MERCER COUNTY — There’s a small triangle of grass at the Ohio-Pennsylvania line that exists so people remember the “forgotten war” fought 60 years ago in Korea.
Flags fly there and three stones commemorate those who served and those who died while fighting the Korean War. There are almost 500 names on the memorial there that was the dream of the Mercer County Korean War Veterans.
An unincorporated group oversaw the fundraising and construction of the memorial. It’s located in Shenango Township at the Ohio line just south of Oak Tree Country Club, a group that officially no longer exists.
About a dozen of the group’s members are still alive, George Saxion, the group’s secretary-treasurer, said.
A couple weeks ago members of the group asked for and sought Mercer County Common Pleas Court permission to dissolve, a move that Senior Judge John C. Reed granted.
“Gentlemen, thank you very much for your service,” the judge told Saxion and the group’s president Al Walker.
“I’ve been there many, many times,” Reed told the men.
The memorial was dedicated in 1999 after several years of fund-raising.
Since, it’s been the site of memorial services each June to honor those who served in the war.
During those services, a roll call of the 49 Mercer Countians who were either killed or remain missing in action for their service in the war, is read.
The war was fought from 1950 to 1953 between Communist North Korea and Democratic South Korea.
The forces in the South were aided by a United Nations coalition that was led by American in a fight that played out along the 38th parallel.
It ended in a stalemate on July 27, 1953, when an armistice between the Koreas was signed.
The local memorial was spearheaded by the group, which at its height counted about 40 members. In the last few years, their numbers have dwindled and Saxion said about 12 members remain.
Because of their shrinking ranks, the group sought Shenango Township’s help in 2010. Shenango Township supervisors agreed to maintain the memorial in perpetuity.
The group was officially disbanded by a court-order so it can donate about $5,000 left in its coffers to veterans organizations, William Moder, a Hermitage lawyer who volunteered to represent the group said.
The memorial will ensure that the war is remembered, Saxion said.
“It’s forgotten,” he said. “A lot of times you’ll hear somebody chronologically say World War I, World War II, Vietnam. What happened to the Korean War? So at least we have a county memorial for that remembrance.”
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