From Korea Times: <a href="http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/07/120_116131.html">Obama issues proclamation on Korean War Armistice anniv.</a><P>
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama
issued a proclamation Friday (July 28) to commemorate the end of the Korean War 59
years ago, as the Pentagon hosted a formal ceremony to mark the
anniversary.
"Today, on the 59th anniversary of the Military Armistice Agreement
signed at Panmunjom, we honor all who served in the Korean War, and we
pay lasting tribute to the brave men and women who gave their lives for
our Nation," Obama said in the proclamation. Panmunjom is a truce
village in the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas.
The Korean War ended with an armistice agreement on July 27, 1953, after
three years of fierce fighting between the invading North, supported by
China, and the South with the help of the U.S. and other U.N.-coalition
forces.
"Most of all, we honor the tens of thousands of Americans who gave their
lives defending a country they had never known and a people they had
never met," Obama said. "Their legacy lives on not only in the hearts of
the American people, but in a Republic of Korea that is free and
prosperous; an alliance that is stronger than ever before; and a world
that is safer for their services."
More than 50,000 U.S. service members were killed during the war, according to government data.
Obama called upon all Americans to observe the day with "appropriate ceremonies and activities" to honor Korean War veterans.
He has issued the proclamation each year since taking office in 2009.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon held a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the anniversary.
Named, "Heroes Remember," it began with a wreath-laying ceremony to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war
In his speech, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the Korean War is not "America's forgotten war."
"Today, thanks to the service and sacrifice of our veterans six decades
ago, South Korea has grown strong and independent. South Korea is a
trusted ally, an economic power, a democracy, a provider of security in
the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world. To the veterans of
this war: your sacrifice made a difference," he said.
He pointed out the contrary fate of North Korea, "which remains a
dangerous and destabilizing country that is bent on provocation and is
pursuing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction while its people are
left to starve."
Panetta said the U.S. needs to take a crucial lesson from the Korean
War, in which lots of troops paid a heavy price due to a lack of
necessary training and the right weapons.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Kansas: Reichley: The Korean War not forgotten here
From the Leavenworth Times: Reichley: The Korean War not forgotten here
Leavenworth, Kan. — On this date (July 27) 59 years ago all was quiet throughout the Korean peninsula. Three years of fighting, called a war or conflict by some, a police action by others, had ended the day before by a truce, or armistice.One legacy of the war was one of the most popular TV shows ever, MASH, acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, that still has re-runs almost every week today. It was an anti-war show, but wildly popular with almost all segments of the population.
The Japanese had occupied Korea for many years, and due to international agreements by superpowers, the peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel, with U.S. troops remaining in what became South Korea south of the parallel and North Korea was created north of it. The north was under heavy Soviet and Chinese influence.
Without warning on June 25, 1950, soldiers of the 135,000-man North Korean army poured south across the 38th parallel and quickly overwhelmed the smaller 95,000 man South Korean force. Many North Korean soldiers were WW II veterans of the Chinese, Japanese, or Soviet armies, but few South Koreans had combat experience.
The South Korean capital of Seoul fell in only three days, and a bloodbath ensued. Thousands of South Korean civilians who had worked for the U.S. Army were rounded up and summarily executed. Nice guys, those communists.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, U.S. commander in occupied Japan, was given the responsibility of defending South Korea, but the U.S. Army was woefully unprepared to do much. The United Nations was called on to enter the military action and agreed to send troops from other nations.
The good guys were pushed back to what became known as the Pusan Perimeter, at the far southeast corner of the peninsula. MacArthur came up with a brilliant plan to invade the south at the port of Inchon, which has some of the most reactive tides anywhere. As a second lieutenant of cavalry 10 years after the war ended my unit loaded LSTs at Inchon and I experienced the tides firsthand. They were unbelievable.
The war went on for three long, bloody years, and when MacArthur sent U.N. troops to the Yalu River that divides North Korea from China, Chinese troops entered the conflict, bringing a whole other dimension to the fighting and international considerations.
U.N. troops countered the Chinese advances and a stalemate occurred across the peninsula. President Harry Truman fired MacArthur, who insisted on bombing and perhaps invading China, and finally when neither side could wrest an advantage, peace talks began at the tiny village of Panmumjom.
In November 1952 President Dwight Eisenhower was elected, with a campaign pledge to end the war in Korea. Truce talks continued, as did the fighting. Finally both sides agreed to provisions that would allow the fighting to end, and an armistice was signed at 10 a.m. on July 27, 1953.
Several episodes dealt with the armistice talks at Panmumjom, and the hour-long finale was among the most watched TV shows ever.
Korea was complicated. War was never declared, but to this day has not ended. Combat troops stationed there today are on the highest degree of readiness of any troops anywhere. To see Korean War artifacts and hear some good stories visit Lavery’s Jewelry in downtown Leavenworth and talk to Ret. Col. Hersh Chapman, a West Point graduate who was there. When he’s not busy he’s happy to share anecdotes of “The Forgotten War.”
John Reichley is a retired Army officer and retired Department of the Army civilian employee.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Detroit Lakes, MN: Veterans create replica F-86 plane
From DL-Online: Veterans create replica F-86 plane
When the Northwest Water Carnival’s penultimate event, the Parade of the Northwest, gets underway at 1 p.m. today, there will be at least one entry that hasn’t been seen before. The Post 15 American Legion First Zinger Squadron has created a replica of a Korean War-era F-86 fighter, converted from a Kirschman Spray Coupe.
When the Northwest Water Carnival’s penultimate event, the Parade of the Northwest, gets underway at 1 p.m. today, there will be at least one entry that hasn’t been seen before.
The Post 15 American Legion First Zinger Squadron has created a replica of a Korean War-era F-86 fighter, converted from a Kirschman Spray Coupe.
The replica is named “Don’s Dream,” in honor of the late Don Bristlin, who purchased the spray plane several years ago with plans for converting it into an F-86.
“After Don died, the plane sat out in the weeds for about three years, and then one day we decided to finish it for him,” said Zinger Squadron member Dave Coalwell.
So why did Bristlin want to recreate this particular model of fighter? “The F-86 shot down more MIG’s than any other airplane,” Coalwell said.
Coalwell and fellow “Zingers” Ray Blauert and Jerry Wagondorf have been hard at work this week putting the finishing touches on the replicated fighter, in the hopes of completing it in time for today’s parade.
“Even if it’s not quite finished, it’ll be in there,” Wagondorf promised.
Though the Zingers’ plane closely resembles the 1950s-era F-86, “it won’t fly,” Coalwell said — in part because it is propelled by a Volkswagen engine instead of the original hardware
The one-seater plane is self-propelled, however. The wings also fold up to allow for maneuvering in and out of tight places, and for easier storage, Blauert pointed out.
One problem that the three Zinger Squadron members faced in recreating the fighter plane is that none of them had really worked with sheet metal before — so it was kind of a “learn as you go” process, Coalwell added.
“It’s a time consumer, I can tell you that,” he joked.
All the sheet metal for the project was donated by Snappy’s, while the labor was supplied by the three men.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of months,” said Wagondorf. “We’re trying real hard to get it done (in time for the parade).”
“It’s starting to take real good shape now,” Coalwell added.
The plane will be painted with the same markings as its Korean War-era predecessors, with yellow stripes on the wing tips and behind the cockpit — but there will be one difference, Coalwell noted.
The tail will be painted red, with the Zinger Squadron logo prominently featured.
“And we’re going to name it ‘Don’s Dream,’ in honor of his idea,” he added.
After the Parade of the Northwest, the Zingers are planning to enter their new plane in the Turkey Days Parade in Frazee next weekend, as well as Vergas’s Looney Daze Parade and the Wolf Lake Harvest Festival Parade, both in August.
When the Northwest Water Carnival’s penultimate event, the Parade of the Northwest, gets underway at 1 p.m. today, there will be at least one entry that hasn’t been seen before. The Post 15 American Legion First Zinger Squadron has created a replica of a Korean War-era F-86 fighter, converted from a Kirschman Spray Coupe.
When the Northwest Water Carnival’s penultimate event, the Parade of the Northwest, gets underway at 1 p.m. today, there will be at least one entry that hasn’t been seen before.
The Post 15 American Legion First Zinger Squadron has created a replica of a Korean War-era F-86 fighter, converted from a Kirschman Spray Coupe.
The replica is named “Don’s Dream,” in honor of the late Don Bristlin, who purchased the spray plane several years ago with plans for converting it into an F-86.
“After Don died, the plane sat out in the weeds for about three years, and then one day we decided to finish it for him,” said Zinger Squadron member Dave Coalwell.
So why did Bristlin want to recreate this particular model of fighter? “The F-86 shot down more MIG’s than any other airplane,” Coalwell said.
Coalwell and fellow “Zingers” Ray Blauert and Jerry Wagondorf have been hard at work this week putting the finishing touches on the replicated fighter, in the hopes of completing it in time for today’s parade.
“Even if it’s not quite finished, it’ll be in there,” Wagondorf promised.
Though the Zingers’ plane closely resembles the 1950s-era F-86, “it won’t fly,” Coalwell said — in part because it is propelled by a Volkswagen engine instead of the original hardware
The one-seater plane is self-propelled, however. The wings also fold up to allow for maneuvering in and out of tight places, and for easier storage, Blauert pointed out.
One problem that the three Zinger Squadron members faced in recreating the fighter plane is that none of them had really worked with sheet metal before — so it was kind of a “learn as you go” process, Coalwell added.
“It’s a time consumer, I can tell you that,” he joked.
All the sheet metal for the project was donated by Snappy’s, while the labor was supplied by the three men.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of months,” said Wagondorf. “We’re trying real hard to get it done (in time for the parade).”
“It’s starting to take real good shape now,” Coalwell added.
The plane will be painted with the same markings as its Korean War-era predecessors, with yellow stripes on the wing tips and behind the cockpit — but there will be one difference, Coalwell noted.
The tail will be painted red, with the Zinger Squadron logo prominently featured.
“And we’re going to name it ‘Don’s Dream,’ in honor of his idea,” he added.
After the Parade of the Northwest, the Zingers are planning to enter their new plane in the Turkey Days Parade in Frazee next weekend, as well as Vergas’s Looney Daze Parade and the Wolf Lake Harvest Festival Parade, both in August.
Mount Pleasant, TX: Veterans of the Korean war to be honored
From Daily Tribune.net: Veterans of the Korean war to be honored
The first ceremony will be held at the west side of the Titus County Courthouse at 10:00 a.m. The second will be at the Town Square Plaza in Mount Vernon at 1:00pm. The CVSO flag display will be available for service organizations, veterans and patriotic citizens photo documentation. Efforts are underway to provide something special at these recognition activities.
All veterans and patriotic citizens are invited to Honor these Heroes
The County Veteran Service Officer (CVSO) will conduct two ceremonies honoring the veterans of the Korean War on Friday, July 27, 2012.
The first ceremony will be held at the west side of the Titus County Courthouse at 10:00 a.m. The second will be at the Town Square Plaza in Mount Vernon at 1:00pm. The CVSO flag display will be available for service organizations, veterans and patriotic citizens photo documentation. Efforts are underway to provide something special at these recognition activities.
All veterans and patriotic citizens are invited to Honor these Heroes
The County Veteran Service Officer (CVSO) will conduct two ceremonies honoring the veterans of the Korean War on Friday, July 27, 2012.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Honor Flight program adds Kansas hub
From the Manhattan Mercury: Honor Flight program adds Kansas hub
Twenty-eight Kansas veterans plan to
depart from Kansas City, Mo., and Wichita airports on July 31 to travel
to Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials erect to honor their
service and sacrifices to our country. During the three-day trip, they
will visit the WWII memorial, Korean memorial, and the Vietnam memorial
wall. In addition, they plan to see museums, the Iwo Jima memorial,
Arlington National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknown.
The
trip is made possible the newest hub of the Honor Flight Network,
Kansas Honor Flight, Inc. The mission of Honor Flight is to transport
America's veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit memorials at no cost,
with current priority to WWII veterans. Subsequent to the WWII veterans,
efforts then focus on Korean War veterans followed by Vietnam War
veterans, honoring them both in a similar manner. Guardians, who pay
their own travel expenses, accompany each veteran to ensure safe
travel.
S. Korea to resume recording video messages for separated families
Yonhap News: S. Korea to resume recording video messages for separated families
SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will resume recording video messages of families here who parted from their parents, children or siblings in the North during the Korean War, officials said Monday.
Since the first summit meeting between the two divided Koreas in 2000, the two countries have arranged reunions of separated family members twice or three times a year.
But the humanitarian events came to a halt in September 2010, amid the deepening Inter-Korean political tensions. As part of the reunion gatherings, video messages from families in the South are given to their family members in the North for those who cannot travel to the event location.
Several thousand separated family members die every year, yearning to reunite with their spouses, children or siblings whom they had to part with due to the 1950-53 Korean War and the truce which left the Korean Peninsula divided thereafter.
"We decided to produce video messages, which are to be delivered to family members in North Korea after the reunion events restart," a government official said. The decision to resume the video messages after a four-year hiatus was made because an increasing number of divided family members in the South are dying of old age, the official said.
The South Korean Red Cross, which took over the video project from the Ministry of Unification, will start the production after conducting a demand survey among all the separated family members in South Korea next month, the official said.
"It is deplorable that about 3,000-4000 divided family members pass away every year due to old age," a Red Cross official said. "The video messages will feature family members' living images as well as their messages to families in the North."
As of the end of June, a total of 128,713 people were registered with the government as having family members in the North. Among them only 77,122 are alive. Nearly 80 percent of those alive are now over the age of 70.
SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will resume recording video messages of families here who parted from their parents, children or siblings in the North during the Korean War, officials said Monday.
Since the first summit meeting between the two divided Koreas in 2000, the two countries have arranged reunions of separated family members twice or three times a year.
But the humanitarian events came to a halt in September 2010, amid the deepening Inter-Korean political tensions. As part of the reunion gatherings, video messages from families in the South are given to their family members in the North for those who cannot travel to the event location.
Several thousand separated family members die every year, yearning to reunite with their spouses, children or siblings whom they had to part with due to the 1950-53 Korean War and the truce which left the Korean Peninsula divided thereafter.
"We decided to produce video messages, which are to be delivered to family members in North Korea after the reunion events restart," a government official said. The decision to resume the video messages after a four-year hiatus was made because an increasing number of divided family members in the South are dying of old age, the official said.
The South Korean Red Cross, which took over the video project from the Ministry of Unification, will start the production after conducting a demand survey among all the separated family members in South Korea next month, the official said.
"It is deplorable that about 3,000-4000 divided family members pass away every year due to old age," a Red Cross official said. "The video messages will feature family members' living images as well as their messages to families in the North."
As of the end of June, a total of 128,713 people were registered with the government as having family members in the North. Among them only 77,122 are alive. Nearly 80 percent of those alive are now over the age of 70.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Shaffer: Clayton father and Korean War vet remains unburied Shaffer: Clayton father and Korean War vet remains unburied Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/09/2187159/shaffer-james-southern-a-clayton.html#storylink=cpy
From News Onserver.com: Shaffer: Clayton father and Korean War vet remains unburied
CLAYTON -- At age 83, James Southern led the
life of a contented old man – fishing, grilling, sitting up nights on a
screened-in porch. You’d see him piloting his motorized wheelchair down
Main Street in Clayton, buying snacks for his grandchildren at the fruit
stands.
He never made much money. He lived on Social Security a small veteran’s pension for his time in the Korean War. When talk turned to dying, he used tell his daughters, “Just throw me in a pine box and bury me in the backyard.”
They wish they could.
He never made much money. He lived on Social Security a small veteran’s pension for his time in the Korean War. When talk turned to dying, he used tell his daughters, “Just throw me in a pine box and bury me in the backyard.”
They wish they could.
Southern died of liver cancer on June 24 – just three weeks after
getting the diagnosis. He left no money for burial. He’d been turned
down for life insurance. His five children pooled their money and came
up $2,000 short. So Southern’s body remains on a slab in a Garner
funeral home, waiting for the peace of the grave. “We haven’t really had
time to mourn him,” said his youngest daughter, Christie Blanke, 44.
“We’ve been too busy trying to lay him to rest.”
The indignities of aging are never clearer than at the very end, when the quality of your goodbye is determined by the number of nickels in your pocket. Southern at least had family, if not wealth.
Last year, Wake County arranged to cremate 19 unclaimed bodies – strangers to the world.
Now Southern’s children find themselves mired in death’s untidy details, vowing to spare their own children the same unpleasant chore. They pledge to buy life insurance policies that cover funeral expenses, about as grim a chore as picking a pallbearer.
Their father actually tried to do this, his daughters said, but not until he was too old for anybody to insure him. The federal government will pay for his plot in a military cemetery in Fayetteville, but getting him there is up to the family.
The first funeral home wanted $13,000. The second, Chappell’s Funeral Home in Garner, offered $5,000, which they accepted. But knowing their father is lying essentially in storage is a new kind of pain. “We’ve never done this before,” said Laurie Hanvey, his middle daughter, 46. “It’s horrible.”
Southern came from upstate New York, and he returned there after his time in the Air Force. His three daughters remember him singing to them in Korean when he returned. When he talked about the war, which was seldom, he usually spoke about the children there who taught him to speak a few words.
Southern worked for the Draft Board back home, then for several motels. He divorced twice along the way, raising two sons with his second wife, one of whom wasn’t his biological child. Any money he had went to his children, his daughters agree.
The whole family started drifting south about eight years ago, following good weather and jobs. Southern liked to sit up late on a porch, around a bug candle, and talk about people he knew, places he’d been. He figured the cancer was just a bad stomach ache. But soon he couldn’t walk or talk. He died quickly, for which the family is grateful.
Near the end, his daughter Christie heard him say that he was thinking about the last time he would close his eyes. When he woke, he realized, he’d see the face of God.
The rest of Southern is still waiting for such grace.
The indignities of aging are never clearer than at the very end, when the quality of your goodbye is determined by the number of nickels in your pocket. Southern at least had family, if not wealth.
Last year, Wake County arranged to cremate 19 unclaimed bodies – strangers to the world.
Now Southern’s children find themselves mired in death’s untidy details, vowing to spare their own children the same unpleasant chore. They pledge to buy life insurance policies that cover funeral expenses, about as grim a chore as picking a pallbearer.
Their father actually tried to do this, his daughters said, but not until he was too old for anybody to insure him. The federal government will pay for his plot in a military cemetery in Fayetteville, but getting him there is up to the family.
The first funeral home wanted $13,000. The second, Chappell’s Funeral Home in Garner, offered $5,000, which they accepted. But knowing their father is lying essentially in storage is a new kind of pain. “We’ve never done this before,” said Laurie Hanvey, his middle daughter, 46. “It’s horrible.”
Southern came from upstate New York, and he returned there after his time in the Air Force. His three daughters remember him singing to them in Korean when he returned. When he talked about the war, which was seldom, he usually spoke about the children there who taught him to speak a few words.
Southern worked for the Draft Board back home, then for several motels. He divorced twice along the way, raising two sons with his second wife, one of whom wasn’t his biological child. Any money he had went to his children, his daughters agree.
The whole family started drifting south about eight years ago, following good weather and jobs. Southern liked to sit up late on a porch, around a bug candle, and talk about people he knew, places he’d been. He figured the cancer was just a bad stomach ache. But soon he couldn’t walk or talk. He died quickly, for which the family is grateful.
Near the end, his daughter Christie heard him say that he was thinking about the last time he would close his eyes. When he woke, he realized, he’d see the face of God.
The rest of Southern is still waiting for such grace.
jshaffer@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Scotland's Forgotten War: Korean veterans make emotional return
From BBC News: Scotland's Forgotten War: Korean veterans make emotional return
As an array of coffee-clutching commuters in suits hurried
past, a group of war veterans - dapper in regimental blazers, an array
of military berets and a cluster of well-polished medals - began to
muster on the equally well-polished concourse.
It wasn't only their bearing and their years that differentiated the visitors from their fellow travellers.
The generally 20 or 30-something commuters were making journeys that would shape their future; the veterans' destination was their past.
Trench warfare They were heading for the climax of a five-day visit to this cosmopolitan capital, a capital that most had last seen flattened and smouldering 60 years before.
But as the group of veterans, some with walking sticks and a few in wheelchairs, began to make their way to the platform, something surprising happened.
Station workers bowed as they passed; staff in the kiosks and
small shops stopped selling their coffees and pastries and broke into
spontaneous applause. Even some of the hurried commuters slowed and made
obvious their respect for their elderly visitors.
South Korea may be a 21st Century economic powerhouse, but it's a grateful one.
The Korean war of 60 years ago may be a footnote in Britain's public consciousness, but its mass loss of life and the sacrifice of the American and United Nations forces who came in its hour of need is ingrained in South Koreans, both young and old.
In 1950 it was the last thing threadbare Britain needed. The country had just emerged from the Second World War and hadn't the stomach for another.
By necessity the Korean fighting force was mostly made up of young national servicemen. The majority were teenagers who'd never ventured outside their home towns when they were packed off to a distant Asian peninsula few had heard of.
Their meagre 16 weeks of training couldn't prepare them for what lay in store: ferocious hill battles; trench warfare and attacking human waves of well-drilled Chinese.
Sense of injustice After the war ended in a face-saving armistice, territorially the sides were almost back to where they started.
This inglorious culmination didn't help the apathy on the home front - 1,090 soldiers had lost their lives in Korea.
The young men came home to indifference and many have long nursed a sense of injustice.
In the brutal cold of a Korean winter and in the searing
summer heat, these ill-equipped, inexperienced young fighters had
witnessed horrors beyond imagination and had returned to a Britain that
simply didn't want to know.
Today's bullet train trip from Seoul to Busan in the far south of the country was a chance for the veterans to pay tribute to their fallen comrades buried in the Commonwealth cemetery.
The South Korean government picks up most of the tab for these "re-visits", as it calls them. Those who come can bring a partner. Usually it's wives, sons or daughters; loved ones who've spent a lifetime listening to a story of war and who find themselves written into this final chapter.
As the train sped past unprepossessing countryside, I fell into conversation with John. Too young to have fought in the war, I presumed he was accompanying a veteran.
He quietly explained his quest was to find the grave of his father, who'd left for a belated national service when John was four years old - and never came home.
John had only just learned of the "revisit" programme which had enabled his trip. It seemed the hurt of a conflict ignored wasn't restricted to those who'd fought in it.
"People would ask me what happened to my father," he told me.
"When I said he died in the Korean war they didn't know what to say. They had no idea British troops were even involved."
At the cemetery, torrential rain falling vertically and unrelentingly from a leaden sky added to the poignancy of the occasion. The skinny, cocky young servicemen who'd bounded off troop ships 60 years ago were now a fragile cargo.
Young Korean helpers eased the infirm across the slippery, sodden ground and hauled wheelchairs up saturated inclines.
As the wives and middle-aged children huddled inside a tent whose roof groaned under the weight of rainwater, the veterans stood to attention in the face of the elements; dignified in the intensity of the moment and lost in their memories. A small Korean military band played Abide With Me.
As the downpour intensified and the skies grew darker, old men must have been chilled, but they never complained.
As they were given time to roam the cemetery with its hundreds of small Union flags and A4 sized plaques marking each grave, they found their former friends and they knew they were the lucky ones; they'd come home.
Was our neglect of Korea a case of the wrong war at the wrong time? Or, portentously for current conflicts on foreign soil which end without glorious victory, was it an embarrassment conveniently lost in the mists of time?
I last saw John alone, upset and kneeling by the grave of the father he never knew, killed in a war we forgot to remember.
Scottish soldiers sent to Korea were often inexperienced and ill-equipped
They were an incongruous sight amid the frenetic morning rush hour of Seoul's main railway station.
It wasn't only their bearing and their years that differentiated the visitors from their fellow travellers.
The generally 20 or 30-something commuters were making journeys that would shape their future; the veterans' destination was their past.
Trench warfare They were heading for the climax of a five-day visit to this cosmopolitan capital, a capital that most had last seen flattened and smouldering 60 years before.
But as the group of veterans, some with walking sticks and a few in wheelchairs, began to make their way to the platform, something surprising happened.
Jackie Bird looks at memorial plaques during her visit to South Korea
South Korea may be a 21st Century economic powerhouse, but it's a grateful one.
The Korean war of 60 years ago may be a footnote in Britain's public consciousness, but its mass loss of life and the sacrifice of the American and United Nations forces who came in its hour of need is ingrained in South Koreans, both young and old.
In 1950 it was the last thing threadbare Britain needed. The country had just emerged from the Second World War and hadn't the stomach for another.
By necessity the Korean fighting force was mostly made up of young national servicemen. The majority were teenagers who'd never ventured outside their home towns when they were packed off to a distant Asian peninsula few had heard of.
Their meagre 16 weeks of training couldn't prepare them for what lay in store: ferocious hill battles; trench warfare and attacking human waves of well-drilled Chinese.
Sense of injustice After the war ended in a face-saving armistice, territorially the sides were almost back to where they started.
This inglorious culmination didn't help the apathy on the home front - 1,090 soldiers had lost their lives in Korea.
The young men came home to indifference and many have long nursed a sense of injustice.
JohnPeople would ask me what happened to my father. When I said he died in the Korean war they didn't know what to say. They had no idea British troops were even involved”
As one told me: "We were only
young... we'd start to talk about our war and be told: 'Away lad, that
was nothing... I was at Dunkirk'. So we just stopped talking about it."
Today's bullet train trip from Seoul to Busan in the far south of the country was a chance for the veterans to pay tribute to their fallen comrades buried in the Commonwealth cemetery.
The South Korean government picks up most of the tab for these "re-visits", as it calls them. Those who come can bring a partner. Usually it's wives, sons or daughters; loved ones who've spent a lifetime listening to a story of war and who find themselves written into this final chapter.
As the train sped past unprepossessing countryside, I fell into conversation with John. Too young to have fought in the war, I presumed he was accompanying a veteran.
He quietly explained his quest was to find the grave of his father, who'd left for a belated national service when John was four years old - and never came home.
John had only just learned of the "revisit" programme which had enabled his trip. It seemed the hurt of a conflict ignored wasn't restricted to those who'd fought in it.
More than 1,000 British soldiers died in the conflict
"When I said he died in the Korean war they didn't know what to say. They had no idea British troops were even involved."
At the cemetery, torrential rain falling vertically and unrelentingly from a leaden sky added to the poignancy of the occasion. The skinny, cocky young servicemen who'd bounded off troop ships 60 years ago were now a fragile cargo.
Young Korean helpers eased the infirm across the slippery, sodden ground and hauled wheelchairs up saturated inclines.
As the wives and middle-aged children huddled inside a tent whose roof groaned under the weight of rainwater, the veterans stood to attention in the face of the elements; dignified in the intensity of the moment and lost in their memories. A small Korean military band played Abide With Me.
As the downpour intensified and the skies grew darker, old men must have been chilled, but they never complained.
As they were given time to roam the cemetery with its hundreds of small Union flags and A4 sized plaques marking each grave, they found their former friends and they knew they were the lucky ones; they'd come home.
Was our neglect of Korea a case of the wrong war at the wrong time? Or, portentously for current conflicts on foreign soil which end without glorious victory, was it an embarrassment conveniently lost in the mists of time?
I last saw John alone, upset and kneeling by the grave of the father he never knew, killed in a war we forgot to remember.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Filipino soldiers’ story of Korean War: Valor redux
From InquirerNet: Filipino soldiers’ story of Korean War: Valor redux
In an astonishing act of humanity and selflessness, the Philippines sent its soldiers to defend South Korea against a massive communist invasion despite its having to contend with a communist rebellion of its own and the painful challenge of rebuilding an economy crippled by World War II.
The Philippines was the first Asian country to send combat troops to the Korean War that began on June 25, 1950. Its soldiers protected South Korea until 1955.
The first Filipino warrior set foot on Korea at the port city of Busan (formerly Pusan) on Sept. 19, 1950. The 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) was the first of five BCTs that would serve in Korea until June 1955 under the flag of the elite Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea or Peftok.
Over 7,400 officers and men of the Philippine Army served in Korea. Five of these warriors—all in their 80s—recently returned to Korea for the first time since the Korean War. The Korean government sponsored their visit as part of the “Revisit Korea Program” for the Filipino war veterans and their families.
These veterans were accompanied by 15 other Filipinos who were either their children or grandchildren. Their host was South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
These veterans were all astounded at the massive progress Korea had made over the past six decades. One veteran noted that our present economic situation is the reverse of what it had been in the 1950s.
The Philippines then was Southeast Asia’s leading economic and military power and Asia’s second largest economy after Japan. From being one of the world’s poorest nations in the 1950s, South Korea is now one of the world’s 30 richest in per capita gross domestic product.
Oldest war veteran
“I can’t believe how fast South Korea has improved since the Korean War,” said Jesus Dizon, who at 86 is the oldest Korean War veteran among the “revisitors.” “It’s a tribute to the Korean people.”
His unit was the 20th BCT, the second Filipino BCT deployed to Korea. Dizon was a forward observer or FO, the most dangerous of allied soldiers, whose job was to identify targets for the six 105mm howitzers of the battalion’s field artillery battery.
FOs got their deadly job done with a field telephone; a pair of powerful binoculars, maps—and a great deal of courage. They normally occupied well-hidden positions on hilltops or other dominating terrain near the enemy and spent days searching for enemy activity. The power of life or death held by an FO was terrifying.
In North Korea one morning, a large number of communist Chinese soldiers suddenly appeared below a ridgeline Dizon had been observing for some time. Dizon located the enemy unit on the grid map spread before him.
He calmly picked up his field telephone and called in the target coordinates to the battery’s fire direction center of the battalion’s artillery battery emplaced a few kilometers behind him.
“Fire!” he ordered.
A single high-explosive 105mm round exploded away from the Chinese unit. Dizon noted the fall of the ranging round through his binoculars. He reported the adjusted range over the phone and commanded the entire battery to open fire.
Six 105mm howitzers manned by Filipinos unleashed shell after shell into the Chinese. Dizon saw the bewildered Chinese engulfed by horrifying explosions as murderous blasts tore apart their unit.
The inferno was over in about a minute. A dirty pall of dust and smoke from the barrage lingering over the tragedy served as the gravestone for dozens of dead Chinese.
Wounded in action
“All of this was flat,” exclaimed Luminoso Cruz, referring to the thriving and crowded city of Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul. “It was flat and gray. This city was totally destroyed.”
Suwon was where Cruz’s unit, the 10th BCT, spent its first Christmas in Korea. That was in 1950 and the 10th was the first of the five BCTs that served in Korea.
Cruz, a member of Recon Company, was the gunner of an M24 Chaffee light tank armed with a 75mm cannon. He took a shrapnel wound to the head along the banks of the Imjin River and was visibly moved as the bus crossed the river north during his visit to the Demilitarized Zone.
“This was where I was wounded,” he said, pointing to the bank of the Imjin, while holding back his tears.
He fought in a two-man foxhole at the great Battle of Yuldong, which he recalled as a night of incredible terror.
“The Chinese attacked us in waves all night. My buddy and I just kept firing and firing our rifles,” he recalled of this gory battle, which was fought on April 23, 1951.
He doesn’t know how they survived the murderous hell of Yuldong. But his buddy had to be sent home afterwards. His nerves had given way under the terror of too much savage combat.
They called it “shell shock” then. We call it “post-traumatic stress disorder” today.
The Battle of Yuldong was the greatest Filipino victory in the Korean War. A mere 900 Filipino fighting men withstood the night attack of an entire communist Chinese army that numbered 40,000 men at peak strength.
In standing their ground at Yuldong, the Filipinos fatally slowed down the largest Chinese offensive of the war, and probably helped prevent the destruction of the United Nations forces and the communist conquest of South Korea.
One man’s handiwork
Amiable and talkative, Florendo Benedicto served in both the 10th BCT and the 20th BCT. He decided to “re-up” or reenlist in the 20th BCT because he loved combat.
Benedicto stands almost 6-ft tall. In the Army at the time, tall men generally wound up becoming gunners in the belief they could carry heavier loads.
Benedicto’s weapon was the M1919 Browning .30 cal. medium machine gun that could fire up to 600 rounds a minute. The gun itself weighed 14 kilograms and it was Benedicto’s job to lug the gun onto the battlefield and fire it at the communist enemy. He did this on many occasions in two years of fighting.
He believes that South Korea’s enviable economic blessings are due mostly to the strong unity pervading South Koreans.
“Their national unity is worth emulating,” he said. “Filipinos should learn from the South Koreans. We have to establish love in the heart of every Filipino. We must love one another.”
It is a startling transformation for a formerly fierce warrior. It is all the more surprising if one knows what he did in the Korean War.
“I know I killed about 200 Chinese,” he said calmly when we talked about this. “I probably killed 300 more. I counted their dead bodies.”
Benedicto’s feat is all the more astounding since only 112 Filipino soldiers died in three years of combat in the Korean War despite almost constant fighting.
Winter experience
Constancio Sanchez turned 24 on the historic day the 10th BCT arrived by ship at Busan on Sept. 19, 1950, less than three months after the start of the Korean War on June 25.
Knowing this, his officers allowed Sanchez to become one of the first Filipino fighting men to set foot on Korean soil. His mates then treated him to merienda at one of the restaurants in the port city then being besieged by the communist North Korean People’s Army.
Sanchez served in the Headquarters & Headquarters & Service Company, the command group of the 10th BCT. The battalion was founded and first commanded by Col. Mariano Azurin. Col. Dionisio Ojeda replaced Azurin in the spring of 1951.
Of all the dangers he faced in the war, Sanchez remains awed by that phenomenon alien to Filipino experience called winter. It was December 1950 and the battalion was in Pyongyang when the communist Chinese intervened and hurled the United Nations Command (including the 10th BCT) out of North Korea.
The winter of 1950-1951 was Korea’s coldest in two centuries but this did nothing to dispel the savage fighting that actually intensified with the Chinese intervention.
“We were shocked when the Chinese came and advanced so quickly,” he said. “We had to withdraw rapidly to avoid encirclement and it was terribly cold.”
Things would have been far worse for the battalion if the Chinese had attacked earlier, Sanchez believes. The onset of winter a month earlier immobilized most of their motor vehicles.
The intense subzero cold froze the water in engines and shattered engine blocks. This paralyzed most of the battalion’s vehicles, including those in the transport-heavy HQ & HQ & Service Company.
Adding antifreeze to the water solved the problem, however, so that when the Chinese came, the battalion’s trucks, jeeps and armored vehicles kept running despite the intense cold.
“We probably wouldn’t have escaped from Pyongyang if we had to march on foot through the snow.”
Rediscovering God
Prudencio Medrano served in the HQ & HQ & Service Company of the 19th BCT, the third Peftok unit deployed to Korea, and re-upped for another year with the 14th BCT. And this was because of his friends.
“I re-enlisted because we were ‘buddy-buddy,’” he said. “Five of my buddies in the 19th BCT decided to extend. They asked me if I wanted to extend and I did because they were my buddies.”
In both BCTs, Medrano served as a radio operator of their battalion commanders—Col. Ramon Aguirre of the 19th and Col. Nicanor Jimenez of the 14th.
With the 19th, Medrano recalled he was often in the advanced command post with Colonel Aguirre. His job was to transmit and receive voice messages and telegraph messages via Morse Code. Lives depended on the accuracy of his messages.
Medrano rediscovered God amid the horror of the Korean War. The long spells between action and boredom along the static front line gave him time to reflect on things spiritual.
(Editor’s Note: The author is a historian of the Korean War. Among his stories published in this newspaper is one about the P500 bill being a memorial to the Philippines’ involvement in that war. His Korean War website is www.peftok.blogspot.com.)
In an astonishing act of humanity and selflessness, the Philippines sent its soldiers to defend South Korea against a massive communist invasion despite its having to contend with a communist rebellion of its own and the painful challenge of rebuilding an economy crippled by World War II.
The Philippines was the first Asian country to send combat troops to the Korean War that began on June 25, 1950. Its soldiers protected South Korea until 1955.
The first Filipino warrior set foot on Korea at the port city of Busan (formerly Pusan) on Sept. 19, 1950. The 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) was the first of five BCTs that would serve in Korea until June 1955 under the flag of the elite Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea or Peftok.
Over 7,400 officers and men of the Philippine Army served in Korea. Five of these warriors—all in their 80s—recently returned to Korea for the first time since the Korean War. The Korean government sponsored their visit as part of the “Revisit Korea Program” for the Filipino war veterans and their families.
These veterans were accompanied by 15 other Filipinos who were either their children or grandchildren. Their host was South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
These veterans were all astounded at the massive progress Korea had made over the past six decades. One veteran noted that our present economic situation is the reverse of what it had been in the 1950s.
The Philippines then was Southeast Asia’s leading economic and military power and Asia’s second largest economy after Japan. From being one of the world’s poorest nations in the 1950s, South Korea is now one of the world’s 30 richest in per capita gross domestic product.
Oldest war veteran
“I can’t believe how fast South Korea has improved since the Korean War,” said Jesus Dizon, who at 86 is the oldest Korean War veteran among the “revisitors.” “It’s a tribute to the Korean people.”
His unit was the 20th BCT, the second Filipino BCT deployed to Korea. Dizon was a forward observer or FO, the most dangerous of allied soldiers, whose job was to identify targets for the six 105mm howitzers of the battalion’s field artillery battery.
FOs got their deadly job done with a field telephone; a pair of powerful binoculars, maps—and a great deal of courage. They normally occupied well-hidden positions on hilltops or other dominating terrain near the enemy and spent days searching for enemy activity. The power of life or death held by an FO was terrifying.
In North Korea one morning, a large number of communist Chinese soldiers suddenly appeared below a ridgeline Dizon had been observing for some time. Dizon located the enemy unit on the grid map spread before him.
He calmly picked up his field telephone and called in the target coordinates to the battery’s fire direction center of the battalion’s artillery battery emplaced a few kilometers behind him.
“Fire!” he ordered.
A single high-explosive 105mm round exploded away from the Chinese unit. Dizon noted the fall of the ranging round through his binoculars. He reported the adjusted range over the phone and commanded the entire battery to open fire.
Six 105mm howitzers manned by Filipinos unleashed shell after shell into the Chinese. Dizon saw the bewildered Chinese engulfed by horrifying explosions as murderous blasts tore apart their unit.
The inferno was over in about a minute. A dirty pall of dust and smoke from the barrage lingering over the tragedy served as the gravestone for dozens of dead Chinese.
Wounded in action
“All of this was flat,” exclaimed Luminoso Cruz, referring to the thriving and crowded city of Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul. “It was flat and gray. This city was totally destroyed.”
Suwon was where Cruz’s unit, the 10th BCT, spent its first Christmas in Korea. That was in 1950 and the 10th was the first of the five BCTs that served in Korea.
Cruz, a member of Recon Company, was the gunner of an M24 Chaffee light tank armed with a 75mm cannon. He took a shrapnel wound to the head along the banks of the Imjin River and was visibly moved as the bus crossed the river north during his visit to the Demilitarized Zone.
“This was where I was wounded,” he said, pointing to the bank of the Imjin, while holding back his tears.
He fought in a two-man foxhole at the great Battle of Yuldong, which he recalled as a night of incredible terror.
“The Chinese attacked us in waves all night. My buddy and I just kept firing and firing our rifles,” he recalled of this gory battle, which was fought on April 23, 1951.
He doesn’t know how they survived the murderous hell of Yuldong. But his buddy had to be sent home afterwards. His nerves had given way under the terror of too much savage combat.
They called it “shell shock” then. We call it “post-traumatic stress disorder” today.
The Battle of Yuldong was the greatest Filipino victory in the Korean War. A mere 900 Filipino fighting men withstood the night attack of an entire communist Chinese army that numbered 40,000 men at peak strength.
In standing their ground at Yuldong, the Filipinos fatally slowed down the largest Chinese offensive of the war, and probably helped prevent the destruction of the United Nations forces and the communist conquest of South Korea.
One man’s handiwork
Amiable and talkative, Florendo Benedicto served in both the 10th BCT and the 20th BCT. He decided to “re-up” or reenlist in the 20th BCT because he loved combat.
Benedicto stands almost 6-ft tall. In the Army at the time, tall men generally wound up becoming gunners in the belief they could carry heavier loads.
Benedicto’s weapon was the M1919 Browning .30 cal. medium machine gun that could fire up to 600 rounds a minute. The gun itself weighed 14 kilograms and it was Benedicto’s job to lug the gun onto the battlefield and fire it at the communist enemy. He did this on many occasions in two years of fighting.
He believes that South Korea’s enviable economic blessings are due mostly to the strong unity pervading South Koreans.
“Their national unity is worth emulating,” he said. “Filipinos should learn from the South Koreans. We have to establish love in the heart of every Filipino. We must love one another.”
It is a startling transformation for a formerly fierce warrior. It is all the more surprising if one knows what he did in the Korean War.
“I know I killed about 200 Chinese,” he said calmly when we talked about this. “I probably killed 300 more. I counted their dead bodies.”
Benedicto’s feat is all the more astounding since only 112 Filipino soldiers died in three years of combat in the Korean War despite almost constant fighting.
Winter experience
Constancio Sanchez turned 24 on the historic day the 10th BCT arrived by ship at Busan on Sept. 19, 1950, less than three months after the start of the Korean War on June 25.
Knowing this, his officers allowed Sanchez to become one of the first Filipino fighting men to set foot on Korean soil. His mates then treated him to merienda at one of the restaurants in the port city then being besieged by the communist North Korean People’s Army.
Sanchez served in the Headquarters & Headquarters & Service Company, the command group of the 10th BCT. The battalion was founded and first commanded by Col. Mariano Azurin. Col. Dionisio Ojeda replaced Azurin in the spring of 1951.
Of all the dangers he faced in the war, Sanchez remains awed by that phenomenon alien to Filipino experience called winter. It was December 1950 and the battalion was in Pyongyang when the communist Chinese intervened and hurled the United Nations Command (including the 10th BCT) out of North Korea.
The winter of 1950-1951 was Korea’s coldest in two centuries but this did nothing to dispel the savage fighting that actually intensified with the Chinese intervention.
“We were shocked when the Chinese came and advanced so quickly,” he said. “We had to withdraw rapidly to avoid encirclement and it was terribly cold.”
Things would have been far worse for the battalion if the Chinese had attacked earlier, Sanchez believes. The onset of winter a month earlier immobilized most of their motor vehicles.
The intense subzero cold froze the water in engines and shattered engine blocks. This paralyzed most of the battalion’s vehicles, including those in the transport-heavy HQ & HQ & Service Company.
Adding antifreeze to the water solved the problem, however, so that when the Chinese came, the battalion’s trucks, jeeps and armored vehicles kept running despite the intense cold.
“We probably wouldn’t have escaped from Pyongyang if we had to march on foot through the snow.”
Rediscovering God
Prudencio Medrano served in the HQ & HQ & Service Company of the 19th BCT, the third Peftok unit deployed to Korea, and re-upped for another year with the 14th BCT. And this was because of his friends.
“I re-enlisted because we were ‘buddy-buddy,’” he said. “Five of my buddies in the 19th BCT decided to extend. They asked me if I wanted to extend and I did because they were my buddies.”
In both BCTs, Medrano served as a radio operator of their battalion commanders—Col. Ramon Aguirre of the 19th and Col. Nicanor Jimenez of the 14th.
With the 19th, Medrano recalled he was often in the advanced command post with Colonel Aguirre. His job was to transmit and receive voice messages and telegraph messages via Morse Code. Lives depended on the accuracy of his messages.
Medrano rediscovered God amid the horror of the Korean War. The long spells between action and boredom along the static front line gave him time to reflect on things spiritual.
(Editor’s Note: The author is a historian of the Korean War. Among his stories published in this newspaper is one about the P500 bill being a memorial to the Philippines’ involvement in that war. His Korean War website is www.peftok.blogspot.com.)
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Korean War vets remember start of conflict
From Tampa Bay: Korean War vets remember start of conflict
TAMPA — George McMaster remembers it all.
That last glimpse of the United States as he sailed off to war. The subfreezing temperatures of winter in North Korea. The seemingly endless supply of Tootsie Rolls that helped keep him alive.
"It's always been called the Forgotten War," said McMaster, 82. "Of course, it will never be forgotten by those who served in it."
On Saturday, dozens gathered to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the start of the Korean War with a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park east of Tampa.
McMaster, who served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1948 through 1952, recounted his experiences at the Chosin Reservoir.
"We had no helicopters, no armored vests. We fought with World War II weapons and WWII rations," said McMaster of Brandon. "It was a very violent war."
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and lasted three years. More than 33,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Today, more than 7,500 soldiers remain unaccounted for.
Donald Denny, 80, knows he could have been among the lost.
Denny spent 27 months as a prisoner of war in Korean war camps. On Saturday, the Army infantryman recalled the grueling tasks and near-starvation he endured.
"POW camp is not like a prison here," said Denny of Clearwater. "I could do prison here standing on my head."
The ones who survived, Denny said, often grew up poor like him. When there was food to eat, it was often only sorghum, peanuts or cracked corn. Every morning, the prisoners were forced to recite the Chinese national anthem in Chinese.
"Talk about degrading," he said. "But if you want to eat, you do things like that."
Denny made it a point, though, to push the guards to the limits.
"I gave those people a hard time from the day they captured me until the day I was released," he said.
He's thankful he made it out alive. It's the soldiers who were left behind that still haunt his mind.
"With a little place like North Korea," he said, "it's ridiculous they won't let us back in there to get them."
TAMPA — George McMaster remembers it all.
That last glimpse of the United States as he sailed off to war. The subfreezing temperatures of winter in North Korea. The seemingly endless supply of Tootsie Rolls that helped keep him alive.
"It's always been called the Forgotten War," said McMaster, 82. "Of course, it will never be forgotten by those who served in it."
On Saturday, dozens gathered to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the start of the Korean War with a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park east of Tampa.
McMaster, who served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1948 through 1952, recounted his experiences at the Chosin Reservoir.
"We had no helicopters, no armored vests. We fought with World War II weapons and WWII rations," said McMaster of Brandon. "It was a very violent war."
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and lasted three years. More than 33,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Today, more than 7,500 soldiers remain unaccounted for.
Donald Denny, 80, knows he could have been among the lost.
Denny spent 27 months as a prisoner of war in Korean war camps. On Saturday, the Army infantryman recalled the grueling tasks and near-starvation he endured.
"POW camp is not like a prison here," said Denny of Clearwater. "I could do prison here standing on my head."
The ones who survived, Denny said, often grew up poor like him. When there was food to eat, it was often only sorghum, peanuts or cracked corn. Every morning, the prisoners were forced to recite the Chinese national anthem in Chinese.
"Talk about degrading," he said. "But if you want to eat, you do things like that."
Denny made it a point, though, to push the guards to the limits.
"I gave those people a hard time from the day they captured me until the day I was released," he said.
He's thankful he made it out alive. It's the soldiers who were left behind that still haunt his mind.
"With a little place like North Korea," he said, "it's ridiculous they won't let us back in there to get them."
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Korean sacrifice honoured: Worthington
From the Toronto Sun: Korean sacrifice honoured: Worthington
TORONTO - As far as anyone knows, such a thing has never happened before.
As part of its 62nd anniversary ceremonies marking the start of the Korean war, the Republic of Korea has issued a special stamp commemorating Maj. Robert Campbell Lane, of Ottawa, whose 100th birthday is this week.
Never before has Korea issued a stamp commemorating a Korean veteran. And the fact that Maj. Lane is now believed to the oldest veteran of that war — American, British or Canadian — didn’t hurt his selection.
Coincidentally, it was the end of June 1950, that the army of North Korea, backed by China and the Soviet Union, invaded the South and conquered the peninsula but for the perimeter around the southern seaport of Pusan. It was then the UN voted to stop North Korea by force. Since 1953 there’s been no peace agreement, but a shaky 59-year cease fire.
As well as being the oldest Korean war vet, Maj. Lane (he retired from the army in 1962 to become a high school teacher) must be one of the few men alive whose army commission was signed when he was 20 by King George V (Elizabeth II’s granddad) in 1932.
In the Second World War, he was a captain in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME). In the Korean war he was promoted to major and commanded the RCEME workshop in Canada’s 25 Brigade.
Maj. Lane served in Korea when it was still a fluid, Second World War-type battle of movement, before it got mired in trench warfare — similar to that of the First World War.
“My dad’s two brothers were also in World War II, one in the Medical Corps, the other a pilot,” recalled Lane’s daughter, Cathy Lane. “Mercifully, they all came home.”
She said her father never talked much at home about either war, adding he moved on and “built another life.”
Rather than recall the hardships of war, she said her father tended to relish the comradeship and shared experience of other veterans.
These days he lives in the Perley and Rideau retirement centre, which Ms. Lane praises as a “wonderful place for veterans — each veteran has his own room and doesn’t have to share. They are treated very well” Bill Black, president of the Ottawa unit of the Korean Veterans
Association (KVA), coordinated a presentation ceremony on June 22.
At that time, the Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) presented its highest award to Maj. Lane “for his tremendous service and (we) are humbled in honouring him on this occasion of his 100th birthday (on July 5).”
MPVA Deputy Minister Yang Sung Jeong flew over from Seoul to make the presentation to Maj. Lane, who was also bestowed with the somewhat cumbersome title “Engineer Emeritus and Builder of the Foundation of the Republic of Korea.”
He and eight other Korea Veterans who reside at the Perley Centre were awarded the Korean Ambassador for Peace medal.
A message from MPVA Minister Park Sung Choon reads: “The 49 million people of Korea send him 49 million wishes for a most happy birthday and many more warm and happy years to come.”
“My dad doesn’t quite know what to make of it all,” said his daughter. “But we’re all very proud and pleased for him.”
Even she seems a bit dazzled at the enthusiasm of the Koreans, issuing two commemorative stamps in her father’s likeness — one when he was a captain in the Second World War, the other a contemporary shot with his medals.
“You know, to us he was simply our dad,” she said. “He had no unpleasant memories of the army, didn’t live in the past, didn’t talk much about the war, simply got on with and got the most out of life.”
And now his likeness is on two 270 won stamps — about 24-cents, the cost of mailing a letter in Korea.
Vince Courtenay, publisher of koreavetnews.com and the only non-Korean on the Advisory Council of South Korea’s War Commemoration Committee, says choosing a Canadian soldier for the commemoration stamp “is an indication of the respect and gratitude Koreans feel for Canadian who helped save their country from becoming like North Korea.”
TORONTO - As far as anyone knows, such a thing has never happened before.
As part of its 62nd anniversary ceremonies marking the start of the Korean war, the Republic of Korea has issued a special stamp commemorating Maj. Robert Campbell Lane, of Ottawa, whose 100th birthday is this week.
Never before has Korea issued a stamp commemorating a Korean veteran. And the fact that Maj. Lane is now believed to the oldest veteran of that war — American, British or Canadian — didn’t hurt his selection.
Coincidentally, it was the end of June 1950, that the army of North Korea, backed by China and the Soviet Union, invaded the South and conquered the peninsula but for the perimeter around the southern seaport of Pusan. It was then the UN voted to stop North Korea by force. Since 1953 there’s been no peace agreement, but a shaky 59-year cease fire.
As well as being the oldest Korean war vet, Maj. Lane (he retired from the army in 1962 to become a high school teacher) must be one of the few men alive whose army commission was signed when he was 20 by King George V (Elizabeth II’s granddad) in 1932.
In the Second World War, he was a captain in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME). In the Korean war he was promoted to major and commanded the RCEME workshop in Canada’s 25 Brigade.
Maj. Lane served in Korea when it was still a fluid, Second World War-type battle of movement, before it got mired in trench warfare — similar to that of the First World War.
“My dad’s two brothers were also in World War II, one in the Medical Corps, the other a pilot,” recalled Lane’s daughter, Cathy Lane. “Mercifully, they all came home.”
She said her father never talked much at home about either war, adding he moved on and “built another life.”
Rather than recall the hardships of war, she said her father tended to relish the comradeship and shared experience of other veterans.
These days he lives in the Perley and Rideau retirement centre, which Ms. Lane praises as a “wonderful place for veterans — each veteran has his own room and doesn’t have to share. They are treated very well” Bill Black, president of the Ottawa unit of the Korean Veterans
Association (KVA), coordinated a presentation ceremony on June 22.
At that time, the Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) presented its highest award to Maj. Lane “for his tremendous service and (we) are humbled in honouring him on this occasion of his 100th birthday (on July 5).”
MPVA Deputy Minister Yang Sung Jeong flew over from Seoul to make the presentation to Maj. Lane, who was also bestowed with the somewhat cumbersome title “Engineer Emeritus and Builder of the Foundation of the Republic of Korea.”
He and eight other Korea Veterans who reside at the Perley Centre were awarded the Korean Ambassador for Peace medal.
A message from MPVA Minister Park Sung Choon reads: “The 49 million people of Korea send him 49 million wishes for a most happy birthday and many more warm and happy years to come.”
“My dad doesn’t quite know what to make of it all,” said his daughter. “But we’re all very proud and pleased for him.”
Even she seems a bit dazzled at the enthusiasm of the Koreans, issuing two commemorative stamps in her father’s likeness — one when he was a captain in the Second World War, the other a contemporary shot with his medals.
“You know, to us he was simply our dad,” she said. “He had no unpleasant memories of the army, didn’t live in the past, didn’t talk much about the war, simply got on with and got the most out of life.”
And now his likeness is on two 270 won stamps — about 24-cents, the cost of mailing a letter in Korea.
Vince Courtenay, publisher of koreavetnews.com and the only non-Korean on the Advisory Council of South Korea’s War Commemoration Committee, says choosing a Canadian soldier for the commemoration stamp “is an indication of the respect and gratitude Koreans feel for Canadian who helped save their country from becoming like North Korea.”
Monday, July 2, 2012
Ground broken for Korean War vets monument
From Cumberland TimesNews: Ground broken for Korean War vets monument
HAGERSTOWN — Local Korean War veterans say they felt a sense of urgency a few years ago when they started planning to build a monument to honor the men and women who served in that “forgotten’’ conflict.
“The Korean War veterans are rapidly becoming an endangered species as we are losing more than 900 Korean War veterans each day,’’ Korean War veteran Lew Ewing said Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the monument at Mealey Parkway in Hagerstown.
“If we the veterans who are still living today do not get it done now, memorials like this will never get built.’’
About 70 people, most of them members of Antietam Chapter 312 of the Korean War Veterans Association, gathered for the ceremony. Now in their 80s, some of the veterans walked with canes, while others wore oxygen masks and hearing aids.
Wayne Winebrenner, a past commander of the Antietam chapter and vice chairman of the organization’s monument committee, said after the ceremony that the project started as a dream in October 2010
He said the estimated cost of the monument was initially $70,000, but the veterans increased that amount to $100,000 to pay for maintenance after the memorial is finished about a year from now.
“We still need around in the neighborhood of $30,000,’’ Winebrenner said. “We want to put at least $30,000 in the bank to take care of it.’’
The Korean War — or “The Forgotten War’’ as it is sometimes called — started June 25, 1950, when communist forces from North Korea invaded South Korea.
Early in the fighting, South Korean soldiers were routed and driven into a small pocket of resistance until United Nations forces led by U.S. troops mounted a successful counterattack.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, 33,739 Americans died as the result of hostilities during the war, and 103,284 were wounded. Roughly 1.8 million Americans served in the Korean theater of operations.
Among other things, the 60 members of Antietam Chapter 312 award an annual $500 college scholarship and visit local schools to educate students about the war.
Several local dignitaries spoke at the groundbreaking, including Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II, Washington County Board of Commissioners President Terry Baker and state Del. John Donoghue, D-Washington.
Earlier, the veterans thanked city, county and state representatives for helping to scout sites for the monument and pledging tax dollars to supplement donations.
Donoghue told those in attendance that he remembered playing football as a child in the grassy island on Mealey Parkway, where the monument will be erected.
"I remember in high school there was a discussion in one of my classes about the different wars," Donoghue said. "We always heard about World War 1 and the Civil War and World War II, but you never heard much about the Korean War. And I distinctly remember a kid in my class saying that war didn't matter because it was only a conflict, and I remember saying to my dad: 'What's the difference between a war and a conflict?'"
Donoghue said his father told him the difference was that more than 30,000 Americans never came home from Korea.
"To this day, I always say to myself, 'It was not a conflict, it was a war,'" he said.
Charles Mobley, chairman of the monument committee, said after the ceremony that the veterans are trying to gather information about Washington County residents who never came home from the war. To their knowledge, the official count is 31.
He said people with information may call him at 301-733-0433.
HAGERSTOWN — Local Korean War veterans say they felt a sense of urgency a few years ago when they started planning to build a monument to honor the men and women who served in that “forgotten’’ conflict.
“The Korean War veterans are rapidly becoming an endangered species as we are losing more than 900 Korean War veterans each day,’’ Korean War veteran Lew Ewing said Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the monument at Mealey Parkway in Hagerstown.
“If we the veterans who are still living today do not get it done now, memorials like this will never get built.’’
About 70 people, most of them members of Antietam Chapter 312 of the Korean War Veterans Association, gathered for the ceremony. Now in their 80s, some of the veterans walked with canes, while others wore oxygen masks and hearing aids.
Wayne Winebrenner, a past commander of the Antietam chapter and vice chairman of the organization’s monument committee, said after the ceremony that the project started as a dream in October 2010
He said the estimated cost of the monument was initially $70,000, but the veterans increased that amount to $100,000 to pay for maintenance after the memorial is finished about a year from now.
“We still need around in the neighborhood of $30,000,’’ Winebrenner said. “We want to put at least $30,000 in the bank to take care of it.’’
The Korean War — or “The Forgotten War’’ as it is sometimes called — started June 25, 1950, when communist forces from North Korea invaded South Korea.
Early in the fighting, South Korean soldiers were routed and driven into a small pocket of resistance until United Nations forces led by U.S. troops mounted a successful counterattack.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, 33,739 Americans died as the result of hostilities during the war, and 103,284 were wounded. Roughly 1.8 million Americans served in the Korean theater of operations.
Among other things, the 60 members of Antietam Chapter 312 award an annual $500 college scholarship and visit local schools to educate students about the war.
Several local dignitaries spoke at the groundbreaking, including Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II, Washington County Board of Commissioners President Terry Baker and state Del. John Donoghue, D-Washington.
Earlier, the veterans thanked city, county and state representatives for helping to scout sites for the monument and pledging tax dollars to supplement donations.
Donoghue told those in attendance that he remembered playing football as a child in the grassy island on Mealey Parkway, where the monument will be erected.
"I remember in high school there was a discussion in one of my classes about the different wars," Donoghue said. "We always heard about World War 1 and the Civil War and World War II, but you never heard much about the Korean War. And I distinctly remember a kid in my class saying that war didn't matter because it was only a conflict, and I remember saying to my dad: 'What's the difference between a war and a conflict?'"
Donoghue said his father told him the difference was that more than 30,000 Americans never came home from Korea.
"To this day, I always say to myself, 'It was not a conflict, it was a war,'" he said.
Charles Mobley, chairman of the monument committee, said after the ceremony that the veterans are trying to gather information about Washington County residents who never came home from the war. To their knowledge, the official count is 31.
He said people with information may call him at 301-733-0433.
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