Morale

South Korea's navy had 7,500 men, lots of morale, but no fighting ships. A few old U.S. minesweepers, a fleet of ten former Japanese minelayers and some picket boats were no substitutes for the real thing. A year ago a group of Korean enlisted men at navy headquarters in Seoul got the idea of chipping in each month to buy a man-o'-war. They sounded out Commander in Chief Admiral Sohn Won Yil, who promptly queried his base commanders to see what their enlisted men thought of the idea. They liked it.

Soon afterward 5% of each enlisted man's $10 a month and 10% of each officer's pay was deducted to fill the purchase kitty. Meanwhile, Korea's ambassador to Washington was told to start looking for a ship. Last September Korea's government plunked down $18,000 of hard-won cash to buy a sturdy little 175-ft. patrol craft, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's training ship Ensign Whitehead. A crew of 16 Korean officers was flown to New York to bring her home. They rechristened her the Bak Dusan, studied her vagaries in a two-week orientation course at the academy, painted her white sides a dark battleship grey, and set sail for the Pacific.

Last week Korea's little flagship lay at one of Pearl Harbor's huge docks awaiting armament. All over her topsides officers and crewmen, dressed alike in greasy dungarees and broad smiles, were busy sprucing her up. "Almost one year we gave money for this ship," said the Bak Du-san's radio officer, Joung Won Sam. "We needed the money, but we needed this ship worse." His companion, the Bak Du-san's executive officer, nodded enthusiastically. "But we're going to keep up the contributions," he added. "If we get enough money we may get another ship."

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