Eagles’ pitcher bows out tonight after 21-year career

September 23, 2009

The Hanwha Eagles will bid their veteran pitcher Song Jin-woo farewell at tonight’s game against the LG Twins. The 43-year-old pitcher will get the start and is expected to pitch an inning or two. Hanwha will use a special ball inscribed with the text, “Song Jin-woo’s retirement game.”

Song has played his entire 21-year career with the Eagles dating back to the days when the Eagles were under the sponsorship of Binggrae. The club’s officials have decided to honor Song’s contribution to the team by retiring his number, 21. Song becomes only the third player in Eagles history to have his number retired.

(I Will be at the game tonight!)

By GI Korea on September 21st, 2009 at at 5:56 am

First Time Published Image of the Daejon (Taejon) Massacre

Via the ROK Drop Forums comes this image from the Korean War with the inscription on the back of, “South Koreans killed at Tae Jon by North Koreans”:

The son of the veteran who took this photograph is looking for any information to confirm the location of the picture. The way the Tae Jon is spelled on the photo leads me to believe that this was in fact taken at the modern day Daejon because the spelling of “Tae Jon” was common during the Korean War. The hills in the background do not immediately jump out at me though and maybe some ROK Drop readers living in Daejon can better identify them.

The biggest question to answer though is whether this execution was a North Korean execution as depicted on the back of the photo or ROK Army execution. Below is a number of photos from executions carried out around Daejon by the South Korean governmental authorities:

For more on these photographs I highly recommend reading:

• Rehashing Korean War Era Executions
• Rehashing Korean War Era Executions, Again
• Rehashing Koreean War Era Executions, Again and Again

Notice in these pictures none of the bodies executed by the ROK authorities wer lined in up in neat lines like the picture in question. Now here are pictures of executions in Daejon carried out by the North Koreans:

In all the pictures I have seen of executions carried out in Daejon none of them show bodies neatly organized like in the picture in question. Additionally what I find interesting about the picture is how big the trench is compared to other execution sites. It makes me wonder if this is actually some kind of irrigaton canal for example that the bodies were left in?

By GI Korea on September 18th, 2009 at at 5:19 pm

Marine Widow Hotaru Ferschke Faces Deportation

This story has long been followed here on the ROK Drop and though I’m not surprised, incredibly the immigration department has yet to fix her immigration status:

Hotaru Ferschke just wants to raise her 8-month-old son in his grandparents’ Tennessee home, surrounded by photos and memories of the father he’ll never meet: a Marine who died in combat a month after marrying her from thousands of miles away.

Sgt. Michael Ferschke was killed in Iraq in 2008, leaving his widow and infant son, both Japanese citizens, in immigration limbo: A 1950s legal standard meant to curb marriage fraud means U.S. authorities do not recognize the marriage, even though the military does.

Ferschke and his bride had been together in Japan for more than a year, and she was pregnant when he deployed. They married by signing their names on separate continents and did not have a chance to meet again in person after the wedding, which a 57-year-old immigration law requires for the union to be considered consummated.

“She is being denied because they are saying her marriage is not valid because it was not consummated — despite the fact that they have a child together,” said Brent Renison, an immigration lawyer in Oregon who has advised the family.

Hotaru Ferschke and the baby, Michael “Mikey” Ferschke III, are staying for now on a temporary visa at the home of her parents-in-law, in the Smoky Mountains town of Maryville. Robin and Michael Ferschke Sr., who are fighting for their daughter-in-law to stay, have emblazoned their son’s picture on everything from a blanket draped on the back of the couch to a waving banner on the fence outside. [Associated Press]

I can tell you from personal experience that the US Citizenship & Immigration Services doesn’t give a damn if you are in the military or not. They will treat you like crap like they do everyone else. It took me five years of nonsense with these people for various reasons mainly due to my continuous military re-locations, to get my wife her permanent residency card. In that whole time I interacted with USCIS only one guy in that entire bureaucracy was really helpful to us and did a lot to finally solve the immigration nonsense. If it wasn’t for that guy who just happened to be a retired Air Force E-8 my wife and I would have been separated due to my PCS back to the US.

So I can definitely understand the frustration that Hotaru is going through with these people. Hopefully the continuous publicity to this case will get these people to do something to help her out.

Further Reading:

• Life Created After One Lost
• Welcome to the US Hotaru & Mikey Ferschke
• No Way to Treat A Marine Widow Part II
• No Way to Treat A Marine Widow Part I