Local Korean War Vets Remember 'Forgotten War'

FoLxo2Nowa: l Korean War Vets Remember 'Forgotten War'
ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com)—— A group of veterans spent Saturday in St. Louis remembering what is often called the 'Forgotten War'. It started 61 years ago this month. And at a reunion of Korean War veterans, the people they fought for said thank you.

"It's just a room full of brothers more than it is friends," said veteran Harry Hope of the people gathered at Andre's Banquet Center in South St. Louis County. "It's a very warm feeling to get into a room of Korean War veterans because we know we all did the same thing: we each covered each others' backs."

There were hellish battles in the three year war in Korea, which began June 25, 1950. The worst might have been the two and a half weeks of bloodshed at the Chosin Reservoir, where 33 hundred American marines and soldiers died. Six thousand were injured. Anyone who survived was frostbitten

We were at the highest mountain in North Korea," recalled Hope, "up near Manchuria, the Soviet border. The temperature reached down to 40 below zero at night."

"It was one of the bloodiest battles the Marine Corps ever fought and we were very fortunate that we got out with our equipment and with our wounded, and most of our dead. But we have a few over there still. Their bodies have not been recovered."

So at Saturday's reunion for Missouri Korean War veterans, there was an empty place setting for those still-missing brothers. And at a table near the front, sat a group of people they freed. Representatives of the Korean Consulate from Chicago traveled to St. Louis for the reunion, so they could say thank you in person. They gave the veterans medals declaring them official 'ambassadors for peace'.

"I was not born yet," said MinHun Song, "but I lost an uncle in the Korean War so I heard the history. I came here to express my gratitude to the veterans. My country's democracy was saved. My country can survive after the Korean War."

"We are forever indebted," he added.

Americans sometimes call the Korean War the 'Forgotten War' because it occurred so soon after World War Two that it is often confused. But everyone at the reunion remembers, and they believe the rest of us should, too.

"If you don't know what happened sixty or seventy years go, you can't correct what's going to happen three years from now," said Don Gutmann, commander of the St. Louis area chapter of Korean War Vets.

Hope will turn 80 next month. He and Don know survivors are dwindling in numbers, which makes their annual reunion even more special.