'Melody1

ReturnsTo Home

CAMP CASEY, Korea (Spe<Hal) — Yee Myung Sun* Whogrew up at Ai Shift Orphanage,Tongduehon, near Camp Casey,

.and later spent a year m theU.S. now teaches and works atthe orphanage she has knownall her life.

The attractive 20-year-old Ko-rean, aware of the languagebarrier between Americans andKoreans, prefers to be called"Miss Melody" by the many 7thInf. Div. soldiers who visit the115 children at Ai Shin.

While in the States from June,1967, to April of this year, MissMelody attended Belding HighSchool in Belding, Mich.

Her trip to the States wassponsored by M. Sgt. RaymondW. Studebaker, who in June,1967, was assigned as seniorcareer counselor at the 7th Div.reenlistment office.

Studebaker, a frequent visitorto the orphanage during his tourin Korea, made friends withMiss Melody who was about toleave the orphanage becauseshe was 18 years old, the agelimit at Ai Shin.

The sergeant consulted hiswife in Pittsburgh, Pa., concern-ing Miss Melody and bothagreed having the Korean girlcome to the U.S. for a yearwould enrich all of their lives.

After consulting with the Rev.Kang Byong Chil, director of AiShin Orphanage, and Miss Me-lody, the sergeant and the girlwere on their way to the U.S.

For Miss Melody, the tripmeant an exciting experience,traveling to the country aboutwhich she had learned andheard so much from the sol-diers who visited the orphanage.

Upon arrival in the States,Miss Melody lived with the ser-geant's family in Pittsburgh un-til he was assigned as a recruit-ing zone commander in GrandRapids, Mich.

It was during this assignmentthat Miss Melody attended Beld-ing High School in the smallcity 40 miles from Grand Rap-ids. She was privately tutoredin English while studying all thesenior year high school subjectsat Belding.

After she completed studios inApril of this year, Miss Melodyreturned to Korea extremelygrateful for the experience givenher by the sergeant and hisfamily.

Again at the orphanage. MissMelody commented concerningthe U.S., "I liked the UnitedStates very much, although itis much different from Korea.I was surprised to see how largeAmerica is, I visited Ohio,Michigan, Pennsylvania, and In-diana while I was there. I en-joyed my year in America, butam even more happy to be backin Korea."

Stones DownCopter in Taiwan

TAIPEI (UPl) — Two teen-aged boys in southern Taiwanwere accused of knocking downa helicopter with rocks Friday,police reported.

They said Lian Chi-sheng, 14,and Kao Chun-hsien, 12. scoreda direct hit on the propellerwith one of the rocks they threwas the helicopter spread insecti-cide at tree-top altitude.

The propeller was nearlyknocked out of balance but thepilot managed to make an em-ergency landing. !\k> one washurt and damage was describedas light.

No One Would Miss Six Hits?S&S Kofea Bureau

ASCOM—It looked like every*one who could get but of a bedat the 121st Evad. Hospital herewas in the hospital's theater towatch and enjoy the Mis's Amer-ica USO show Sunday Afternoon.

The enthusiastic and spontane-ous whistles and clapping testi-fied that they did enjoy MissAmerica, Debra Dene Barnes,and five other lovely misses withthe show. There are actuallyseven beauties here in Korea butMiss New Hamphshire^ Sheila

Scott, was sick witn a sort*throat.

Miss America and five talentedhelpers knew that "the showmust go on" and didn't let theaudience know they missed MissNew Hampshire. Their successwas due in large measure to theboo'ming Broadway voice of Bet-ty Lynn Buckley, the multi-talen^ted Miss Ft. Worth 1966.

"It's Today," the name of theshow featured the singing anddancing talents of the girls aswell as the piano skills of music-major, Miss America, which

were somewhat hampered by thehospital's oUt-Qf*tune upright.

With the help of a tape re-corder playing big band back-ups especially Made for the tour,the featured voices of Miss Ft.Worth and Patricia Martinet,Miss Wyoming, came across loudand pure, even though the mikedidn't work more than half thetime.

Long, lean Charlotte Sims,Miss Minnesota, popped audienceeyeballs with a graceful acro-batic dance to "The Girl FromIpanema."

Miss America, Debra Dene Barnes, third from numbers. From left, Miss New Mexico, Rosemaryleft, joins with the rest of the touring USO Miss Brown; Miss Minnesota, Charlotte Sims; MissAmerica show at the 121st Evae. Hospital, as ^™er'ca; Miss

Q Ft: W°rt£' Bctty, j^nn Buckley;

.. „ t - , , , , , Miss Georgia, Sawcra MeRee; and Miss Wyoming,they go through one of their special musical Patricia Martinez.

Twice during the show thegirls came into the audience fordance partners, much to thedisffiay 8f bed or wheelchaircases. Twelve men got a chanceto try some new dance stepslearned from their attractiveteachers. Half shuffled through"Alley Cat" and the other halflearned "The Old Soft Shoe,"

The show was sparked withtunes like "Rose of WashingtonSquare," "Call Me," and amedley of "Coin' Out of MyHead" and "Can't Take' MyEyes Off of You" with the girlsblending in harmony.

After more than an hour, themusic ended and the missescame in to the audience to bemobbed for smiles and auto-graphs.

AF PilotFlying for7th Div.

CAMP CASEY, Korea (Speci-al)—"The Army has planeshere, but no pilots. The AirForce has pilots here, but noplanes. So, it's a cozy arrange-ment here," says Capt. DonaldC. Smith, newest member of theU.S. Air Force 7th Div. team.

Smith, an air liaison-forwardair control (AL-FACO) officer,is one of the three AL-FACOmembers stationed in the 7thDiv. area.

"My assignment will mainlyinvolve working as a visual re-connaissance officer with the in-fantry. My area will be theDMZ and the northern areas ofthe 7th Div," Smith said.

Smith was commissioned inthe Air Force immediately afterhe graduated from the NavalAcademy in 1959. He has ac-cumulated nine years of flyingtime at various air bases.

The captain was to be a.ssigned to Vietnam after com-pleting forward air controllerschool and a course in junglesurvival. Instead, he was divert-ed to Korea.

The main task of FAC, ac-cording to Smith, is to reportenemy activity, terrain featuresand anything that may affectthe friendly troops in the area.After reporting this informationto the tactical air control cen-ter, they advise the center onwhat type of air strike shouldbe made on the target.

Once the type of mission hasbeen decided, the FAC awaitsthe arrival of .supporting a i r-craft . They report the groundposition to the ineoming air-craft, and then proceed to markthe target with smoke bombs.

The aircraft are advised ofthe relationship of the smokebombs to the target. When theexplosives have been dropped,the FAC reviews damage from alow altitude.

Smith's flies an Ol Bird Dogscouting a i rcraf t .

"The Ol's are very depend-able planes," said Smith. Usual-ly they arc armed with smokebombs, but in Korea we usesmoke cans."

Patients at the 121st Evat'. Hospital, Ascom,Korea dance with America's finest, the touring

Miss America tioupe. The girls help their studentslearn the st^ps to the lively tune "Alley Cat."

<S&S Photos)

New Unit CommanderTAIPEI (S&S)—Col. W i l l i a m

K. Grady has become command-er of the i > 2 i 4 l h AR Group atTainan AB. Taiwan. He succeedsCol. Alv in G. Sehuerinx', who hasbeen reassigned to the Chanu teTechnical Tra ining Center inIll inois.

Pacific Stars & StripesTuesday, August 20, 19(j<S