting him spoiled. I'll
certainly be glad to get back to the States where he can have one mother
instead of so may papas."
SSA-796
