I am the Korean veteran who just joined ASAKorea for Life.
I just finished reading your subject article on the ASAKorea website. You
might be interested in a few remarks I have about where our paths crossed
or almost did so.
You told about your R&R leave in Kyoto and your being taken off a
manifest for a C-124 Transport that later crashed at the Tachikawa Air
Force Base. Just after that crash I was arriving on a troop ship to Japan for
assignment to the Far East. I was sent to the 501st CRCo for assignment.
After arriving I telephoned my third cousin, Richard Henderson, who was a
school teacher for the children of Air Force personnel at the Tachikawa Air
Force Base. Arrangements were made for him to pick me up that Sunday.
After he picked me up, the first thing he did was take me to or near the
Tachikawa Air Force Base to show me what was left of a C-124 scattered
on the ground. He told me that all on board had been killed and that the
pilot was the father of a girl in one of his classes. I will never forget the sight
of those engines dug into the ground (bounced back about six feet) and the
pilot control column/wheel sitting upright in the ground. All of the bodies
had been removed. The C-124 was grounded and I was later transported
to South Korea by troop ship.
That morning my cousin took me to a church service and then to a Free
Methodist missionary's home for dinner. That afternoon he took me to a
ground breaking ceremony where the Free Methodist Church was going to
build a preschool. I understand this was a way to reach Japanese families
for Christ. Although I did not understand anything that was said, I felt
God's Spirit as I met and sang with the Japanese Christians.
You also told of your Detachment Dog, 330 CRC being evacuated by truck
convoy and after several days arriving at the 326 CRC. I was on guard
duty at the Motor Pool of the 326 CRC the evening you arrived. As I recall
it was raining and some of you slept that night under the trucks.
May God Bless You as you serve the ASAKorea as Chaplain.
Edwin (Ed) Stevens
July 27th Memories from
ASA Korea Life Member - Ed
Stevens
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