Kim Song-min, a prevention specialist with the Army’s Area IV Family Advocacy Program, helps fingerprint Kyana Goodman, a Taegu American School kindergartner, at Camp George in Taegu, South Korea. (Dong-keun / U.S. Army)
PYONGTAEK, South Korea — Parents from the U.S. military community in Taegu, South Korea, can have their children fingerprinted and photographed this month as a security measure, officials said Monday.
The Army is offering the service as part of its observance of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Month of the Military Child, officials said.
The Army’s Area IV Support Activity at Camp Henry in Taegu has scheduled the fingerprinting session for April 22 and other events through the month in the Taegu-Waegwan-Pusan region, said Robin Sherard, Area IV Family Advocacy Program manager at Camp Henry.
Army Community Services has scheduled similar events and services around South Korea, Sherard said, including family outings, kids’ games and brochures on health and family living.
“It just kind of reinforces the message that ‘Hey, you know, the Army cares,’” she said. “Children are our most precious asset.”
In Taegu, the Army’s child-safety identification and fingerprinting session is set for 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. April 22 at the Taegu American School on Camp George.
The Provost Marshal’s Office and Family Advocacy Program will staff a booth where parents will be asked to fill out a card with key identifying information about their children.
“It has their full name, date of birth, height, weight, hair, eye color,” Sherard said, “any identifying marks, any allergies, or medications they’re taking, any special needs like a hearing impairment ... something that the parent will know and somebody outside the family will not.” Each child also will be fingerprinted by military police officers and photographed.
The material then will be assembled and given to the parents, Sherard said, in a “little kit” with a place for the child’s information and photo. “The parent keeps that with them for safe-keeping,” she said. “Just in case there’s a child abduction or a child goes missing ... we have the most current identifying information on file, to make sure we can get out the best possible notification to the community.”
Some parents, she said, also will “put a piece of their children’s hair in there as well, just in case something happens ... the DNA identification.”
Camp Hialeah in Pusan held a similar session April 8.
Among other events scheduled is a family hiking trip to Palgong Mountain on Saturday, leaving from the post exchange at Camp Walker in Taegu at 9:30 a.m. and returning about 4 p.m. The cost is 8,500 Korean won (about $8.40) for adults and 4,500 won (about $4.44) for children fifth grade and younger.
Sign-up was to continue through Wednesday.
More information about this and related events in the Taegu-Waegwan area is available by calling Kim Song-min at DSN 768-7134 or DSN 768-6115. The Army’s Camp Carroll is in Waegwan.
Also on Saturday, Camp Hialeah will host a 5-kilometer “fun run and walk” starting from the Camp Hialeah fitness center at 9 a.m. More information about this and related events at Camp Hialeah is available by calling Dean Moore at DSN 763-3536, officials said.
