st Lt. Alvin Anderson, one of the many repatriated POW’s to return home aboard the USNS Marine Phoenix, embracing his mother and sister as other members of his family look on. Fort Mason, CA, September 14, 1953. Herb Weiss. [Flickr]
Braving the drizzly rain and holding up the flags of the 67 nations that supported South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, members of a local pro-peace civic group march in a street in central Seoul on July 27, 2016, to express their gratitude to the countries. The march was timed with the 63rd anniversary of the signing of a truce that ended the conflict. (Yonhap)
A group of joyful U.S. Korean War veterans and their family members dressed in “hanbok” (traditional Korean costume) pose at a Seoul hotel on June 24, 2016. They were invited by the government in honor of their sacrifices. America and 15 other countries fought for South Korea against invading North Korea during the 1950-53 war. (Yonhap)
The 69-year-old Park Bok-dal strokes her father Park Jeong-soo’s tombstone at the National Cemetery in Seoul on June 24, 2016, one day before the 66th anniversary of the three-year Korean War. North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. (Yonhap)
Here is an article that provides an update on the efforts by Thomas Hudner to repatriate Jesse Brown’s body from North Korea and have a US Navy ship named after him:
Thomas Hudner
Earlier this year, 91-year-old Thomas Hudner made a request to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in a letter imbued with a sense of finality.
“It pains me to ask for any favor, but there is one last cause to which I must attend,” wrote Hudner, a Korean War Navy aviator, Medal of Honor recipient and namesake of a guided-missile destroyer to be commissioned in 2018.
Hudner requested a ship be named after fellow flyer Jesse Brown, the Navy’s first African-American aviator and among the first blacks to fly in the newly integrated armed forces. Brown crashed and died on a North Korea mountainside in 1950 during the infamous Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
Hudner was Brown’s wingman — the aviator who flies slightly behind to protect the lead pilot’s flank. Hudner spent the fleeting minutes after Brown’s crash trying to unpin him from his mangled Corsair fighter that ultimately was his deathtrap. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but I highly recommend reading the story about Hudner and Jesse Brown at the below link:
Hudner actually traveled to North Korea back in 2013 to help locate Jesse Brown’s remains, but was turned away from the search due to bad weather. He is now focusing his energy on getting a new US Navy ship named after his deceased friend.
I continue to be impressed with how the ROK government continues to find ways to honor United Nations and American Korean War veterans and their families and here is the latest example:
The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Friday that 51 family members of 22 U.S. soldiers who were killed or went missing during the Korean War will visit South Korea between Saturday and next Thursday.
Arranged by the ministry, the families will visit Seoul National Cemetery, the War Memorial of Korea and the truce village of Panmunjeom at the inter-Korean border.
They will also attend a memorial service for the fallen U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. The service will be held at the Imjingak Pavilion at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The ministry vowed to host the families with hospitality and help them overcome the pains and grief of losing their beloved ones. It hoped that the visit will also help the families feel proud of their beloved ones, knowing their sacrifices were not in vain. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link, but I have to think that the trip and memorial service has to help the surviving family members take pride in seeing what their loved one died for because Korea today has become one of the world’s great countries.
It is always amazing to see that even after all these years the US military continues to identify remains of servicemembers from the Korean War. The latest remains identified were of Sergeant Wilson Meckley Jr. from Pennsylvania. His remains were turned over by the North Koreans back in the 1990’s and were just recently identified through DNA analysis. Welcome home Sergeant Meckley:
The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Army Sgt. Wilson Meckley, Jr., 22, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, will be buried April 4 in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. In November 1950, Meckley was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, and was assembled with other soldiers into the 31st Regimental Combat Team, historically known as Task Force Faith. While operating along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir, elements of his unit were overwhelmed by Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces and were forced to withdraw to more defensible positions at Hagaru-ri. During this withdrawal, Meckley was reported missing on Dec. 2. [Fox 43 via Twitter tip]
Great opportunity for those interested on April 9th, 2016 to be part of a tour of where the Gloster Regiment made their final stand along the Imjim River during the Korean War. The tour will be led by a ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon:
Andrew Salmon (left) holding his books about the Commonwealth Regiment during the Korean War.
History writer and journalist Andrew Salmon will run a tour to one of the Korean War’s most notorious battlefields next week under a Royal Asiatic Society tour.
Salmon will guide the group around the hills that surround the Imjingang River, where the British Gloucester Regiment was wiped out holding back a Chinese assault.
The attack was part of the largest communist offensive of the war, and though the Glosters were eventually overrun, their actions blunted the assault sufficiently for U.N. forces to repel the Chinese before they could take Seoul.
The battle has since been compared to the battle of Thermopylae because of the extent to which the British regiment was outnumbered.
Two of the Glosters were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military medal for their actions in the battle. Salmon will look at where one of them, Lt. Philip Curtis, died in actions that would later see him honored and suggest an explanation for why he acted in the way he did. [Korea Herald]
