I hold a special place in my heart for the annual celebration of Memorial Day.
I was drafted in 1951 and went through basic training and combat engineer training at Ft. Belvoir, Va.
President Harry Truman’s “police action” in Korea had escalated to a full-scale war, and my combat engineer company was shipped to Korea, but I was pulled off the levy and assigned to the Department of Engineering, where I was put in charge of more than 500 classified documents.
A year later, I was waiting in a chow line on a cold, damp October day when I saw my assistant squad leader standing at the back of the line. I rushed back to talk to him, and he proceeded to tell me that most of the company was wiped out in a bayonet attack on the first night in Korea.
Today, I still look at my scrapbook of pictures that I took of my combat engineer company as we went through basic training. I look at those smiling and happy faces and wonder if any of them made it out of Korea or if they are among the 56,000 KIA (killed in action) from what has become known as “The Forgotten War.”
Few people realize the Korean War lasted a little more than two years and that there were 56,000 killed; the Vietnam War lasted 10 years, and there were 58,000 killed.That’s a small difference of 2,000 military personnel, but think about the time difference! Yet most people have totally forgotten about the Korean War.
Every Memorial Day I go to the Korean War Memorial on the northeast corner of Kennedy Park at 113th Street and Western Avenue, and I say a prayer for the men of my unit, the 2nd Company, Combat Engineers, the United States Army.
These brave men have not been forgotten by this ex-GI, nor should they or any of the other Korean War veterans ever be forgotten.
