Tsunami: Marines in Thailand
USMC
About 40 servicemembers and Department of Defense personnel with Combined Support Force 536 in support of Operation Unified Assistance, held and played with children at the Pattaya Orphanage here Jan. 19, the first of many planned community outreach events being coordinated. The CSF-536 support personnel are here to support the tsunami victims of Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, yet a lot of them are working in areas away from the tsunami victims, said Air Force Captain Dominic J. Vitaliano, the chaplain with 374th Fighter Squadron based in Okinawa, Japan. “We all came down here to help (those in need),” Vitaliano said. “(These volunteers) are holding babies and playing with the children ” let”s face it, you miss your kids or members of your family when you”re here.”
About 100 of the nearly 700 children at this historic 30-year-old school played games and received hundreds of gifts including tennis shoes, toothbrushes, instant noodles, soap and clothes. The school currently has 15 volunteers who come here at their own expense from the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark and Australia to help take care of the babies, teach English to the disabled students, take the blind, deaf and mute children to the beach and visit the elderly each day, according to England native, Paula G. A. Langin, a volunteer here. “We need (volunteers) to teach English,” said Langin, who has been here for three of her planned six months. “We (encourage) the volunteers to come for at least six months ” it is hard for them to come for a few weeks because the children become attached and lose them so quickly.”
That emotional attachment happened in a few hours for Lance Cpl. Roshan E. Burnham, an adjutant with CSF-536 and administrative clerk with III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa. “I kinda hold back here,” said Burnham, who visited orphans as a teenager with the YMCA in San Diego. “I just want to jump around and hold them,” added Burnham before running off to play with three children.
This visit hit Burnham close to home. “One of the deaf children was talking to me using hand signals even though I tried to show him that (I did not understand),” Burnham said. “This will be good practice for me as I just found out my sister was born deaf.”
As the four-hour visit came to a close on the orphanage”s soccer field, Vitaliano felt the visit was fantastic. “These children are bringing joy to our hearts,” said Vitaliano, referred to as father by the orphanage volunteers and workers here. “Look at (the children) ” they are smiling,” he added with tears falling from his eyes.
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