Jan. 30,1951
WORKING UP-Getting tips on Korean
weather problems is 10-year-old Kim Wa Seik, nicknamed Cpl. George Pizon,
by men of two military Air Transport Service support detachments in
Korea who adopted the boy last July. Helping him are: PFC Kenneth Winkel
(left), of Milwaukee, Wis., and S/Sgt. Maurice E. Ford, Columbia, Mo.,
both members of an Air Weather Service detachment. (USAF MATS Photo)
AN ADVANCED KOREA BASE-"Cpl. George Pizon," a 10-year-old
Korean boy adopted last July by the men of two small Military Air Transport
Service support units at this Korean airfield is getting the full treatment
on the American way of life from his GI guardians, even down to learning
to save his money. S/Sgt. Maurice E. Ford of Columbia, Mo., said he
and other men of the two detachments of MATS' Air Weather Service and
Airways and Air Communications Service, found little Kim Wa Seik near
Pohang one night last summer as he huddled against one of their power
units to keep warm. He has been living with them ever since.
Although the men tried to return the boy to the orphanage
from which he ran away, it turned out to be an impossible job, for Pizon"
as he was later nicknamed, was determined to stick with the two detachments.
So he has moved with them from one field to another throughout the Korean
campaign and helped them in their jobs of furnishing vital weather data
and air traffic control facilities to Air Force units at every field.
The MATS men decided that if Pizon was going to stay with them, he was
going to get the proper upbringing. So part of his training is based
on the idea that you don't get something for nothing.
He earns his keep running errands, among other duties,
between the weather office and the AACS detachment, carrying weather
data to be transmitted by the communications unit. And when he gets
paid for his work, the men see that he doesn't spend his money foolishly,
but "bank" it for him for his future security. They aren't overlooking
any means to see that "Cpl. George Pizon" gets the right start in life.
