Sixty-eight years have passed since
that June day that saw the peace of the Korean peninsula shattered by an
invasion of the South by Communist forces from the North, with support from the Soviet Union and China, and with entire
armies of the latter country eventually joining the North Korea People's Army
in overrunning free South Korea. Among those who responded to the call for
assistance to the beleaguered South were over five million American young men,
just 2.2 million (40%) of whom are still with us as of 2017. Some of those were
also veterans of WWII, while some went on to fight in Viet Nam.
These grizzled veterans who were
born into the Great Depression and experienced the war years of Franklin
Roosevelt's America are in their 80s and 90s. For the most part, they have not
been a "noisy" group known for demonstrations and advocacies pleading
for special recognition, but to the contrary
returned home to quietly take their place in a society which mostly
thought of theirs, as the forgotten war.
For some of us - and for various
reasons - that has not been true. In my own case my particular military mission
placed me in regular contact with my opposite numbers in South Korean society,
both military and civilian. My interest in Korean history and in particular
emerging details about the war I had just participated in tended to keep me
involved in further study, especially after I found myself with responsibility
for producing a weekly radio talk show with a strong history bent, and
eventually as a regular newspaper columnist. Most important was my relocation
to southern Utah where I quickly fell into a natural friendship with a
Korean-American patriot and neighbor named Sunny Lee who had wedded her life to
serving her adopted country in appreciation of the contribution its citizens
had made to the freedom of her native land. I also discovered a rare sense of
awareness among a group of veterans who had seen Korean combat service with the
213th Field Artillery Battalion, a unit of the Utah National Guard which had
distinguished itself in the battle of Gapyeong
on May 26, 1951 after taking on large numbers of an invading Chinese
Army without the loss of a single guardsman.
With the generous support of the
Korean government - in particular the ministry of Patriots & Veterans -
Mrs. Lee literally became the U.S. spokesperson for this veterans group and
others, leading a series of return visits for the Gapyeong and other Utah-American
veterans of the Korean War. I was privileged to join the 2009 tour, and my
granddaughter as part of a special contingent of K.W. student- grandkids of Vets.
participating in a Peace Camp and guided visit the following year.
After carrying out a number of similar and
very demanding veteran visits, Sunny went on to supervise an effort to help the
surviving families of Missing-in-action veterans to better understand and
"finalize" the story of their loss, concluding with a trip to
present-day Korea, a visit to historic and sacred sites and a special memorial
service. Only those few of us who know Sunny Lee intimately understand both the
personal sense of fulfillment this experience involved, and the deep emotional
price it exacted from this remarkable super-patriot.
Recently a plane landed in Las Vegas
carrying two young gentlemen whose errand it was to underline that
partner-nation's appreciation of this unusual Utah Connection, and those who have
supported the rare friendship it has engendered on both sides of the Pacific: 25-year-old Tae Hwan Park and Joon Chang Lee,
both senior cadets at the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon stepped down on U.S.
soil as representatives of a grateful nation. Prior to their official visits to
Utah National Guard headquarters, Cedar City mayor and Veterans' Monument, an
Idaho veterans home and a meeting with MIA families, several of us enjoyed a
dinner and evening with them at the Springdale home of John and Sunny Lee. The
depth of their sense of honor and respect, and their love for America made all
of us as proud of these sons of serving Senior officers as if they were from
one of our own service academies.
Photo
Caption: L to R Standing: Cadet Tae
Hwan Park, Cadet Joon Chang Lee
Seated: Gene Gregory, Marine; Al
Cooper, Air Force; Col. Dan Roberts, Army
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