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Chapter 5 – Only my army ID number…
While I was in New Jersey I knew a church friend who had participated in the Vietnamese War. He said to me that if you were 65 years or older who had participated in the Vietnamese War, the Patriots and Veterans Administration Agency would pay the veterans. When I heard that I thought, Korea was financially stable. I had participated in 1967 for about a year and half. I went to the website to print out the material to fill in the information. When I saw the things I had to fill, several of them were almost impossible to remember. The only thing I could write confidently was the army ID number and where I was born.
I couldn’t remember the exact date I had entered army, the date I was sent off to Vietnam, or even when I had returned to Korea. I thought that the money I would get from the Veteran Administration Agency would help with my finance, since I had passed the age of 65. But that was not my reason. Another reason was because I did not wish for Korean currency to be sent to United States for my well being. At the time I had moved to United States, the Korean government only allowed $200 per person to leave. We were such a poor country. While our country is now much more stable in finance, I wished Korea would do much better. I heard that one of my nephew needed financial help. My older sister was about the age of middle school when the Korean War occurred. After the Restoration, our family’s financial problem made it impossible for her to continue her education.
At the beginning of the war, my father passed away, while our family had scattered. After hard times our family was reunited, however, two of my older brothers were in the army. We had dug into the burned ground that was our house. We made a shack for our whole family to live. My mother and sisters went out to the market to sell merchandise, went to factories, or even sometimes went to people they knew to work. After some time my sister had married and moved to the town of Yangpyung. I remember how empty I felt after our oldest sister left. After I had entered high school, and her first child, she moved back to Seoul. Since our family was in finance problem, I never could use the money my mother had made. So if I ever needed money I would visit my sister’s house. Every time I went there, I was able to eat rare white rice and salted oysters with hot pepper which she bought from a store.
Not only that, whenever I had visited her, she would always give me money in pocket. I knew my sister was also barely holding on but she was always happy to help her foolish younger brother. After she had her son she had done sewing to help the family. But she had overworked and had a stroke after I had moved to United States, and for several years lived paralyzed and passed away. In the office I have a small refrigerator. On it I have a beautiful drawing with writing, “People may forget what you said or what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” I heard that my nephew was in a problem in his finance. I had thought of how he could be helped, and I decided to send the allotted money to be sent to his account instead.
I had a discussion with my wife and she was even glad of the idea. I found out that as long as I know the account number of the person whom I want the money to go to, it would be possible to deposit the money. It is such a convenient system. But as mentioned above, there is no way to fill all the information that I needed to fill. So I thought of how to solve this problem and so I called the Veterans Office of Kyungkido. The person who had kindly answered my phone asked me where I had lived prior to my moving. I said “Seoul Sungdonggu, Gwangjangdong.” The informant told me to call the office in Seoul to the person named “SunYoung Hwang”. So I had sent a letter to her in the Seoul Veteran Office with my army ID number, my original residence and a help request on all the other empty boxes. Also to send the money to my nephew’s account.
After about a month and half, the office of Patriot and Veteran called me back. They had told me all the filing is completed and the money would be sent to the requested person. I could only thank Ms. Hwang. She had used my army ID number to look around to find all the necessary information to fill in. I can only thank that my country that they had people who work like that. After that I had called the office to thank Ms. Hwang.
After receiving my call gladly, she said that 4 months advanced worth of money would be sent to my nephew’s account starting on the 15th of January, 2012. On today’s date in United States is the first day when the money is going to be sent. I thank God that I could help my nephew while I am alive. I am thankful that I was able to come back from the Vietnam War alive, but also the money would be sent to my older sister’s son, just like how she had helped me long time ago. Thank you God!
(January 16, 2012)
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Why didn’t you come? (1) 
Only my army ID number…