From Buffalo News.com: Seeking a VFW post of their own
African-American military veterans could use a place of their own, a place where they feel honored, a place where they are not forgotten.
That sentiment—and the fact that most veterans posts are located in the suburbs—has prompted Army veteran Sandi Williams to spearhead an effort to start a Veterans of Foreign Wars post on the East Side of Buffalo “particularly for minorities.”
“When they return home from war, there’s really nowhere for them to go. I’m trying to make one accessible to them in the inner city,” said Williams, who served in South Korea for one year, Germany for three and then at Fort Hood, Texas.
The new post will be open to all eligible war veterans regardless of race or gender, but it will focus predominantly on the needs of African- Americans.
Only two African-American-focused veterans posts exist in Buffalo, both on the East Side. Both are American Legion posts—Bennett- Wells Post 1780 and Jesse Clipper Post 430.
The city’s only black VFW post —Private Fleming Post 8747— turned in its charter in the late 1980s.
“It used to be on Jefferson and Riley, but they died out,” said Williams, who is a member of four veterans organizations: Dorothy Kubik/ Katherine Galloway Post 12097, the state’s first predominantly female VFW post; Korean War Veterans Association Chapter 63; Bennett-Wells Post 1780 on East Delavan Avenue, where she is first vice commander; and the Disabled American Veterans Roll of Honor 120.
Helping Williams get the ball rolling on an East Side VFW post is Bing C. Reaves Sr.,a member of Pennington-Moye Post 9251, Buffalo Soldiers in Rochester. A certified national recruiter, Reaves will attend an informational meeting here Jan. 21 on the planned East Side VFW post.
“Sometimes you have to have someone from your own community to say I’m just like you, someone who knows about you and your needs,” Reaves said.
The post will be named in honor of two African-American veterans from Buffalo: Evelyn W. Jones and Nathaniel Clifford Jones Jr., who are not related, Williams said.
Evelyn Jones, who died in 2010, was a retired registered nurse and lieutenant colonel who served in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 1991. She was a life member of VFW Post 463 in Depew, where she served as commander for two years.
Nathaniel Jones was a seaman apprentice in the Navy who was killed in the turret explosion on board the USS Iowa on April 19, 1989. He had just turned 22. His uniform, a picture of him and other items are on display in a memo-rial to him at the Buffalo&Erie County Naval and Military Park museum. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
His mother, Georgian Davis, a member of American Gold Star Mothers, has served as a past chapter president, a past president for New York State and a past national officer.
“He was very proud of the battleship he was on,” Davis said of her son. “I’m very honored that my son will be remembered.”
The Jan. 21 informational meeting will be at noon in Pvt. Leonard Post Jr. Post 6251, VFW, 2450 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Grace under fire: true story of a real war horse
From My San Antonio: Grace under fire: true story of a real war horse
War Horse, the just-released Steven Spielberg film and Tony-winning play, were based on a children's fiction book, but Korean War veteran Harold Wadley has seen a true war horse. She was Reckless, a little sorrel mare purchased by a Marine to pack ammunition to the front line and carry the wounded back to safety. But here's the thing: She did it on her own. And she kept climbing those hills even after she was hit by shrapnel.
"As long as I live, I will never forget that image of Reckless against the skyline, her silhouette in the flare lights," said Wadley, 78, by phone from his ranch in St. Maries, Idaho. "It was just unbelievable, in all that intense fire, in the middle of this chaos. I said, 'Dad gum, that's that mare!' "
Known as Flame in her former racehorse career, the mare was renamed in honor of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon of the 5th Marines, her new home.
In one hellish battle in March 1953, Reckless made 51 trips from an ammunition-supply point to forward gun sites, carrying a total of 386 rounds (more than 9,000 pounds of explosives). The trails were rutted and winding, sometimes at a steep 45-degree angle.
She also once served as a shield for four Marines working their way up to an embattled foxhole. She had been taught to step over communication lines and barbed wire, and to lower her head when the shelling became intense.
Still, Wadley said, he feared for her life.
"I saw her about three or four times that night, and I figured she'd end up dead," he said. "I never thought she'd survive."
But survive she did, and word of her heroism spread. She was given the rank of corporal and earned two Purple Hearts and other citations. She got rock-star treatment in newsreels and the Saturday Evening Post.
After the Korean truce, the Marines refused to leave her behind. She was flown to Japan, then boarded a ship to San Francisco. There, she was greeted by several of the men whose lives she had touched.
She retired at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, and by 1959 was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant, an honor never bestowed on an animal before or since.
She died in 1968, and a marker still stands at the post stables.
Robin Hutton read about Reckless five years ago in Chicken Soup for the Horse Lovers' Soul and today leads efforts to bring her story to a new generation. She has commissioned a statue and has visions of a replica at Pendleton and the U.S. Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va.
"Really, I'd like to see statues of this little horse everywhere," Hutton, of Ventura, Calif., said. "What she did was amazing."
War Horse, the just-released Steven Spielberg film and Tony-winning play, were based on a children's fiction book, but Korean War veteran Harold Wadley has seen a true war horse. She was Reckless, a little sorrel mare purchased by a Marine to pack ammunition to the front line and carry the wounded back to safety. But here's the thing: She did it on her own. And she kept climbing those hills even after she was hit by shrapnel.
"As long as I live, I will never forget that image of Reckless against the skyline, her silhouette in the flare lights," said Wadley, 78, by phone from his ranch in St. Maries, Idaho. "It was just unbelievable, in all that intense fire, in the middle of this chaos. I said, 'Dad gum, that's that mare!' "
Known as Flame in her former racehorse career, the mare was renamed in honor of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon of the 5th Marines, her new home.
In one hellish battle in March 1953, Reckless made 51 trips from an ammunition-supply point to forward gun sites, carrying a total of 386 rounds (more than 9,000 pounds of explosives). The trails were rutted and winding, sometimes at a steep 45-degree angle.
She also once served as a shield for four Marines working their way up to an embattled foxhole. She had been taught to step over communication lines and barbed wire, and to lower her head when the shelling became intense.
Still, Wadley said, he feared for her life.
"I saw her about three or four times that night, and I figured she'd end up dead," he said. "I never thought she'd survive."
But survive she did, and word of her heroism spread. She was given the rank of corporal and earned two Purple Hearts and other citations. She got rock-star treatment in newsreels and the Saturday Evening Post.
After the Korean truce, the Marines refused to leave her behind. She was flown to Japan, then boarded a ship to San Francisco. There, she was greeted by several of the men whose lives she had touched.
She retired at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, and by 1959 was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant, an honor never bestowed on an animal before or since.
She died in 1968, and a marker still stands at the post stables.
Robin Hutton read about Reckless five years ago in Chicken Soup for the Horse Lovers' Soul and today leads efforts to bring her story to a new generation. She has commissioned a statue and has visions of a replica at Pendleton and the U.S. Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va.
"Really, I'd like to see statues of this little horse everywhere," Hutton, of Ventura, Calif., said. "What she did was amazing."
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Young faces of an old war: Unearthed photos of the Korean War show what the three-year conflict really looked like
Check out Life magazine to see the photos.
From Daily Mail Online: Young faces of an old war: Unearthed photos of the Korean War show what the three-year conflict really looked like
The formal end of the war in Iraq earlier this month brings nine years of fighting in the country to a close. The images of war for much of the past decade have been largely filled with the sand of the Middle East.
But because of recently-released photos of the Korean War, the public can now visit a past battlefield from the past.
LIFE magazine published a collection of never-before-seen photos from the front lines of the three-year conflict that resulted in around 700,000 deaths.
Tensions in the region lingered after the Cold War, and the peninsula was divided on the 38th parallel.
The North turned Communist in 1948- which they have remained since- and the emotional and philosophical conflicts between the two countries turned physical on June 25, 1950.
In keeping with existing treaties that said that the United Nations would defend the South if they were attacked, and China and America were the biggest contributors of troops.
As a result, America- and all of the allies- paid a high toll for the fight in terms of human life. They lost 36,516 troops by the year the war ended in 1953.
The United Kingdom was the only European contributor and they lost 1,109 troops. Nearby Turkey lost 721 troops and the Canadians lost 516 troops. Australia
The biggest ally victim was China who LIFE estimates lost anywhere between 200,000 and 400,000 soldiers during the conflict.
Of those directly involved in the conflict, the North had more fatalities than the South, with each country loosing 215,000 and 137,899 respectively.
Many of the shots released by LIFE were done by the magazine's star photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.
Ms Bourke-White was the magazine's first female journalist and her photo was the one that graced the inaugural issue in 1936.
In a rare move, one of the pictures even shows Ms Bourke-White interacting with her subjects, giving the viewer a sense of what the relationships on the front lines were really like.
From Daily Mail Online: Young faces of an old war: Unearthed photos of the Korean War show what the three-year conflict really looked like
The formal end of the war in Iraq earlier this month brings nine years of fighting in the country to a close. The images of war for much of the past decade have been largely filled with the sand of the Middle East.
But because of recently-released photos of the Korean War, the public can now visit a past battlefield from the past.
LIFE magazine published a collection of never-before-seen photos from the front lines of the three-year conflict that resulted in around 700,000 deaths.
Tensions in the region lingered after the Cold War, and the peninsula was divided on the 38th parallel.
The North turned Communist in 1948- which they have remained since- and the emotional and philosophical conflicts between the two countries turned physical on June 25, 1950.
In keeping with existing treaties that said that the United Nations would defend the South if they were attacked, and China and America were the biggest contributors of troops.
As a result, America- and all of the allies- paid a high toll for the fight in terms of human life. They lost 36,516 troops by the year the war ended in 1953.
The United Kingdom was the only European contributor and they lost 1,109 troops. Nearby Turkey lost 721 troops and the Canadians lost 516 troops. Australia
The biggest ally victim was China who LIFE estimates lost anywhere between 200,000 and 400,000 soldiers during the conflict.
Of those directly involved in the conflict, the North had more fatalities than the South, with each country loosing 215,000 and 137,899 respectively.
Many of the shots released by LIFE were done by the magazine's star photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.
Ms Bourke-White was the magazine's first female journalist and her photo was the one that graced the inaugural issue in 1936.
In a rare move, one of the pictures even shows Ms Bourke-White interacting with her subjects, giving the viewer a sense of what the relationships on the front lines were really like.
S. Korea to increase overseas development aid next year
From Yonhap News Agency: S. Korea to increase overseas development aid next year
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government said Monday that it will increase next year's budget for aid projects for developing countries by 12 percent as part of efforts to return what it had received from the international community to rebuild its war-torn economy decades ago.
A total of 1.9 trillion won (US$1.64 billion), or 0.15 percent of the country's gross national income, will be earmarked next year for the country's official development aid (ODA), according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
It is up from this year's 1.7 trillion won, or 0.13 percent of the country's total income.
The move is part of the country's efforts to double its international development aid to about US$3 billion by 2015 to give back after receiving help from the international community. With the help of international aid, the country has risen from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War to become a vibrant democracy within the ranks of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
While the ODA is designed to help underdeveloped countries across the world establish economic and industrial infrastructure, Seoul's assistance next year will be funneled mainly into the education, health, and green growth, the PMO added.
"To raise effectiveness of the country's aid with increased funds, the government needs to devise customized projects for each recipient while boosting cooperation among relevant departments," Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said.
"We also need to devise follow-up measures to put 'the Busan Declaration' into practice," he added, citing the fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness held in the South Korean port city early this month, where policymakers from about 160 countries agreed to establish a new worldwide partnership to seek better ways to spend annual development aid.
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government said Monday that it will increase next year's budget for aid projects for developing countries by 12 percent as part of efforts to return what it had received from the international community to rebuild its war-torn economy decades ago.
A total of 1.9 trillion won (US$1.64 billion), or 0.15 percent of the country's gross national income, will be earmarked next year for the country's official development aid (ODA), according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
It is up from this year's 1.7 trillion won, or 0.13 percent of the country's total income.
The move is part of the country's efforts to double its international development aid to about US$3 billion by 2015 to give back after receiving help from the international community. With the help of international aid, the country has risen from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War to become a vibrant democracy within the ranks of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
While the ODA is designed to help underdeveloped countries across the world establish economic and industrial infrastructure, Seoul's assistance next year will be funneled mainly into the education, health, and green growth, the PMO added.
"To raise effectiveness of the country's aid with increased funds, the government needs to devise customized projects for each recipient while boosting cooperation among relevant departments," Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said.
"We also need to devise follow-up measures to put 'the Busan Declaration' into practice," he added, citing the fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness held in the South Korean port city early this month, where policymakers from about 160 countries agreed to establish a new worldwide partnership to seek better ways to spend annual development aid.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Korean war film to play Tuesday
From Rome News-Tribune (Rome, Georgia): Korean war film to play Tuesday
One of the most anticipated films in Rome and Floyd County will premiere Tuesday night, and it doesn’t star Robert Downey Jr. or Tom Cruise.
Fifty-two veterans from Northwest Georgia are the film’s leading men. They share a collection of memories from the Korean War, which ended 50 years ago.
The film was compiled by Korean Americans Keon Lee and his son, Andrew Lee.
Lee is expected to speak to the group be-
fore the film. He is president of the Korean Association of Rome and Northwest Georgia and came to the U.S. 43 years ago when he was 12 years old.
The Lees have been interviewing veterans and relatives of deceased veterans since July.
The film will be screened at 6 p.m. at American Legion Post 52, 170 North Avenue, said veteran Charles Patterson. “This is a special showing for the veterans and their friends and family,” he said.
The film is one hour and 33 minutes long and features veterans from Floyd, Chattooga, Polk and Gordon counties. Fourteen of the veterans featured are deceased and are remembered in pictures and information provided by family members.
“This will be like a theater showing,” Patterson said. “We’ll have popcorn and Cokes.”
Each veteran featured will receive a copy of the film. Another copy will be given to the Rome-Floyd County Library.
One of the most anticipated films in Rome and Floyd County will premiere Tuesday night, and it doesn’t star Robert Downey Jr. or Tom Cruise.
Fifty-two veterans from Northwest Georgia are the film’s leading men. They share a collection of memories from the Korean War, which ended 50 years ago.
The film was compiled by Korean Americans Keon Lee and his son, Andrew Lee.
Lee is expected to speak to the group be-
fore the film. He is president of the Korean Association of Rome and Northwest Georgia and came to the U.S. 43 years ago when he was 12 years old.
The Lees have been interviewing veterans and relatives of deceased veterans since July.
The film will be screened at 6 p.m. at American Legion Post 52, 170 North Avenue, said veteran Charles Patterson. “This is a special showing for the veterans and their friends and family,” he said.
The film is one hour and 33 minutes long and features veterans from Floyd, Chattooga, Polk and Gordon counties. Fourteen of the veterans featured are deceased and are remembered in pictures and information provided by family members.
“This will be like a theater showing,” Patterson said. “We’ll have popcorn and Cokes.”
Each veteran featured will receive a copy of the film. Another copy will be given to the Rome-Floyd County Library.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
South Jersey Korean Americans, Korean War veterans, hope Kim Jong II’s death eases tensions
From Press of Atlantic City: South Jersey Korean Americans, Korean War veterans, hope Kim Jong II’s death eases tensions
The New Jersey Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City’s Brighton Park is engraved with the names of more than 800 people from the state who were killed or lost in the conflict more than 50 years ago.
In some ways, the battle continues today. Veterans of that war — as well as Korean Americans living in South Jersey — wondered Monday whether the death of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, would eventually ease tensions with South Korea and the rest of the world, or only intensify them.
“Our dream and hope has always been to be united in some way,” said Judy Yoo, who was born in South Korea and is now president of the Greater Southern New Jersey Korean American Association. “I can’t say whether there’s going to be a better chance of that.”
Kim succeeded his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994, taking the reins of a radical totalitarian dictatorship that has controlled the northern half of the Korean Peninsula since 1948.
Before his death Saturday from an apparent heart attack, Kim named his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to be his successor. But with little known yet about the direction of the isolationist country and its repressive government, locals hoped for the best, but also anticipated the worst.
“I think we have a bigger problem because (Kim’s) son’s unknown,” said Ed Marinelli, of Hammonton, a former mayor and Korean War veteran. “I think it’s going to be a long, tough road ahead.”
Marinelli was serving in the Army in Japan in 1949 after World War II when war broke out between North Korea and South Korea, the two countries a result of the United States and Soviet Union dividing up the formerly Japanese-controlled region.
Although an armistice was signed in 1953 that ended fighting, an alliance between the U.S. and South Korea was also signed that year, and nearly 30,000 American troops continue to serve there in its defense.
Brief attacks over the countries’ border have heightened tensions several times in the past half century. More than a year ago, when North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing four people and injuring nearly 20 others, those tensions reached a height some said had not been seen since the Korean War,
There was widespread international condemnation of the North Korean attack, which the country said was instigated by the South firing shells into the North’s waters, a claim South Korea disputed.
North Korea has also had nuclear weapons since at least 2006, when the country claimed to have successfully tested its first nuclear weapon.
“You never know what’s going to happen there,” said Tom Costa, of Hammonton, who served in the Army in South Korea from 1963 to 1964. “I think it’s worse now because they have nuclear weapons.”
Meanwhile, as South Korea has progressed into a modernized capitalist country since recovering from the destruction of the Korean War, North Korea has a state-controlled economy and is considered among the world’s poorest countries.
“Except for the capital, the rest of the country is starving,” Costa said.
Koreans make up a small percentage of South Jersey’s Asian population today. Of the approximately 30,000 Asian residents living in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties, only about 7 percent are of Korean heritage, the U.S. Census Bureau says.
Ron Lee, of Egg Harbor Township, was born in South Korea and moved here in 1975. The owner of Sunshine Cleaners in Northfield, he also said he hopes the transition of North Korea’s leadership can lead to peace.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of months, but there’s definitely a chance,” he said. “Hopefully, there’s a new change in the system.”
Yoo, who lives in Burlington Township, Burlington County, said she has been amazed at the progress of South Korea since she moved to the U.S. in 1983.
She said she doesn’t expect the death of Kim Jong Il to lead to such dramatic changes in the North, but would welcome it.
“We have to wait and see, but my hope is that it will bring peace,” she said.
The New Jersey Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City’s Brighton Park is engraved with the names of more than 800 people from the state who were killed or lost in the conflict more than 50 years ago.
In some ways, the battle continues today. Veterans of that war — as well as Korean Americans living in South Jersey — wondered Monday whether the death of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, would eventually ease tensions with South Korea and the rest of the world, or only intensify them.
“Our dream and hope has always been to be united in some way,” said Judy Yoo, who was born in South Korea and is now president of the Greater Southern New Jersey Korean American Association. “I can’t say whether there’s going to be a better chance of that.”
Kim succeeded his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994, taking the reins of a radical totalitarian dictatorship that has controlled the northern half of the Korean Peninsula since 1948.
Before his death Saturday from an apparent heart attack, Kim named his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to be his successor. But with little known yet about the direction of the isolationist country and its repressive government, locals hoped for the best, but also anticipated the worst.
“I think we have a bigger problem because (Kim’s) son’s unknown,” said Ed Marinelli, of Hammonton, a former mayor and Korean War veteran. “I think it’s going to be a long, tough road ahead.”
Marinelli was serving in the Army in Japan in 1949 after World War II when war broke out between North Korea and South Korea, the two countries a result of the United States and Soviet Union dividing up the formerly Japanese-controlled region.
Although an armistice was signed in 1953 that ended fighting, an alliance between the U.S. and South Korea was also signed that year, and nearly 30,000 American troops continue to serve there in its defense.
Brief attacks over the countries’ border have heightened tensions several times in the past half century. More than a year ago, when North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing four people and injuring nearly 20 others, those tensions reached a height some said had not been seen since the Korean War,
There was widespread international condemnation of the North Korean attack, which the country said was instigated by the South firing shells into the North’s waters, a claim South Korea disputed.
North Korea has also had nuclear weapons since at least 2006, when the country claimed to have successfully tested its first nuclear weapon.
“You never know what’s going to happen there,” said Tom Costa, of Hammonton, who served in the Army in South Korea from 1963 to 1964. “I think it’s worse now because they have nuclear weapons.”
Meanwhile, as South Korea has progressed into a modernized capitalist country since recovering from the destruction of the Korean War, North Korea has a state-controlled economy and is considered among the world’s poorest countries.
“Except for the capital, the rest of the country is starving,” Costa said.
Koreans make up a small percentage of South Jersey’s Asian population today. Of the approximately 30,000 Asian residents living in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties, only about 7 percent are of Korean heritage, the U.S. Census Bureau says.
Ron Lee, of Egg Harbor Township, was born in South Korea and moved here in 1975. The owner of Sunshine Cleaners in Northfield, he also said he hopes the transition of North Korea’s leadership can lead to peace.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of months, but there’s definitely a chance,” he said. “Hopefully, there’s a new change in the system.”
Yoo, who lives in Burlington Township, Burlington County, said she has been amazed at the progress of South Korea since she moved to the U.S. in 1983.
She said she doesn’t expect the death of Kim Jong Il to lead to such dramatic changes in the North, but would welcome it.
“We have to wait and see, but my hope is that it will bring peace,” she said.
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