United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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if This Is School. It looks like tent city but it is part of thc Kumchin Primary School. The school was composed of but two small permanent buildings and the rest of the classes were normally held in these unheated tent-classrooms. As many as 80 children attend classes in each of these tents. Marinr-s of the 5th Regiment and Korean school officials are inspecting the school with a view toward improvement of facilities. brought food, clothing, firewood . . . lThel project lasted 14- weeksf' Kumchon The lst Marine Division occupied the Kumchon area on the west coast from March 1952 until August 1953. Of the 112,701 civilians in the area 69,369 were refugees and 319,755 suffering from causes other than land lossesf' The Civil Affairs group organized a 4-H Club, PTA, and Korean Young Men's Associa- tion. Aid was given in getting basic industrial plants into operation. Orphans were processed through the Civil Affairs Section and turned over to the Po Wha Orphanage at Seoul. The Division maintained seven refugee camps with the total population given as 14-,355. The two main relief organizations were the Federation Farmers Association, which was Korean and distributed grain for seed and relief, and UNCACK, which was the UN agency for the distribu- tion of grain and supplies for relief. This gives some idea of the broader relief program. More specifically Chaplain Vinson tells of the work which was done with the Presbyterian Mission of Kumchon. Particular interest was shown in its school which grew from 75 in January to 225 pupils by Au- gust. The Marines gave surveyed tents and fixed Harnmo box decking for additional school rooms. Some civilians were treated at the lst Corps, Civil Affairs, lst Marine Division Kumchon Hospital. An- other source tells one that the 7th Motor Transport Battalion donated and erected the Presbyterian Church at Kumchon. Toward the end of 1954 it was stated that 1,500 students were to be taught that year in the 3 buildings of the Kumchon Primary Schools constructed under the sponsorship of lst Battalion, 5th Marines. The school was said to be the largest of any of the Armed Forces Assistance to Korea Schools QAFAKQ to date.2' Otherr The Nam Buk Orphanage in Yongdongpo, and the Christian Children's Home in Anyang were aided by the 2d Battalion, 7th Marines and the 1st Service Battalion. There were numerous institutions that were aided by the Marines but not a great deal of information is available concerning them. Among these were the Catholic Orphanage at Anchoong, which cared for 125 children, St. Camellia's orphanage operated by French nuns, Childrenis Garden of Holy Mind at Bup Yong, an Orphanage at Wonju, and at Kecksa-ri and the Dong Dwang Orphanage which was almost fully supported by the lst Division. uOperation Uncle was a program led by the chap- lains of Marine units which had as its goal the adop- tionn of 3,000 orphan boys. Inactive Reserve Chaplains in the Far East Chaplain Whitman notes the presence of three inac- tive reserve chaplains in the Far East. At least two of 2' See p. 234. -229-

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through the front lines on the east coast from North Korea, by plane to Kangnung. During that winter of 1951-52, 450 19 orphans were cared for in four dif- ferent orphanages. Over 40 tons of clothing were received from the churches in America for the chil- dren. Chaplain Weidler describes K-18 CKang- nungj, where MAG-12 was located, as H. . . the most advanced aviation unit in Korea. The installa- tion here is of a semipermanent naturef' He added, The work with the youngsters has provided an activity for the men, whereby they can convert some of their spare time to a worth-while cause. This work together with the contact with church groups, here at our chapel services, has provided more acceptable contact with Korean civil life than would normally be possible. Among the orphanages at Kangnung there was the Kangnung Columban Fathers Orphanage with which Chaplain Horvath worked devotedly. Photographs show the dedication of a Methodist orphanage in Korea which was founded by Chaplain Weidler with the help of marines stationed nearby. This orphan- age appears to have been in or near Kangnung. Refugee Camps A number of refugee camps were set up in Korea. One of these was at Munsan-ni? Chaplain Billy N. Wolfe describes what he saw, H' Other sources give a smaller figure. 2 Cf. p. 126. I witnessed the heartache of South Korean families being evicted from their houses in the front line area. In No Mans Land I counted 74 orphan children, as our convoy moved along the road ffroml Munsan-ni to Panmunjom. They held out their hands begging for food, many of our G,I.'s tossed candy and C-rations to them and they lined the road each day looking for and expectingthe food. Chaplains Harnmerl, Rice, Nordby, Brown, and Stretch distributed relief items to refugee camps. The KEARSARGE contributed 1,200 pounds of clothing for children abandoned at the front. Chaplain Mc- Dowell tells of sending trucks for children from the refugee village for a Christmas party and when they did not return he went to the village for the children himself. His unit ended up with twice as many children as planned. Many other units had Christ- mas parties. Chaplain Rains tells of one for 2,000 refugees which must have been one of the largest. Perhapsthe biggest project in Christmas parties was that of Chaplain Bakker who was cited for conduct- ing Christmas parties for . . . 2,800 needy Korean children . . .H One of the great projects in relief occurred during the winter of 1952-53 when the 1st Engineer Bat- talion adopted Pafu, a refugee village of 1,500 people. Chaplain Ernst affirms that an offering was taken in order to buy food on the native market. Once a week men of the battalion visited the village and A Baby Doll. Chaplain R. N. Stretch of the 11th Marines gives a doll to a Korean girl at Munsani Refugee Camp. Distribution. Aside from clothing and food there was also candy for the children. Here Chaplain Leo F. Rice is seen handing a Korean boy a bar of chocolate. 228 -

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these were active from time to time in the program of the chaplaincy. Chaplain C.'E. Blackler, Baptist CND , performed training duty at Yokosuka as did Chaplain Worth C. Grant, Baptist. In addition to these, Chap- lain Stanton R. Wilson, Presbyterian QUSAQ, began serving as a missionary in Korea at Andong in Jan- uary 1953. Orphans Adopt Marines There were some children that did not want to stay in an orphanage, but persisted in staying at Marine encampments. Chaplain Fenstermacher tells of such a case, One cold night in December 1952 several of our hospital corpsmen heard someone crying outside the fence around our compound, near the sick bay. They called the officer of the day and me, and we went out to investigate. It was a small Korean boy, barefooted, bareheaded, and with only an old burlap bag covering his body for clothing. We took him into the sick bay for examination. 'No part of his body was frozen, but his body temperature was a great deal below nor- mal. The corpsmen fed him and kept him over night in a warm bed, and in the morning my clerk, Sergeant Tracey, and I found him a home in one of the orphanages. He was a refugee from the combat area and didn't know what had hap- pened to his parents or where they were. Later on, but still during the winter, another small Ko- rean boy was taken in under similar circumstances at one of our firing batteries. The Marines kept him and cared for him for a few days, and liked him so well that they wanted to adopt him as the Battery Mascot. However, it was against the policy of the command to have Koreans as mascots. It was felt that if we opened the door to one, more would surely follow and the practice might get out of hand, and that it actually would be a disservice to the mascot in the long run, since living with the Marines would make him become used to a way of life and a standard of living which would make it extremely difhcult to readjust to the Korean way of life after the Marines were gone, and would tend to keep him from attending school. Accordingly, I was called upon to find a place for the boy, now known as Sammy to the Marines, in an orphanage. This I did. But within 3 days Sammy was back at the bat- tery. Upon questioning him through an interpreter we found that he didn't care for the meals served at .the orphan- age nor did he appreciate the discipline and the attendance at school required of him. The diet at an orphanage hardly could compare with the menus served in our mess halls nor did it include the large amount of American candy and chew- ing gum which Sammy received as mascot. As for discipline, by comparison there was none for Sammy with the Marines. So he ran away from the orphanage to return to the battery. Two more times I took Sammy to an orphanage, and each time he returned within a few days. Finally, I made arrange- ments for the boy to be taken to the headquarters of the lst Marine Aircraft Wing, about 90 miles from Pusan, there to be taken in by the Marine Memorial Orphanage which is supervised by and supported by Marines. There Sammy made his adjustment, and seemed to be content to stay. He was still there and doing well when I left Korea. Naturally by the time we found Sammy a home where he would stay, everybody in the Battalion knew him or at least about him and was interested in the final disposition of the case. So we ran an article in the battalion newspaper en- titled Sammy Adopts the Marinesf' in which we covered the history of his case. A number of chaplains tell similar experiences. Distribution It was not always easy to get supplies to the needy, Chaplain Ralph H, Walter, Presbyterian CUSAD Chalice for Korean Church. Maj. Joseph P. Cushing, Commanding Ofhcer of the 2d Motor Transport Battalion, Camp Lejeune, presents a gold chalice to Chaplain Martineau to be delivered to the Immaculate Conception Church which he helped to rebuild in KalkO-ni, Korea. MAG4Marine Orphanage-Keoksa-ki, Korea. An aerial view of the building and grounds of the orphanage supported by the Marines. r L iff xi 5 as f 230 - P