By I received an e-mail recently from Korean War veteran Paul Marrero looking for assistance in locating a friend who served in the ROK Army at the time:
Picture of Kim Sang-okI have been trying to find some unanswered question in my past. For example while serving in Korea during the war I was befriended by some locals that were working for our unit (44th Eng. Battalion). The friendship was one that upon rotating back they threw a going away party an gave me as a gift of some war bonds (that what I call them). Years have past and contact was lost but I still have this gift. Now that I am a senior citizen and interested about the past.I have set out to find these lost friend . For the past 2009 I have researched thru the computer and even contacted ROK embassy and have come up blank.
The only hard evidence I have are these so call bonds and a old address of one from the group that went into the ROKAF His name is Kim Sang Ok, 2nd Lt., General Secretary Office ROKAF located in Yong Dong Poo. I always had high hopes to making contact and when I heard about the ROK 60th Anniversay which I considering attending. I figure I would try with the help from ROKDrop.
Chung Shik-mim
6:40 pm on January 12th, 2010 1
Having been involved in trying to reestablish contact between RoK personnel and the US forces who served together during the Korean War, I can tell you that it is frustrating and most times it leads to dead ends, but the few times that you succeed make the effort all worthwhile.
The good thing is that he has the names and the hometowns of the individuals. If a Korean in TAEGU can contact the local directory service, you might get lucky. The bad news is that many people are turning to handphones exclusively and the directory service doesn’t help much. The second thing is that being in their seventies, they might have moved in with their children and the phones would be listed under their children’s names — thus a dead end.
The second method is to ask a Korean to google the internet in hangul for their names. One might luck out, but again chances are slim — unless they became “famous” in the intervening years.
A long shot is to request assistance from the ROK Army Military retiree association. They maintain listings and may help. Again they are listed on the internet under ROK Army — English page. It might take a while for them to reply, but they are just as anxious to find lost contacts as you are. It may take a while but they will get back to you as they have to locate someone who can write to you in English.
Once again such a search may be a long-shot but definitely worthwhile. I once had the honor of reuniting an orphan saved from the snows of Seoul as the Chinese were closing in by a young A2c Forward FAC falling back from Seoul in 1951. By pure luck, the orphan (then a man in his 60s) remembered the unit designator and the rest is a miracle when the two people spoke on the phone after 50 years. So don’t give up on the search. Miracles do happen.
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