When I served as the commander of the 305th Supply and Services Company in the 227th Maintenance Battalion At Yongsan, Seoul, Korea, I had a large contingent of KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to the United States Army) soldiers. The KATUSA soldiers in my unit manipulated me into agreeing to provide support to Hi Mang Orphanage. However, after seeing the project planning binder complete with event planning, funding requests, Matériel support, and pictures that my Self-Service Supply Center (SSSC) Lieutenant had been maintaining, it really didn’t take much manipulating. My orphanage support project officer, Lieutenant Wilson, explained what we had done in the past as a company to support the orphanage. I asked her to schedule a scouting trip to Hi Mang Orphanage for a couple of the senior KATUSA’s, the First Sergeant, herself, and me. After we took a look around at the orphanage, we determined what we could do during our next visit to provide assistance to the orphanage. We asked for a small grant from the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) fund to purchase painting supplies such as brushes, rollers, and paint pans as well as perhaps a soccer ball and a couple other small recreational toys for the children to play with. We also visited the Property Disposal Office (PDO) at Yongsan to check out unused paint that units had turned in as excess to needs. We also signed for a couple of used throw rugs and carpet remnants from barracks remodels. We planned to use the rugs and carpet remnants in the living areas where the children stayed to make their lives more comfortable. We planned to use the paint to paint the inside walls of the orphanage to really improve the look of the interior. Next, I told my project officer, Lieutenant Wilson, to schedule our next weekend outing to Hi Mang Orphanage. The Friday before we left for our weekend outing, I asked the First Sergeant to call a company formation. I wanted to briefly address the soldiers in formation. I informed them about our plan to visit the orphanage to paint the interior of the orphanage, to lay the carpet remnants that we had acquired, to put in the throw rugs that we had also acquired, and to play with the children if time allowed. I was looking for volunteers to come along and help us with the work. I promised my soldiers that whoever volunteered to come up to the orphanage would receive a three-day pass for their trouble. I thought that was a pretty good deal. You give up one day of your weekend, and you get repaid with three days off. Hell, when I was enlisted, I always jumped on opportunities like that. And sure enough, I had enough volunteers to fill the back end of two deuce and a half trucks. We also took enough food from the mess hall to provide two meals for all of the soldiers and the orphans at the orphanage. I wanted to ensure that everybody was well fed while working at the orphanage and that the orphans were well fed as well. When we arrived at the orphanage, I briefly spoke with the administrator to explain what we planned to do, and I showed him all of the supplies that we brought to paint the interior of the orphanage and to lay the carpeting and the rugs. The administrator asked me if there was anything that he and the children could do? I said, “No, we have everything under control. We even brought a soccer ball, a badminton set, and a basketball.” We also brought a new basketball net to fix the basketball hoop at the orphanage. A few of the soldiers were dedicated to serving the meals and the snacks, a few more soldiers were dedicated to entertaining the orphans, and the rest were assigned to various painting details. First, all of the interior walls had to be cleaned and prepared for painting. Second, everything that wasn’t going to be painted had to be masked to avoid accidentally getting painted. This included things such as windows, doors and doorways, and trim boards. Finally, furniture had to be covered with plastic. Then, the painting began. I asked for volunteers to do the brushwork. Brushwork was tedious and needed to be done around doors, windows, and trim. The rest of the painters were assigned to rollers. Painting the interior of the orphanage only took about two hours. Then, I had everybody exit the orphanage to allow time for the paint fumes to dissipate and the paint to dry. Everybody went outside to see how things were going with the children. There were actually three different games going on. The badminton net had been set up and a game was going on over there. The basketball hoop had already been fixed, and several soldiers and some orphans were already using the new basketball to play a game of something. But the liveliest action was taking place in the game of soccer. There were a few children still standing around not playing any games. I suggested that we get them involved in a game of tag or hide and go seek. The children didn’t seem to know what hide and go seek was. So, I had one of the KATUSA soldiers explain the game to them. Then we played hide and go seek. An hour later, I told my First Sergeant that it was time to install the carpeting and the throw rugs. I wanted to keep all of the children actively engaged, so we hand-picked just a few soldiers to do the carpet and rug installation. After we finished installing the carpet and the rugs, it was time to eat dinner. After dinner, we loaded up our trucks and got ready to depart back to base. I thanked the administrator for allowing us the opportunity to upgrade the interior of the orphanage for his children. The children all got together just before we left so that they could thank us for the new paint and the new carpeting in their orphanage. They genuinely looked happy, and they were excited with the new equipment that we had brought them. They were absolutely thrilled when we told them that they could keep it. Finally, we left to return to the 305th Supply and Services Company. Our goodwill mission consisting of providing painting and carpeting to Hi Mang Orphanage had been a huge success with absolutely no exercises in futility.
by 
by 