Korean War Chaplain Honored For Saving 1,000

Air Force chaplain credited with saving children honored at Gwangju
By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, May 3, 2008

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — The Air Force chaplain whose unflagging efforts saved nearly 1,000 orphans during the Korean War was memorialized Thursday in a ceremony at Gwangju.

Col. Russell L. Blaisdell is credited with getting nearly 1,000 children out of Seoul at a time when a communist ground offensive was expected to soon overtake the city. The rescue became the much-publicized Operation Kiddy Car in late 1950.

The ceremony in Gwangju city’s social welfare hall occurred exactly one year after Blaisdell died at 96.

Among those attending were members of the South Korean national assembly; a representative of the U.S. Embassy in South Korea; local officials; several of the orphans who were saved by Blaisdell’s actions; Blaisdell’s son, himself now a clergyman; and two Air Force chaplains stationed in South Korea.

“A modern-day Moses, Chaplain Blaisdell literally put his life on the line to rescue 950 orphaned Korean children and 80 orphanage workers,” Air Force Lt. Col. Charles R. Cornelisse said in a sermon. Cornelisse is 51st Fighter Wing chaplain at Osan Air Base.
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