Tag: orphans

This photo released by the Seoul Historiography Institute on Aug. 8, 2018, shows orphans in Seoul during the Korean War. (Yonhap)

A ceremony to open a memorial hall for the late U.S. Gen. Richard Whitcomb is under way at the South Korean Army’s Fifth Logistics Support Command in Busan on Dec. 29, 2017, in this photo provided by the command. Whitcomb, called the “father of war orphans,” contributed to rehabilitating South Korea for years after the end of the Korean War (1950-53). In particular, the general, as the U.S. Forces Korea commander, helped homeless victims of a massive fire in Daegu in 1953. (Yonhap)

This is a pretty amazing coincidence that these two separated sisters were able to find each other after meeting at the same Florida hospital they both were working at:

Two Korean women who were separately adopted by American families when they were children miraculously reunited as they happened to work on the same floor of an American hospital, The Herald Tribune reported Saturday.

Meagan Hughes and Holly Hoyle O’Brien, who started working at Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, Florida, earlier this year, have discovered through DNA tests that they are blood-related sisters.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

This is going to probably be very difficult to do considering how many Korean War veterans have now passed away and the ones still alive are quite elderly.  I wish all the adoptees good luck with this project:

Cooke-Sampson said that her next step is to do a DNA test to help find the identity of her biological father, who she assumes is either an Ethiopian or American soldier based on her skin color, but she is concerned about the age of Korean War veterans.

“I would love to, but considering that person probably would be perhaps in their late 80s or even 90s, they might not even remember me,” Cooke-Sampson said.

In their effort to now help Korean adoptees find their birth fathers, Hiatt said the organization is asking Korean War veterans who fathered a child in Korea to submit their DNA to a biological tracking ancestry service called 23andMe. Hiatt said that there are 672 members in a Facebook group for Korean adoptees who submitted their DNA to 23andMe, but she believes more adoptees have submitted their DNA.

Thomas Park Clement, president/CEO/Founder of Mectra Labs Inc., and a Korean adoptee, is providing $1 million for free DNA test kits that American Korean adoptees and war veterans can submit to 23andMe.

“I think it’s super important because it’s a daunting task for an adoptee, especially for an overseas adoptee to try to locate birth parents or other siblings and this is a surefire, scientific, straightforward way to do it,” Clement said.  [USA Today]

You can read much more at the link.

Photograph of Colonel William S. Mullins from the 8th Army’s Surgeon Generals Office delivering toys and clothes to Korean orphans from the November 27, 1967 Stars and Stripes.

Here is a good news story, that USFK will never get credit for in the Korean media, that was published in the Stars and Stripes:

Orphans from Dongducheon got a taste of holiday fun here Thursday at a Thanksgiving feast served up by 2nd Infantry Division soldiers.

The dinner, served at the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment Dining Facility, was for children from the My Home Orphanage. It was part of the division’s Good Neighbor Program, said 2nd Lt. Tae H. Rose with Headquarters Headquarters Company, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team.

Rose, 34, who was born in South Korea but raised by adoptive relatives in New York City, said he felt a special bond with the My Home kids.

“My parents both passed away when I was a child. My aunt was married to a GI and she adopted me,?explained Rose, who grew up speaking English but studied Korean in college.

After graduating, he worked five years for an advertising agency in South Korea to hone his language skills before joining the Army five years ago. South Korea is his first overseas tour, he said.

Soldiers with his unit visit My Home regularly to play with the orphans there, he said.

This is a common event throughout USFK spending time with children from the orphanages not only during the Holidays but also during regular weekends. There is never a shortage of volunteers to go spend time with kid’s at orphanages or other activities like teaching English at area public schools.

However, all the good will these soldiers create is always seems to be negated by a couple of idiots getting drunk and standing on top of a taxi and the story is spread all over the Korean media.