State ordered to compensate families of Korean War massacre victims

From Yonhap News: State ordered to compensate families of Korean War massacre victims 

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's government has been ordered to give financial compensation to the bereaved families of civilians massacred by South Korean troops during the 1950-53 Korean War, court officials said Tuesday.

   The Seoul Central District Court ruled the state must pay a total of 2.13 billion won ($2 million) to 173 plaintiffs whose family members were killed by the South Korean military during its search for armed communist partisans in the southwestern provinces of Jeolla between August 1950 and February 1951.

   The ruling came after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded its probe into the massacre and recommended the state apologize and compensate the victims' families in March 2009, 59 years after the mass killing.

   "Victims and their families suffered enormous mental pain due to the illegal execution of duty by soldiers at that time. Their rights for life and litigation were also violated," the Seoul court said.

   "But the amount of compensation has been determined in consideration of the unique inter-Korean circumstances." 

Staten Islander's POW/MIA flag stolen again, replaced again

From SILive:  Staten Islander's POW/MIA flag stolen again, replaced again

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For the second time in  just three months, Danny DiTonno’s POW/MIA flag was stolen from outside his Oakwood home. And replaced.


“They took the flag again for the second time. I don’t know the reason why. It’s a shame that someone has to do this,” said DiTonno, an 85-year-old World War II and Korean War veteran.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) and a contingent from the Allen F. Kivlehan Chapter of the Korean War Veterans of America, as well as property owner Dr. Paul Albicocco, presented DiTonno with a new flag.

Ms. Malliotakis, who replaced the banner back in July, made clear that the POW/MIA flag would be replaced no matter how many times it was taken.

“I’m sad and very disappointed that someone in our community would do this to a neighbor, especially a World War II and Korean War veteran,” she said. “I would like to take this person with me to Cuba to show them how my family there lives and perhaps then he would appreciate the democracy they enjoy thanks to the sacrifices of these veterans.”

Albiocco, who installed the flagpole for his tenant, DiTonno, said the repeat theft was “heartbreaking.”
“My nephew was deployed to Afghanistan yesterday,” he said. “It was sad to let him know that this incident happened again on the day of his deployment.”

 

Old Guard soldiers welcome Honor Flight Ohio

From DVIDS:  Old Guard soldiers welcome Honor Flight Ohio

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) gathered in Washington, D.C. to welcome Honor Flight Ohio to the World War II Memorial, Oct. 20.

The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization which transports veterans of past wars to their respective memorials in Washington, D.C.

“I’m very honored to be out here to spend time with these veterans,” said Spc. Parker Myers, infantryman, Honor Guard Company. “They have done more than I could ever imagine. It’s a sobering experience.”

Myers, a native of Wauseon, Ohio, added it was especially touching since these veterans were from his home state.

For many of the veterans, it was their first time visiting the memorial since returning home from the war.

“It’s breathtaking,” said Ernie Ratterman, who served as a military police officer in World War II. “I’m very glad that the soldiers were here to welcome us.”

During their visit, Old Guard soldiers laid a wreath to commemorate the veterans’ service. They also participated in a flag folding ceremony to honor a WWII veteran who never made it home from the war.

“This flag was the original flag that was folded at his funeral in the 1940’s,” said Sgt. Jonathan Thoits, infantryman, Honor Guard Company. “It meant a lot for me to be able to fold his flag here because he fought and died for our country in this war and he will never be able to see this memorial.”

Gene Imber, who served in the Korean War, was moved to tears as he described what it meant to see the soldiers honor a fallen comrade.

“It meant a lot,” said Gene Imber, before losing his words as he was overcome with emotion.

Imber visited the memorial with his twin brother Dean Imber, who also served in the Korean War. The Imbers agreed seeing the Old Guard’s presence there was humbling.

“I’m glad we have not been forgotten,” said Gene

Chesty Puller statue to be installed near Marine Corps museum

From Washington Post:  Chesty Puller statue to be installed near Marine Corps museum

TRIANGLE, Va. — The most decorated Marine in the Corps’ history is getting another honor.
Workers on Tuesday will install an eight-foot statue of Marine Corps legend Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller Tuesday outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, near Quantico.

 

Puller was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, and is the only Marine to be awarded five Navy crosses.
The statue is being donated by the Marine Corps League and will be formally dedicated next month.

 

Korean War crash site yields solace for grandchild

From TBO Online:  Korean War crash site yields solace for grandchild

TONJA ANDERSON-DELL

Alaska historian Doug Beckstead shows Tonja Anderson-Dell some debris from the crashed military plane.

TAMPA -- A Tampa woman on a quest to find the remains of her grandfather whose Air Force transport plane crashed and disappeared into an Alaska glacier 60 years ago made an emotional visit to the site last month.
Tonja Anderson-Dell saw firsthand where the glacier churned up the wreckage. She met and talked with the recovery crew, including Alaska National Guard Capt. Brian Keese, who first spotted parts of the wreckage on the Colony Glacier's surface from his Black Hawk helicopter in June.
"I've been dealing with this for so long, 14 years, and I was there and I was hearing everything they did to get those 52 men out of that glacier,'' Anderson-Dell said. "I had tears in my eyes."
Anderson-Dell viewed pieces of the Air Force C-124A Globetrotter and flew over the glacier where the debris emerged in June. The wreckage was swallowed by the grinding glacier after it crashed in 1952 and churned to the surface as the monster river of ice scraped its way down a mountainside.
It still could be months – maybe longer – before any of the remains are positively identified. The military still is trying to locate the descendants of five servicemen who died in the crash to complete its DNA databank.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), which searches out missing military personnel all over the Pacific Rim, has collected several crates of debris since June and some traces of human remains.
Speaking from her JPAC headquarters in Hawaii, Capt. Jamie Dobson said military units in Alaska are monitoring the glacier but no more debris likely will be recovered as winter moves in.
Not that being on the glacier in the summer is any less dangerous, she said, when recovery crews were there to collect what they could.
"There was a lot of shifting ice," she said.
The C-124A troop transport crashed into a mountain and slid into the glacier in November 1952, killing everyone aboard. A winter storm then blew in, making recovery efforts impossible. Months later, when the winter weather cleared, searchers went to the site but found that the glacier had swallowed the wreckage and remains.
Most of the 52 people aboard were servicemen bound for Korea. The dead include Anderson-Dell's grandfather, Isaac Anderson, a 21-year-old Tampa man who had been in the Air Force for not quite a year-and-a-half.

He left behind a 20-year-old wife, Dorothy, and 18-month old son, Isaac Jr., who 41 years ago, fathered Tonja.
The debris surfaced 12 miles from the crash site, about 40 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska. Since June, members of the Alaska National Guard have volunteered their time to look for and collect debris that surfaced. Each training flight in the area is instructed to swing by the glacier to see if any more debris has emerged, Dobson said.
Eight large crates of debris have been collected since June, she said.
"They found wallets and Social Security cards," she said. "They found a lifeboat in a bag and instructions on how to fish for the people who had never fished before. There was a manual on Morse code and they showed me the navigator's charting manual.''
Searchers also found a mailbag and large pieces of the plane itself.
Anderson-Dell's quest began more than a dozen years ago when she got the go-ahead from her grandmother, Dorothy, to research the crash. Her grandmother died in 2001, a year before the Air Force presented a flag to the Anderson family at MacDill Air Force Base.
In the beginning, Anderson-Dell believed she was the only relative asking about the plane. She built a Facebook page and began contacting families of other victims. Together, they are keeping track of progress.
She said a memorial is scheduled sometime next year at the nearby Alaska National Guard base, and she plans to return for that.

 

Korean War Veterans Dinner interview

Below is a video that you can only see on a computer:

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Korean War veteran, son, share Honor Flight experience

From Press-Citizen.com:  Korean War veteran, son, share Honor Flight experience

Kenneth Gerard never had a homecoming ceremony when he returned from the Korean War.
Tuesday night, he finally received a fitting reception.
Gerard and his son, Alan, were among the veterans who stepped off a plane at the Eastern Iowa Airport to hundreds of cheering, flag-waving friends and family members. The Iowa City men took part in an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., where they toured the nation’s war memorials and reflected on their years in the service.
Eastern Iowa Honor Flight formed two years ago with the goal of providing free trips for World War II veterans to visit their memorial, but as the number of living serviceman from that era dwindles, the organization now is filling the flights with an increasing number of Korean War vets.
Eighty-two veterans and their guardians left Cedar Rapids early Tuesday morning for the day-long trip, and about a third were Korean War veterans, said George Rickey, the public relations coordinator for Eastern Iowa Honor Flight.
“Unfortunately we’ve been playing beat the clock with Father Time with World War II veterans,” said Rickey, of Iowa City. “They’ve been passing on at such a great rate we’ve opened it up to other veterans.”
Since 2010, Eastern Iowa Honor Flight — the local branch of a national network — has taken 809 veterans to the capital at no cost, including four flights in 2012. When the next flight leaves from Cedar Rapids in the spring, Rickey expects there to be even more Korean War veterans, though volunteers with the organization continue to give presentations at retirement homes and work with area veterans offices to identify remaining World War II vets.
“I have a sneaking hunch that going forward the percentage is going to shift to predominately Korean War,” Rickey said.
For Kenneth Gerard, 77, a veteran of what has been called the Forgotten War, it was a day to look back on the 15 months he spent in Korea in the mid-1950s. The emotional trip was capped at the airport, where the father of four and grandfather to 10 was greeted by a group of family members — a moment he described as “unbelievable.”
“He’s pretty much a quiet guy anyway,” said Kenneth’s son, Alan, 47, a longtime Army reservist who served in Iraq from 2004-06. “He never talked about his service much growing up. All I remember is seeing it in a photo album. ... I think his generation was pretty quiet about it. I know he didn’t get any homecoming, so this was pretty much his homecoming at the airport.”
In 1954, knowing that being drafted was inevitable, Kenneth joined up with the Army a few months before his number was to be called so he wouldn’t have to attend basic training in the winter. He trained at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and Fort Belvoir in Virginia before being deployed with an engineering outfit to an Air Force base in Korea. After the war, he founded Gerard Electric in Iowa City.
Gerard said his time in Korea, which came several months after the armistice had been signed and the fighting had ceased, was unremarkable. Still, he said visiting the Korean War Memorial, along with several other monuments Tuesday, brought back memories from the service.
“Being with the other men, and being with my son” were the highlights of the whirlwind visit, said Gerard. “And I got to meet some older soldiers.”
While there is no Iraq War memorial in Washington, D.C., Alan Gerard, who was with the reserves for 24 years, said the trip was meaningful for him, as well.
“It means a lot to me just for the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m going to be six feet under by the time they build a memorial for my war,” he laughed.
Perhaps the most moving moment, though, came Wednesday for Kenneth Gerard. On the flight back from Washington, the veterans were given an envelope full of letters written by their loved ones, but Gerard had forgotten his reading glasses.
The next morning, when he had a chance to sit down and read the letters from his children and all 10 grandchildren, who are now grown, he choked back tears.
“It’s very emotional,” he said. “I didn’t expect that.”

Veterans of the Forgotten War Recieve Honors

From KCRG:  Veterans of the Forgotten War Recieve Honors

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa-- It was over 60 years ago that many men and women joined the military forces in order to help with a country struggling with poverty and war.

But the Forgotten War was not forgotten today in Cedar Falls as over 320 Iowa veterans received peace medals for serving during the Korean war.

The room was full of memories and remorse for those who served their country in the Korean War.

"We lost a lot of them over there, I can't remember the exact number but I think we lost 8,000 that were never identified. " Said Sid Morris, Korean War Veterans Association.

A country struggling with poverty, freedom and war in the 1950's, brought back to prosperity with the help of the United States.
"I learned it was not a good p-lace to be, I felt sorry for the South Korean people…they took a lot of abuse over the war." Said Donald Ackman, South Korean War Veteran.

More than 320 Iowa Veterans received a peace medal for their efforts through this war.

"Really honored, It's a great honor to be honored by somebody, that doesn't come easy being a Marine. " Said Ackman.

Donald Ackman was 23 years old when he went to South Korea to fight for his countries freedom as a member of the Marine Corps.
"I was a radio operator, jeep driver, whatever the officer told me to do, I would do that." Said Ackman.

A time in his life Ackman will never forget will now be remembered with a new Peace Medal.

The Peace Medal Presentation was sponsored by the Consulate of Korea in Chicago, UNI, Korean War Veterans Association, The Korean American Society of Iowa and Midland Korean Southern Baptist Fellowship.

Basil Plumley, Army veteran of 3 wars, dies at 92

From CNN :  Basil Plumley, Army veteran of 3 wars, dies at 92

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley, who fought in some of the U.S. Army's bloodiest battles in three wars, died Wednesday in Columbus, Georgia. He was 92.

Plumley saw action in some of the largest battles of World War II, including the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Salerno in Italy and Operation Market Garden.
He then fought in the Korean War, but it was his role in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam that brought him the most fame. The battle was chronicled in the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," which was later a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson. Sam Elliott played Plumley.
The National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia, tweeted a picture of Elliot and Plumley in noting the veteran's death.
Plumley, along with Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, led the Army's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in the November 1965 battle that saw 450 U.S. forces face off against 2,000 troops from the North Vietnamese army in the first major engagement between the two armies. More than 230 U.S. troops were killed.
Plumley was at Landing Zone X-Ray, where 79 U.S. troops died.
"That was a long day. I was the second one in and next to the last to leave," Plumley was quoted as saying by The Bayonet in 2010 when he donated a large print of himself and Moore in Vietnam to the National Infantry Museum.
"Command Sgt. Maj. Plumley was a true American hero who spent much of his life placing his nation and its greatest ideals ahead of his own well-being," Maj. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, said in a statement Wednesday. "He served with great valor and distinction in three wars and continued to mentor soldiers and leaders well after his retirement from active duty. The command sergeant major touched countless lives in his more than 30 years in the Army."
Plumley joined the Army on March 31, 1942, and retired on December 31, 1974.
His Army awards included the Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster and the Bronze Star with one oak leaf cluster.
At a reunion of Ia Drang veterans this year in Columbus, Plumley talked about the troops he helped lead, according to a report on the U.S. Army's website.
"That battalion was the best trained, in good physical shape and most disciplined that I've ever seen," he said. "We did real hard training at Fort Benning before we went into X-Ray. … But that battalion was made up of hard, disciplined, well-trained and well-commanded soldiers who didn't give a damn how rough their training is as long as you're fair about it. I was glad to have been a member of it."

 

Memories, emotions come flooding back for area veterans of Vietnam, Korea and World War II

From Sedalia Democrat:  Memories, emotions come flooding back for area veterans of Vietnam, Korea and World War II

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Robert Vaughan, of Green Ridge, shook his head in disbelief as he looked through the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
“I have a piece of paper here that’s got 24 names on it. Twenty died that we know of. Four were listed as missing in action, and one was captured. We know he was captured, but I don’t know if he ever got to come home. I’m going to look on the wall for all these guys,” he said.
Vaughan was one of 29 Vietnam veterans, along with seven Korean War and four World War II veterans, who made the trip to Washington, D.C., with Show Me Honor Flight.
The group of men and their escorts gathered at 3 a.m. in downtown Sedalia to begin the 22-hour journey. Emotions were high, and their reasons for coming varied.
“The major reason I came was I wanted to find the friends that I lost over there, but I didn’t find them on the wall. I was pushing one of the World War II veterans. That was more important to me than finding them. I’ll come back again sometime with my wife,” said Ralph Elsea, of Sedalia, a truck driver and firefighter during the Vietnam War.
Johnnie Holem, a World War II veteran from Stover, initially didn’t want to go on the trip. However, seven of his friends from church went on the Honor Flight last spring. They invited him to attend the reception, and he changed his mind.
“It put tears in my eyes. It’s been a day I will never forget for the rest of my life,” he said. “To associate with the people who were on that aircraft and for these folks to treat us like they have —  it’s awesome.”
For others like Wayne Maxwell, of Windsor, this was a very personal trip. He wanted to see the Vietnam memorial with other Vietnam veterans. He got the added bonus of making the trek with his daughter, Brenda Tylar. His mission was to locate Windsor classmates William Patrick Kelly and Roy Bradley Boyd on the wall.
“It’s really hard when you go to school with them,” Maxwell said. “In the summertime, I’d go out to Boyd’s mom and dad’s house. There would be about five to six of us that were in the same class. We’d go swimming in the pond. His mom always had milk and cookies for us. We were all real close.”
Boyd, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, was killed on March 29, 1969, from enemy small arms fire.
Both Glen Glidewell, of Sedalia, and Dwight Nutting, of Waynesville, had seen the traveling Vietnam Wall but had never been to the monument in the nation’s capital.
“This will be my first time for all of the (war memorials). It will be a privilege to see them,” Nutting said. “That’s one of the things with vets, you know, they have something in common. You can talk about it.” He served in the infantry on two tours in Vietnam and was hit with shrapnel 16 times during his service.
Glidewell felt he was prepared for the trip.
“I had visited the small wall, so I was pretty well braced for it. But this place right here (Arlington Cemetery), it stirred me,” he said.
Vaughan kept to himself while he viewed the wall. He was an engineer in the Navy who did welding on the catapults on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. An explosion took place one night on the ship, and he had to help drag the men out of the water and put them in body bags.
“I’ve never seen anything like that. It kind of bothered me for a while, because one guy, he was with me. He was an electrician. He would help me while I was up there doing the catapults. He had to made sure the wiring was all dead while I was up there welding. Then after I’d get it done, he would turn it all back on,” he said.
Two of the men who were killed were married and had just become fathers. One had a son and was upset because of the name his wife gave him.
“My wife named him after me, of all things. Why didn’t she name him something else instead of a junior?”
Vaughan joked with him and said when he had another son, he could name him whatever he wanted. When he was killed, Vaughan thought “oh my God.”
Some of the Vietnam veterans are still questioning whether their buddies survived the war or not. The reason is the men tended to know each other by nicknames instead of their real names.
Dean Eichenberger, of Saverton, was looking for his buddy “Jay.” Eichenberger was injured when he was sprayed with shrapnel from a B-40 rocket. He sustained injuries to his head, shoulders, chest and leg. After he was hit, he was nicknamed “Rocketman.” When he inquired about Jay, he was told his lower jaw was blown off and he was sent to Japan.
“There’s a chance he made it. They sent him right to Japan where they did like reconstructive surgery,” he said, but he doesn’t know for sure. Even though he didn’t know his real name, he searched for him on the wall.
Vietnam veteran Army combat engineer H.D. Fischer, of Sedalia, admitted he was kind of scared at first to go on the trip because he lost a lot of friends. He was glad he was able to locate all of them on the wall and pay his respects.
Show Me Honor Flight is the first hub in the nation to take Korean and Vietnam veterans to see the war memorials. Tuesday marked their 10th flight. Veterans visited the World War II and Korean War Memorials, the Vietnam Wall and Arlington Cemetery. They were not only greeted at the airport in Baltimore, they were welcomed home by about 100 people in downtown Sedalia.
“It’s brought back a lot of memories. We’ve told a lot of war stories, heard a lot of war stories, but it’s brought tears to my eyes,” Holem said.
“It’s not only the idea of coming here, but the idea when you meet all of these guys,” said Vietnam veteran Larry Parker, of Sedalia. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the guys that we lost and the guys that I know.”
The next Honor Flight will be in the spring of 2013.

 

South Korean Navy Band to play for veterans in Cerritos

From Contra Costa Times:  South Korean Navy Band to play for veterans in Cerritos 





CERRITOS -- The South Korean Navy Band will offer a free concert Monday for Korean War veterans.
The free concert will take place at 7 p.m. at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, but public tickets are unavailable. Stand-by tickets, however, are available before the concert.
Korean War Veterans will make a special entrance at the concert, which also will feature Korean traditional and pop music, Tae kwon do demonstrations and a color guard presentation.
In July 2010, representatives from the South Korean Navy visited Cerritos to honor Korean War veterans for their service. Also at that time, the South Korean Navy Band performed a concert at the Cerritos Center.
The South Korean Navy Band's appearance this

The Korean naval destroyer Chungmugong Yisunshin, and its support ship, Daecheong, are parked at Berth 51 in the Port of Los Angels as part of it's 2012 Cruise Training Task Group mission. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)

year is part of a Los Angeles visit by the South Korean Navy's Cruise Training Task Group, their 10th visit since 1980. The South Korean Navy will hold receptions Sunday and Monday onboard two of its ships, the ROK Chungmugong Yi Sun Shin and ROK Dae Chung, that will be docked at the Port of Los Angeles.

Want to go?

What: Korean War veterans concert
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive
Tickets: Stand-by tickets available before the concert
Information: Kiyong Ma, 562-404-0110 or 213-435-0110 

Korea says thanks to U.S. war veterans

From Green Valley News:  Korea says thanks to U.S. war veterans


By the time Green Valley residents Joe and Carolyn Clark were invited by the Korean government to attend an appreciation ceremony for war veterans, they knew something of what it was about.
Likening the trip to Honor Flight, which takes World War II military veterans to Washington, D.C., to see their memorial, the Clarks have known other vets who’ve attended the ceremonies funded by the Korean government dating to 2000 — the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. A friend who attended an early one told the Clarks, “You’re going to find out what it’s like to be treated like royalty,” Carolyn said.

Little did they know.

It’d been a lifetime since Joe was in Korea — 1951 to be exact. A U.S. Marine since 1947, he’d been called to serve as a gunner/mortarman in an escalating war against Communist rule.

The war, and specifically the Chosin Reservoir campaign, is still mentioned in history books but is better detailed by those who were there. They faced impossible odds, leaders who miscalculated the enemy’s cunning, Korea’s worst weather in 100 years — and they were outnumbered more than 10 to one by the Chinese. No one foresaw the bitter cold that killed many, ravaged limbs with frostbite, caused weapons to malfunction, vehicle batteries to fail, and rendered medical supplies useless. The steep, mountain roads were slick with ice and frost too hard to dig foxholes. A hot meal could freeze between the chow line and finding a place to sit and eat.

“We were poorly prepared with no winter clothes,” Jim recalled. “We had field jackets and boondockers (ankle-high work boots) with canvas leggings. We got the Army’s hand-me-downs. I went ashore and was handed a rifle I’d never fired.”

The fighting begins

Joe was a corporal with a fire team of four men.

“Once we got into real fighting, people were subtracted quite rapidly, then they started bringing in cooks, truck divers, third-echelon Marines sent through Japan.”

On arriving, the Marines encountered other military and United Nations forces of Greeks, Turks, British and South Koreans, Joe said.

“We tried to have at least one English-speaking Korean per platoon. What it depended on how close you were going to be to the fight.”

Following a grueling two weeks in the Taebaek Mountains and around Chosin Reservoir, now know by its Korean name Changjin, Allied Forces were finally ordered to withdraw the horrific conditions under which thousands were killed in battle or perished in the cold. Joe was among the few survivors able to hike 79 miles back to port where he was put on a stretcher and hoisted aboard the hospital ship Constellation.

His hands and feet were frozen, his arms and legs pierced by shrapnel and he suffered from blood poisoning. The more seriously injured were slowly trucked to the ship over rough, frosty terrain.  They were all brought aboard and would come to be called the Chosin Few.

As the Constellation made its way out of the east Korean port on the Sea of Japan, the Allies bombed the harbor to prevent the enemy Chinese from overtaking it. The billowing clouds of thick smoke are still vivid in Joe’s mind. In his home library is a “Pictorial History of the Korean War,” published by the Veterans of Foreign Wars that bring it all into focus in stark black and white.

After about six weeks recuperating in Japan, Joe was sent back to Korea in early March 1951.

“They never let us go back across the 38th Parallel,” he said, referring to the military demarcation that still splits the Korean peninsula roughly in half. To this day, the line separates North, which no longer calls itself Communist but a “single-party state,” and the South, Republic of Korea.

Back home

Joe then got orders to return stateside and arrived back in Michigan in November. His family knew some of what the Chosin soldiers had experienced from headlines in American newspapers, but those quickly subsided. He came through San Francisco and was surprised to see society ignoring the returning troops. 

“We were like the guys from Vietnam. There was no parade.”

Now called The Forgotten War by many, Korea is but a fading memory for survivors, and virtually unknown to younger generations, Joe said.

Shortly before Christmas 1951, he was met at the rail station by his father and father-in-law. He went to work the following Monday.

“People were tired of World War II, which had just ended in 1945,” he said. “The Korean War wasn’t over yet, there was no clear victory. A resolution was still hanging at armistice, and the country was still divided.”

Soldiers were still stunned over military decisions based on low-ball enemy counts that resulted in thousands of bloody deaths. 

“We knew they (Chinese) were there,” Joe said. 

Many vets also bristled at references to the eventual decision by military leaders to withdraw being categorized a “retreat,” a cowardly term in Marine vernacular.

On returning to the states, Joe entered training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he stayed five months. He was offered the chance to remain in the service, but says “my wife at the time helped decide. Stay and it would mean divorce. She’d had enough.”

So Joe went home to Michigan and entered police work, making it his life’s career first in Detroit, then with the Roscommon County (Mich.) Sheriff’s Department.

Joe is now 83 and long retired from police work. His children are grown and he survived a bout of cancer three years ago. He and Carolyn now live in Arizona because, unlike Chosin, it’s not cold.

He hasn’t shared much about the war — it was 10 years into their marriage before he mentioned anything, Carolyn said. Even after 61 years, he gets emotional. But after a trip back to the 38th Parallel during the couple’s visit to Korea last month, Joe is impressed with what the country has become.

A new Korea

The modern Korea is an economic force, clean, rebuilt, respectful, well-educated. Its people seem to genuinely appreciate what the Allied Forces did. Nearly 100,000 refugees left with the troops, escaping communist tyranny. When Joe left, the place had been leveled.

“They can’t say thank you enough,” he said. “My only regret is that we didn’t finish it, it is still an act of war. The South Koreans live in fear every day of the Chinese and the North Koreans coming back.”

Carolyn added, “I think they’re afraid Americans won’t help them.”

While there, the Clarks met people from all over the U.S., about 300 veterans, relatives and companions.  They filled five buses, which took them on daily tours, furnished meals and hotel stays, all at government expense.

“They’re selling Korea, no doubt about it,” Joe said.

The Clarks were impressed. Traveling with them were medical personnel, ambulances and four big, young men to help the aging veterans on and off.

“They wouldn’t take tips,” Joe said.

At a school visit on Sunday, children sang, played, danced and most touching, presented personally written letters and artwork to each veteran. Some even joined veterans on buses. As the entourage rolled through town sporting Korean War veteran banners, people on the streets waved and gave “thumbs up,” Joe said.

They visited the U.S. Veterans monument and Korean Veterans Memorial in Seoul, and the 38th Parallel, where guards still watch over a 30-mile stretch of the Han River, armed ones on the north side. On the last day, veterans were given “Ambassador of Peace” awards by retired Gen. Se Hwan Park at a banquet. The weeklong visits were sponsored by the Korean Veterans Association and the Patriot and Veterans Affairs, Republic of Korea.

The Forgotten War shouldn’t be, Joe said. He’d like to see the missing in action returned.

“There are three places I know of that are well-marked on maps where we dropped the dead. The graves were marked so they could be found. We constantly try.”

Due to the dwindling attendance at Chosin reunions and the inability for many vets to travel, survivor chapters including Arizona’s may be closed soon.

“They’re running out of guys like me,” Joe said. Korea is now inviting descendents of Korean War vets to visit the country. Anyone who gets the chance should go, the couple says.

 

Procession brings fallen soldier Williams home

From the Meadville Tribune: Procession brings fallen soldier Williams home

MEADVILLE — It’s why persons said they turned out Friday afternoon — either along the streets or at the Robert W. Waid Funeral Home — to honor U.S. Army Sgt. Chester L. Williams, a Korean War veteran, as his remains were brought to Meadville.

Williams, who grew up at Conneaut Lake, was 32 when he was reported missing in action in Korea on Dec. 6, 1950. Williams died of exposure in a North Korean prison camp in late December 1950.

“I just thought it was important to be here,” said Robert Catalano of Meadville, who watched the police-escorted procession go by along Chestnut Street with his wife, Dianna Catalano.

“It’s to show respect,” said Dianna Catalano.

John Camp of Meadville isn’t a military veteran, but said he just felt the need to turn out.

“I didn’t know this man, but it’s bringing home a vet,” he said of why he rode in the public processional.

Camp and Richard Rodgers were part of the more than 60-motorcycle public processional that escorted Williams’ remains along Interstate 79 to the funeral home in preparation for the weekend burial with full military honors.

“It’s out of respect,” said Richard Rodgers of Linesville, a member of Guardian Vets Motorcycle Club, a veterans motorcycle club.

Once the processional arrived at the funeral home, an honor guard of pallbearers from Veterans of the Vietnam War Post 52 bore the remains into the funeral home. Williams will be buried Sunday at 2 p.m. in Greendale Cemetery, Meadville — more than 60 years after he was declared missing in action.

Soldier’s last days

Williams came up missing when he was part of the 31st Regimental Combat Team, known as “Task Force Faith,” that was fighting in North Korea, according to Maj. Carie Parker, spokeswoman for Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

The unit was advancing along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in late November 1950, when it came under attack, Parker said. Task Force Faith began a fighting withdrawal to positions near Hagaru-ri, south of the reservoir, but during the withdrawal Williams went missing, Parker said.

In 1953, returning Americans who had been held as prisoners of war reported Williams had been captured by Chinese forces and died in December 1950 as a result of exposure to the elements, Parker said.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the U.S. 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200 to 400 U.S. service members. North Korean documents, turned over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the human remains were recovered from the area where Williams was last seen, according to Parker.

In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as radiograph, dental records and mitochondrial DNA, which matched Williams’ nephew and grand-nephew, she said.
Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials, according to the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit online at dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

the funeral with full military honors for Sgt. Chester L. Williams took place  on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Greendale Cemetery, Meadville.