The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs hosted a recognition ceremony Feb. 24 for the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in appreciation of the consulate's donation of 15,000 KF94 face masks for Arkansas veterans. The ceremony was held at the MacArthur Military Museum at Little Rock, according to a news release.
Attending on behalf of the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 were Kay Tatum of Pine Bluff and Sheila Beatty of Hot Springs Village.
The recognition ceremony included a wreath laying at the Arkansas Korean War Veterans Memorial jointly placed by Ambassador Myung-Soo Ahn of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Houston and the Arkansas Adjutant General Kendall Penn. Speakers were the ambassador and ADVA Secretary Nate Todd.
Because of covid restrictions, attendance was by invitation only and included representatives from veterans' service organizations including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League, Military Order of the Purple Heart and the U.S.D. 1812, which has worked closely with ADVA on several projects.
The KF94 masks are like the N95 masks and offer a high-level of protection. The masks originate in Korea with "KF" standing for Korean filter and "94" representing a 94% standard of filtering out airborne particles, according to the news release.
It was announced that the consulate of Korea, the Korean American Federation Arkansas, ADVA and the city of Little Rock have created a partnership to produce and print a yearbook of Korean War veterans to present to those veterans June 25.
Veterans must have served in Korea or its territorial waters during the Korean War between June 25, 1950, and July 27, 1953, to qualify for inclusion in the yearbook. Veterans or survivors should go to https://forms.gle/WbtrvmF2N3aiGFUp7 to fill out biographical information and submit photos via email with a subject line of the veteran's first, middle and last name to ADVApublic@arkansas.gov. ADVA is overseeing the program.