 THE CARE PACKAGE
by
Ruffin W. Gray
Colonel, USAF (Ret)
Commander, 15th TRS -- Oct. ‘51 - May ‘52
Not everything during Korea
was attuned to combat. During one of the roaming around treks, John Pell had come
across one of the many orphanages that had sprang up all over the country.
The many
orphans – often just two or three years old - were at the mercy of the world; and a
few kind souls were trying to take care of them and feed them. The lack of food and
clothing was always a major problem. Seeing these little tykes really got to John
and he wrote his wife in great detail about their plight. She in turn relayed the
message to an Aunt who, as I recall, was a schoolteacher in a rather affluent town in
Michigan. The story got to her also and she relayed the info to her class and other
teachers. It mushroomed from there. Practically the whole town got behind it,
and the school exhausted their entire treasury just for postage for sending many boxes of
supplies and clothing.
John was totally unaware of this until he rotated a short
time later and found out that a small shipload of boxes were on their way to Korea - all
addressed to him! He sent me a panic note to intercede with the Post Office so that
they wouldn't sending them back. I called the Post Office; explained the situation,
and asked them to call when they packages arrived. In due course, I got a call from
the post office and told them that I would send a jeep over to pick them up - at which
point they said that maybe it had better be a 6 x 6.
There were enough supplies and clothes for about three
orphanages. I got the Wing Chaplain to take them to about three orphanages, divide
them up and take some pictures to send back to the kids in school who had made a lot of
little Korean tykes live better.
Copyright (C) 2000 Ruffin W. Gray
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