The Ministry of Patriots & Veterans Affairs on Tuesday launched a campaign to find a Korean woman who received medical assistance from a U.S. soldier six decades ago.

The campaign was initiated after Richard Cadwallader, 82, made the request in December. He helped the girl find treatment for her third-degree burns at a U.S. military hospital in late 1953, while serving as a communications soldier at a U.S. Air Force unit in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

Cadwallader remembers that a mother walked to his unit from a village in nearby Hwaseong with her wounded daughter, who was around 10 years old, and desperately asked for help. The daughter was seriously burned from chin to waist, he recalled.

The ministry organized the campaign as part of events to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice Agreement.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)