Granddaughter of Korean War veteran in South Africa thanks for scholarship

“I would like to thank those who helped me to take the important first step in my life.” The Class 32 alumni club of the Korea Air Force Academy recently received this thank letter from a female college student in South Africa.

The sender of the letter is Rebecca Joubert, 19, who entered this year the education department at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Relationship between the Class 32 alumni club of the academy and Rebecca dates back to 2010. At that time, the club was searching for something meaningful to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their admission to the academy.

Some 170 members of the club agreed to provide scholarships to decedents of Korean War veterans in South Africa and Turkey, who hadn`t received proper attention they deserved among the 16 countries that had sent combat troops during the Korean War. The club received recommendations for two high school students each from the Korean War veterans’ club in South Africa and the military attaché at the Korean Embassy in Turkey. Among the four was Rebecca, a granddaughter of Joe Joubert, 87, who participated in the war as a fighter pilot.

The Class 32 alumni club provided 1,600 U.S. dollars per year to the two decedents of Korean War veterans in South Africa for three years until they graduated from high school. They also offered 1,200 dollars per year in scholarships for four years to the two descendants of Korean War veterans in Turkey.

“Thanks to your help and blessing, I successfully completed the high school course with good grades and joined a prestigious university,” Rebecca said in her handwritten letter and email. “After majoring history and English, I want to become a teacher.” In her letter, she also introduced her successful school life, including receiving a prize for her hard work as chief of a pottery-making student club.

“I was truly happy to hear a message that Korean Air Force officers seek to convey gratitude to me for (my participation in the Korean War),” Joubert reportedly told a military attaché at the Korean Embassy in South Africa. “My participation in the Korean War was my highest honor and pride.” He added, “I am so proud and thrilled to learn that (South) Korea, which we risked our own lives to defend, achieved exemplary democracy, and made astonishing economic growth.”

Joubert, a veteran fighter pilot who sallied as many as 175 times, participated the Korean War twice, from September 1950 to May 1951 and in May and June 1952. He had displayed distinguished military service, forcing out Chinese troops who were fighting U.S. infantry troops in north of the Han River in May 1951 by leading a fleet of four F-51D Mustang aircraft. As a result, he was twice honored with the order of distinguished flying cross, the highest honor in the South African Air Force.

South Africa deployed 843 Air Force soldiers (cumulative number of soldiers) to the Korean War and had 34 of the soldiers killed in battle, with nine others taken prisoners of war.