Some early planes of the ROKAF *were* bought with mainly private money. A national subscription campaign was taken up, little donations from lots of people, there being hardly any really rich people there at the time, unlike today. What they managed to buy was 10 AT-6 Texan/Harvard (probably Harvard IIb's, but I've never found a source exactly stating it, anybody know?) from Canada, which arrived in 1950 just before the Korean War. The US was unwilling at the time to give or sell even this type of plane to ROK because it was believed to be provocative; only artillery liaison types were provided by the US pre-war, and the South Koreans also had some ex-Japanese basic trainers still operational (like Type 95 Army trainers, Ki-9). The AT-6's were known as the 'national foundation aircraft' (Geon Guk Gi in Korean) and each was a given a name.
Unfortunately 7 appear to have been strafed on the ground first day of the Korean War, June 25, 1950, by NK Yak-9's, though others became makeshift bombers in those first couple of days. They were the only real air opposition to the North Koreans before the USAF intervened June 27. This would btw be the big problem for an imaginary lone rich guy's Me-262 or P-47N, how to deal with several dozen operational North Korean Yak-9U's and P's.
Geon Guk Gi no.10, named after North Gyeong Sang Province.
Joe
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