Monday, February 26, 2001

By Jim Lea
Osan bureau chief

HWASONG, South Korea — South Korea’s top marine corps general praised two U.S. pilots and a doctor Saturday for the successful rescue last week of a Korean woman from a tiny island near North Korea.

Lt. Gen. Kim Myung-hwan, commandant of the South Korean marine corps, also presented Maj. Eric J. Steward and Capts. Sheila G. Black and James J. Thomas with letters of appreciation, marine corps medallions and gifts from civil officials from Baek Ryung Island.

Steward and Black, from the 33rd Rescue Squadron’s detachment at Osan Air Base, piloted the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter on its mercy flight to Baek Ryung. Thomas, of Osan’s 51st Medical Group, is a family practice physician who went on the mission to treat the woman in flight. Steward also is commander of Osan’s 33rd detachment.

South Korean marines provide security for Baek Ryung, in the northern reaches of the Yellow Sea near the demarcation line between the two Koreas. It is within sight of the North Korean mainland.

The 33rd flew a four-hour roundtrip mission Feb. 18 after an urgent request from the South Korean military. Yu Shin-ja, 33, had gone into premature labor and officials feared she had suffered a placental abruption, in which the placenta becomes detached from the uterus.

She needed an emergency Caesarean operation, but police emergency helicopters were grounded by fog and a South Korean air force helicopter turned back because of zero visibility. The U.S. chopper crew is equipped with night-vision goggles, and the aircraft has sophisticated infrared navigational devices.

The U.S. crew flew Yu to Inchon, where her daughter was delivered. Both mother and daughter are doing well, a hospital spokesman said. The helicopter crew visited them Thursday. The child still hasn’t been named because Korean custom dictates that babies are not named until the 100th day after birth.

On Saturday, Kim called the rescue "courageous."

"Baek Ryung is important to us both strategically and tactically and we in the military maintain a close relationship with the people there," he said. "Your bravery ensures that relationship will be enhanced.

"That young mother and her daughter will never forget you."

Steward told Kim that the flight was extremely difficult because of the zero visibility. "We basically had to fly using only instruments in the cockpit because we couldn’t see," he said.

Kim recalled an identical rescue mission flown by the U.S. Air Force to the island in 1996 when he was commanding the 6th ROK Marine Brigade on the island. The daughter who was born to the woman who was evacuated then was named "High Sky," he said, a reference to the fact that she was born after her mother was evacuated by helicopter.

"She’s in kindergarten now and every time I visit the 6th Brigade I visit with her."

PREVIOUS STORIES:
          Feb. 24: Copter crew visits rescued woman, new baby
          Feb. 23: Air Force copter answers call, evacuates woman from island

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