By Rick Wills, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
When Ed Stevens visited South Korea four decades after fighting there in a war, he was stunned by the appreciation nearly everyone showed him.
"We were on a bus. People would roll down their windows and honk their horns to thank us," said Stevens, 79, founder of the Korean War Veterans Association of Western Pennsylvania, which helped raise money to build Pittsburgh's Korean War Memorial on the North Shore.
Don McIlrath, 79, of Penn Hills, another Korean War veteran and the association's president, said South Korea's economic growth dazzled him during a visit in 2001. The country boasts the world's 15th largest economy.
"It was just nothing at all like it was when I was there. It is a modern country, more modern than we are in some ways," said McIlrath, an Army corporal.
Stevens and McIlrath are members of a dwindling group of veterans the government wants to recognize in 2013 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the war's end in 1953. All Korean War veterans are eligible.
Occurring five years after World War II, and lasting three years — a far shorter time than the Vietnam War — the Korean War was considered America's "forgotten war." Even the Department of Defense used the expression in a recent letter asking for names of Korean War veterans.
Stevens, an Army sergeant, arrived in Korea on Feb. 13, 1951, his 18th birthday. That day, he began firing a machine gun across the Han River.
"It's not exactly what I wanted to be doing. But my Dad went to World War II when he was 34 and had four kids, so I figured I could not say no," Stevens said.
The United States became involved in the War on June 25, 1950, after North Korean forces invaded South Korea. About 1.8 million Americans served in Korea, which was the first in a series of undeclared wars. For decades, the Korean War was referred to as a conflict.
"Korea is forgotten because it was a war that was unpopular to begin with. The public was not supportive. A lot of people still question whether the Korean War was won or not. People do not know just how important it was. It was the first time we stood up to communism.
"It was also the beginning of the end of segregated units in the military," said Ted Barker of Dallas, a former Marine who runs the online Korean War Project, which collects information about those who served in Korea.
The gratitude Koreans expressed during his visit, Stevens said, stands in stark contrast with the sketchy knowledge most Americans — even those old enough to remember it — have of the war.
Last week marked the 58th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war on July 27, 1953.
"You could have waited all day before that anniversary was mentioned on television or radio," Stevens said. "I sometimes wish they would stop treating Korean War veterans like second-class veterans. People do not understand why we were in Korea. Some people think we lost Korea."
One of the first episodes of the Cold War, the Korean War involved larger-than-life personalities such as President Harry Truman, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, China's Mao Zedong and Soviet Union Premier Josef Stalin.
It involved some of the most intense fighting and worst conditions American soldiers have experienced, said Donald Goldstein, a retired professor with the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
"It was the last of the old wars, with the brutal trench warfare that was like World War I, and first of the new wars, the first to use jet airplanes," Goldstein said.
The "forgotten war" characterization makes little sense to him.
"One of the myths of the war is that we did not win. We stopped communism; we stopped China," said Goldstein, a retired 22-year Air Force veteran and author of 25 books, including the best-selling "At Dawn We Slept," chronicling the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Nearly 37,000 American servicemen lost their lives during three years of the Korean War — a significantly higher per-year figure than the 58,000 American casualties over 10 years in Vietnam.
Veterans such as McIlrath feel they made a contribution to the world with their service.
"I felt like we did help to actually topple communism in Southeast Asia. Of course, they do not teach anything about it in school," McIlrath said. "Schools are anti-military."
The Western Pennsylvania association has sent 320 names of Korean War veterans to the Defense Department for certificates of appreciation. Records show about 200,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Korean War.
To request a certificate of appreciation, write to George H. Duell Jr., KW 60 Committee, 526 Lafayette Ave., Palmerton, PA 18071-1621.
Eligible veterans are asked to include their name, mailing address, branch of service while in Korea and approximate dates of service.
In appreciation
The Korean War Veterans Association of Western Pennsylvania has sent 320 Korean War veterans' names to the Defense Department for certificates of appreciation.
Records show that about 200,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Korean War.
To request a certificate of appreciation, write to George H. Duell Jr., KW 60 Committee, 526 Lafayette Ave., Palmerton, PA 18071-1621.
Eligible veterans are asked to include their name, mailing address, branch of service while in Korea and approximate dates of service.
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