Memorial Day Weekend is to honor the fallen of past wars. Every holiday, be it Memorial Day or Veterans Day, much is written about the past casualties. The outstanding exception is that the casualties of the Korean War seem to be excluded.
In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. The United States immediately came to the aid of the South Koreans. Reserves and National Guard units in the U.S. were mobilized and the draft was again used to fill in understaffed units.
In less than five years after the end of World War II, veterans of that war were again called on to get back into uniform. Many had joined reserve units and National Guard units to fill out their 20-year requirement for a full pension. The resentment among these veterans was high, and morale among the units was low.
The veterans served as cadre to train the new recruits and draftees and many resigned and went home. The equipment with which the new draftees were trained and which eventually was with them into combat in Korea was mostly surplus World War II relics. I was trained as a radio operator, and after school in Georgia was sent back to the 43rd Infantry Division. None of the equipment on which I trained was in use in my unit. What a waste of time.
Almost 40,000 Americans were killed in Korea. Not many places today are there any memorial to these heroes. There is a moving Korean War Memorial on the mall in Washington. You have to hunt for it to find it. It depicts an infantry patrol on reconnaissance through the woods. In looking at it, I recognized the obsolete radio equipment they were carrying like the unit we called the “Angry Nine” Army, Navy, Ground Radio.
We Korean Veterans do not stand on street corners begging for sympathy. We do not shout from the rooftops how tough it was. We served out our time and quietly went home, mostly to little recognition.
Please remember the 40,000 forgotten heroes of this forgotten war. We also served, albeit reluctantly.
Eric Greene
Durango
