To All Korean War Veterans and Friends:

Memorial Day 2005 - Las Vegas - MGM Grand Hotel

Children Of Korea - The Orphans

Invitation By George F. Drake, Korean Veteran
Korean War Children's Memorial Project
Bellingham, Washington

1-800-929-1111.  Rate Code KWA003.

You are invited to come to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Memorial Day, May
30th, 2005, to celebrate the first showing of the photo exhibit "GIs
and the Kids - A Love Story: US Forces and the Children of Korea
1950-1954."   It is going be a great event.  Actually it will be sort of a
1950s USO-Korea Show.  Johnny Grant, the Hollywood legend and Honorary
Mayor of Hollywood organized those USO tours.  He will be the Master of
Ceremonies at the dinner.  The "Hostess" for the opening reception will be
the 1950s Hollywood Star Ms. Terry Moore. Joining her will be her dear
friend Jane Russell.  We are hoping Korean War Veteran James Garner (two
purple hearts) will come as well as other Hollywood stars of the early
50s.  When Terry Moore was touring Korea with the USO back in the 50s she
wanted to adopt a Korean orphan but he opted to be adopted by a US Army
Sgt.  That was Link Suh White.  He will speak at the reception. We have
invited Dr. Hong, the new Ambassador of Korea to the USA, to join us.

The photo exhibit is comprised of 35 panels 2' x 4' in size.  Five of those
panels deal with the rescue of the children from the streets of Seoul in
the late fall and winter of 1950, the rescue of over 950 of those children
in the famous Kiddy Car Airlift and then the development of the Orphans'
Home of Korea on Chejudo Island that was created to house the
children.  Chaplain (Colonel) Russell L. Blaisdell USAF (Retired - he is 94
years old) who was responsible for the rescue of those kids off the streets
of Seoul and then engineered their rescue in the Kiddy Car Airlift will be
at the event as will some of the children he rescued in that airlift!

We are inviting a representative of every unit mentioned in the photo
exhibit and every person identified in the stories and photographs.  In
addition we are inviting all persons we can locate who helped the children
in Korea during the war years.  Every one of them will receive a
certificate of appreciation signed and presented to them by a Korean War
orphan.  Recently we located Werner Krenzer, the "Sgt. Who Wouldn't Go
Home" as he was referred to in an article in the Readers' Digest back in
1953.  Krenzer worked in and around the Seoul Railroad Station trying to
help the kids living in the street gangs.  His story is on our web site
(look under "Stories/Saving Lives."  When his tour of duty was up he
re-enlisted so he could continue rescuing the kids. It is a wonderful
story.  Well, Walter and his wife will fly in from North Carolina to be
with us at that event.

Few people realize that Jane Russell helped lobby for the passage of the
legislation in the US Congress in 1953 that allowed Korean War Orphans to
be adopted by families in the United States opening the flood gates for the
adoption of over 100,000 Korean orphans.  Presenting a certificate of
appreciation to her will be Thomas Park Clement who lived on the streets of
Seoul from age four to age six in a gang of street urchins!  He is now
owner and CEO of a major medical instrument manufacturing company here in
the U.S.

Also coming are a couple of fellows from one of the Army Security Agency
units who, on finding an orphanage run by some persons who were starving
the children and selling their food allocation on the black market, managed
to get the guys in their military unit to build a small orphanage and then
moved the 35 kids and staff of the old site to the new location.  Once they
were established in the new location they immediately replaced the old
administrators with ones they could trust.  Several of the orphans from
that very same orphanage will present these fellows with certificates of
appreciation for saving their lives fifty four years ago!

And the stories go on and on.  It will be one incredible evening.  The
purpose of the event is to honor the American servicemen and women who
saved the lives of over 10,000 homeless children in the Korean War and
helped sustain over 54,000 children in more than 400 orphanages many of
which were built or repaired by the servicemen. We who were there donated
over two million dollars from a monthly pay of less than one hundred
dollars and brought in from parents, neighbors and friends thousands of
tons of aid for the orphans and their care givers.  We are working on
getting national publicity for this unique Memorial Day program.  We need
to counter the media attraction to the misdeeds of a few and try to get
them to recognize the wonderful young men and women who go to combat
carrying with them their basic American values of compassion and love for
children.  We had to be taught to aim a gun at another human being and
shoot them.  We did not have to be trained to solace a crying child, feed a
hungry child, take an injured child to the medics or find shelter for the
homeless child.  That came with being American.

We anticipate a lot of media coverage and know that it will be filmed for a
TV documentary.  During the filming please do not turn around and wave at
the camera.  <:-)  You can purchase copies of the 40 page booklet we are
having printed to send to your children and grandchildren.  35 of the pages
are the panels of the photo exhibit and the others are chatter

If you plan to come you will have to make your dinner reservations with
folks at the Korean War Veteran's National Museum and Library by 26 May
2005 at 1-888-295-7212. Fee for the reception/dinner and evening program is
$60.00 per person.

We have arranged for a block of rooms at the MGM Grand where the reception
and dinner will be held.  The special rate they are giving us for May 29th,
May  30th (night of the event) and for the 31st (for those who want to stay
another night and gambol (sic)) is $89 per night.  The number to call for a
reservation at the MGM Grand is 1-800-929-1111.  The rate code is
KWA003.  There are other hotels in Las Vegas much less expensive that will
provide transportation to the Grand.  Check on the internet for their names
and prices.  If you will be coming alone and would like to split the cost
of the hotel room with another participant tell that to the folks at the
Korean War Veteran's National Museum and Library when you make your dinner
reservation and they will put you in contact with others looking for
someone to share a room.

Please pass this information to your friends who might be interested in
coming.  I will be posting more information on the plans for the evening on
the project web site <www.koreanchildren.org> so check in every once in a
while for news.  We post new material to the web site on Mondays and
Thursdays.  Send me an e-mail   <gdrake@nas.com> with any questions you may
have.  Also send me stories of your relations with the children of Korea
during the war and your photographs.  I will post them on the project
website which currently has over 2,000 pages of photos and stories.  We are
determined that this aspect of the Korean War will not be ignored by
history.  You deserve nothing less.

I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas.

George F. Drake, Ph.D., Korean War Veteran, Coordinator
Korean War Children's Memorial Project
1421 Cornwall Ave. #B
Bellingham, WA 98225

Tel: 360-734-9757