Korean War 60th Anniversary Center

We have yet to get the kinks ironed out for mass delivery of email newsletters. The possibility of using one of the new internet tools, Word Press, may be one of the solutions. Security issues have yet to be solved with that delivery mechanism.

Most all of us who use the internet have discovered the many hiccups that can take place. Our corner of the 'Web' is no exception.

The entire website for the Korean War Project had to be reprogrammed during the past few months. We have experienced repeated crashes of the (KWP) web server from overload and issues in previous programming efforts.

Outages still take place and probably will continue so bear with us.

Bookstore:

Bookstore updates are in the works and will be featured here in the Newsletter section of our 60th Anniversary Online section of the Korean War Project.

Hal and Ted Barker Korean War Project Dallas, TX

Henry was 4 months old when his half-brother, Sgt. Lee Dona Henry Jr. went missing in action during the Korean War.

The U.S. Army notified the Henry family this month that Junior's remains, positively identified by DNA testing, were coming home to Tyler Sept. 15....

The remains of Pvt. John Lavelle arrived at Kennedy Airport Saturday in a wooden casket draped in an American flag.

A Port Authority fire truck ceremoniously sprayed water over the plane carrying Lavelle as it taxied on the runway.

Moments later, a row of Port Authority police officers stood at attention as members of an Army honor guard carried Lavelle's casket into a waiting hearse, his relatives said....

"We finally have him home," a weeping Delores Mapes, 83, said as the casket bearing the body of Army Pfc. John Lavelle was carried from a funeral home. "He's back where he belongs."

Lavelle's other sister, Gloria Weber, said "we can finally say goobye."

After an initial DOD Freedom of Information Act denial of over 100,000 digital records from the 7th, 24th, and 25 Divisions, the Project recently received 13 CD's full of records from the early months of the Korean War.

To date, this means the Korean War Project now has approximately 250,000 records obtained from National Archives files for conversion to public use on the Project website, www.koreanwar.org.

At this time, the Project has over 800 Marine Corps Command and Unit files online.

The Army division files are currently being prepared for public access in PDF format.

The Project also currently has the largest grouping of Korean War maps online, including over 500 topographic maps covering the 1950-53 period and then DMZ postwar era.

This map shows the Korean War's Operation Bataan and the Western Wolfpack Guerrillas involving the HMAS Bataan of the Royal Australian Navy from the RAN Reports of Proceedings.

The RAN Reports are a large series of records that cover Australia's rich naval history from the period of 1939 to the present. They include a daily account of events during peacetime and war, like reports of operations, social events, weather, visits, official calls and Australia's naval battles great and small....

Corporal Sund was killed at a Korean prisoner of war camp in 1951 at the age of 28.

North Korean officials turned over Veterans remains in 1992. Just recently, DNA testing found Corporal Sund among the remains.

Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel, a Korean War veteran, introduced his resolution to mark the 58th anniversary of the July 27 Korean War Armistice Day.

"As we pay tribute to the nearly two million Americans who answered the call to defend the freedom of Korea, we should not forget about those who never returned," he said in a statement...

Excerpt:

July 27th 1953 marks the enactment of the truce to end the three years of war in Korea. The truce had been a long time coming. The steps in the process resulted in stretching the war for such a long time. For those who were in the middle of the fierce fighting of 1953, it could not come quickly enough.

The toll of the last months of the war was steep in life and limb.

The same date also marks the beginning of a very unsettled truce that has reached across many decades. Violence and intrigue have been commonplace.

Hal and Ted Barker Dallas, TX

'Indeed, there is much forgotten about this brutal conflict,' said Rev. Kenn Stright, in a sermon delivered in English and in Korean by Rev. Suk-Ho Lee. 'We need constant reminders of what was at stake.'

The Korean War began in 1950, with Canada entering the fight in mid-February 1951. By the time the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, 516 Canadians had perished....

That's because more than a half-century after he'd earned them, the Austintown man finally received a cluster of medals for his service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. They were presented to him at his Oak Trace home by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, whose appearance was a surprise for Lariccia.

'Man oh man,' the affable 79-year-old honoree said of his reaction to seeing the congressman walk into his home. 'I was surprised out of my boots.'

And to top it off, he was surrounded by his family, which he unflinchingly said is the true source of his pride....

The event is scheduled to take place 11 a.m. at the Korean War Memorial, in front of the Bucks County Courthouse, 55 E. Court Street.

The ceremony will include a roll-call of Bucks County's honored dead from the Korean War, remarks from Commissioner Chairman Charley Martin, placement of a rose on the memorial for each of the honored dead, the laying of wreaths, a rifle salute, and taps....

The remains of Army Pfc. Peter Kubic, who went missing in South Korea at age 22, will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery today, the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced.

On Feb. 12, 1951, Kubic was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, when his division came under attack near Hoengsong. Following the battle, Kubic was reported missing in action, authorities said....

Reviewed by Ted Barker

'As time goes by, we lose memory of those bad times,' said the 78-year-old veteran, who joined the Canadian Airforce when he was 18. Today, he takes pride in talking to students around the country about his experience in the war, and teaching them how to 'salute veterans.'

Looking back at the services he rendered in the Canadian military service for 28 years, Lightstone said it was a big sacrifice. He still remembers how terrifying it could get, knowing that they could even get killed while fighting in a foreign country.

Edward Cooney, a native of Ellinwood, and Edward Schwartz, a native of Hoisington, looked death in the eye that bitterly cold November, and lost. Captain Thomas Edward Cooney, commanding officer of Company G, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines was killed in action Nov. 27 in the battle zone of the Chosin Reservoir, and remains where he lay near the border of North Korea and China. His family has given DNA for identification....

U.S. Army Captain Melvin Stai's remains were just recently identified and on Wednesday returned to his family in Spokane.

Officials learned that Stai had been captured in January of 1951 and taken to a prisonar of war camp in Suan County, North Korea. Stai died while in captivity when allies attacked the camp in April of that year....

Fr. John Hotze, episcopal delegate for the office of Fr. Kapaun's beatification and canonization, said the event marks the culmination of years of work and also celebrates the 'gift' of Fr. Kapaun....

Brooks, 51, of Blanchard, said military officials notified him this month that they have identified the remains of his uncle, Henry Leo Gustafson, using DNA. The news means Gustafson's family can hold a military funeral and bury him in the empty grave marked by his headstone....

Brooks, 51, of Blanchard, said military officials notified him this month that they have identified the remains of his uncle, Henry Leo Gustafson, using DNA. The news means Gustafson's family can hold a military funeral and bury him in the empty grave marked by his headstone....

Although the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has identified the remains of more than 1,800 Americans since the 1970s, the return of two long-missing soldiers to the same community within a week of each other is remarkable.

Private Herman F. Sturmer, Jr., USMC, Tarawa, and Captain Melvin Ruben Stai, U.S. Army, Twin Tunnels....

Come November, 2011, president of Valor Flight, Steve Celuch hopes to have the maiden voyage to the nation's capital under his belt. Celuch participated with Honor Flight Tennessee Valley; now it's his turn to take the reins. 'As we finished that up with the last flight on 9-11 I chose to lead the next generation to honor the Korean War veterans....'

Leonard Wisper said that the Korean War (1950-53) was a turning point in his life as he was rescued from the brink of death, later leading him to affiliate with Judaism....

In commemoration of the 61st anniversary of the Korean War, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Korean Culture and Information Service invited nine journalists from six countries including U.K., U.S., Australia, India, Thailand and the Philippines from June 20-26 to express gratitude for the dispatch and show the government's latest efforts to keep peace in the peninsula....

Speaking Saturday during a ceremony in Seoul marking the 61st anniversary of the start of the Korean War, Kim invited the North to join the path "where 70 million Korean people can live together...."

Members of Chapter 160 of the Korean War Veterans Association were on hand Saturday at the South Dakota Air & Space Museum just outside the main gate of Ellsworth Air Force Base to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the beginning of the conflict, June 25, 1950....

Jin, 75, is the founder of Korean War Veterans Guam, but Jin isn't a veteran. He's from South Korea -- a territorial distinction that might be lost had events gone differently more than half a century ago....

We, Koreans, owed a profound debt of gratitude towards War veterans, and the people who had stood with us and served in the Korean War for the universal values of liberty and peace. The Korean War started 61 years ago today. On 25 June 1950, the communist North Korea had invaded South Korea and attempted to communize the whole peninsula. Then you came to South Korea in hopes of defending liberty for people who had been utter strangers to you.

The Republic of Korea was ruined by the war. Only 50 years ago, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world and now we are the country in the best interests of other poor countries. Korea currently is reaching the tenth largest economy in the world and ranks the No. 7 among the export economies. This is a wonder. We, Koreans, are sure that because of over 1.935,398 soldiers, servicemen and women from our allies, we could defend our freedom and the wonder has become a possibility. We owe a real debt of gratitude to your countries' young men and women. We would like to offer our heartfelt condolences and consolation with respect and honor to the victims and their bereaved families.

The great sacrifices and the bravery of your noble young men and women have established the current Republic of Korea.

We also thank you for your confidence and support over the Cheonan Navy Ship, which was sunk in March due to North Korea's attack, also thank you for the support over the incident on Yeonpyeong Island. We want to tell the world that the majority of Koreans' heart is filled with gratefulness that we won't ever forget.

The debt of gratitude owed to War veterans, people who had served in the Korean War is indeed profound. Thank you.

Jiun Chung

Gov. Mark Dayton ordered the action to honor Lt. Harry Lester Bedard, WWII, and Sgt. Ralph William Carlson, Korea....

Despite those daunting numbers and the decades that have passed, the grueling work continues to find and recover their remains. On Friday, they were half-way there....

According to an official statement released by the Embassy, some 4,000 Jewish soldiers fought alongside South Koreans and Allied Forces in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The Embassy has been awarding medals to Jewish soldiers since 2009. This year's ceremony was hosted by Korean Ambassador to Israel Ma Young-Sam at his home in Rishpon....

On September 20, 2010, it took only 10 hours for Korean Air to fly my wife, Joyce, and I from Seattle to Incheon on a Boeing 777-200. After two nights in Incheon, the fast boat took about five hours to arrive at Yonggippo Port on this 31 sq. mi. island located 140 miles northwest of Incheon and ten miles off the coast of North Korea. The Sagot Beach natural airfield is now a national monument and no longer an airfield. The changes to Paengnyong-do (spelling has been officially changed to Baengnyeong-do, but still pronounced Peng-yang-do) are truly amazing. We were treated as honored guests because we were the only Caucasians on the island and, to their recollection, I was the only GI to have returned to PY-do. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Now we know what it's like to be a minority of two in a sea of some 6000 Koreans...

'The Front Line' takes viewers back to the Korean War (1950-53), which is largely known as the Forgotten War, and looks into parts of the conflict that have slipped into oblivion. Jang teamed up with a seasoned scriptwriter Park Sang-yeon for the 10 billion-won project....

Just 12 percent of 12th graders demonstrated proficiency in American history on a federal test, known as the "Nation's Report Card," according to data released today by the Education Department. Only one in five could name China as a combatant in the Korean War. Overall, seniors showed no improvement in their scores since 2006, the last time the test was given....

Carlson's remains will be escorted to Braham, Minn., June 25, by his great nephew Pfc. Jonathan C. Wescott, a legal services specialist with Legal Services Support Section, Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group. "It's a pretty big honor to be able to do this for my family; it's overwhelming," said Wescott, 21....

Good Afternoon!

I had to write you with the wonderful news about my Uncle. We got word from the Army on 6/11/11 that his remains have been positively identified and he is coming home to a burial with full Military honors. John (Shawn)'s sisters (my Mom and Aunt) are 83 and 80 years-old. They are beside themselves with excitement of the news. It is a thing the dreamed about, but never imagine would come to pass!

I wanted to personally thank you, because this would have never happened for our family without your website. About 8 or 9 years ago, a search led me to this website. When I entered my Uncle's name, up he popped! Imagine my surprise when I saw the a DNA sample from the family was needed. I made the arrangements to provide the sample and then waited. Well here we are 9 years later and we get the wonderful news!!!

Thanks again from the bottom of our hearts!

Mary Rose O'Brien

Scott, a native of Canada who moved to Detroit with his mother, Gladys Caldwell, survived a grueling march after his capture in 1951, defense officials have told his family. But he died of exhaustion and dysentery shortly after arriving in a prisoner of war camp....

Seoul-based British journalist Andrew Salmon is out with his second book in two years on the war. And once again, he has found amazing tales of soldiers that many other historians have overlooked; the British and Australians....

Last year marked the 60th anniversary since war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, drawing in the U.S. and 20 other allied nations to fight with South Korea against a North Korean invasion. The fratricidal conflict lasted three years from its launch on June 25, 1950, and ended in an armistice that left the Koreas technically at war to this day....

Cpl. Harold B. Moore of Parkersburg will be buried with full military honors at 1 p.m. today in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Department of Defense....

Over 2000 additional files are in preparation for online placement on the Korean War Project.

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Twitter: @koreanwarprojec

Ted on Facebook

Excerpt:

We would like to extend a group hello to all of our website visitors or email correspondents. Many of you are brand new to our website and we encourage you to browse all areas.

Hal and I share our thoughts today as the Korean War Project continues to Remember the sacrifices of all those who have served or paid the ultimate cost of such service.

Hal and Ted Barker

I just posted on Amazon by way of an eBook an expanded diary of my months in Korea during the that war. It is displayed on Amazon eBooks at: MY WAR: KOREA. It can be reached by calling up my name, Jack Morris.

morrisjac@gmail.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RUWP6G

Blog: http://awesome.webplus.net/MyWarKorea/index.html

Note: Jack was a member of the 363rd Recon Tech Squadron, based at K-2 in the winter of 1950. See his story in our Recollections area.

'Hiya Honey,' the 19-year-old Reading native began his two-page missive, handwritten from a staging area in Japan. 'This will be the last letter you will get from me for some time....'

The stir created by the reported burial of defoliants at U.S. bases in southeastern Korea is showing few signs of calming down. The two governments have yet to launch joint probes, but testimonies from veterans are pouring in. This is no time for the officials to dally, and yet their initial handling of the scandal is far from reassuring.

According to ``Korean War Project, an Internet site for U.S. veterans who took part in the 1950-53 Korean War, there were orders in the late 1970s to get rid of dioxin, which is said to be the most virulent material produced by humans and a key component of the Agent Orange, left in all warehouses of the U.S. 2nd Division....

The investigation followed a new allegation raised by an American veteran, retired Master Sgt. Ray Bows, who revealed that U.S. troops buried "hundreds of gallons" of chemicals at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, west of the South's capital of Seoul, between 1963 and 1964....

Phil Steward, 63, who served as a 2nd Engineer Battalion captain at Camp Peterson and Camp Ethan Allen in the US Army 2nd Infantry Division, controlling the Imjin River area in northern Gyeonggi Province, from October 1968 to December 1969, shared his story through a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on May 28....

South Korea and the U.S. are jointly investigating claims by retired U.S. soldiers that they had helped dump large amounts of the toxic chemical in 1978 inside Camp Carroll in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul....

A new allegation has surfaced over the U.S. Armys involvement in the disposal of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange, into Korean waterways during its massive defoliation campaign in the 1960s.

According to a document that The Korea Times obtained Sunday, a U.S. veteran claimed that he released 25 to 100 gallons of leftover herbicide agents into major waterways, including the Imjin River, and by roadsides on a daily basis....

The groups said they would file a petition demanding information from the U.S. military about a site inside Camp Carroll, about 200 miles southeast of Seoul, where a large amount of Agent Orange, a defoliant used in Vietnam, allegedly was dumped....

These names are displayed in chronological order based on the dates of their identifications. The highlighted names are linked to a more detailed news release on that serviceman's identification....

The flag read, "You are not Forgotten."

Army Pfc. Samuel Kelly Watkins of Fletcher was not forgotten after he was captured in North Korea on Feb. 14, 1951, and presumed dead on March 3, 1954.

Through the Korean War Project, DNA from his remains, found in North Korea, was matched earlier this year with family members in Henderson County....

The U.S. identified thousands of these remains. Those that could not be identified and other unknowns from South Korea, a total of 848, were buried in 1956 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the "Punchbowl." Others were added later as "unknowns." One of the unknowns was interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia....

Colorado Springs Korean War veteran Dave Hughes, who was honored with the nation's second-highest decoration for valor there, calls it 'a second-page war.'

Lester Stroup, who spent nearly three years in a North Korean prison camp, is still bitter about the way that the home front embraced the comforts of the booming 1950s while snubbing those sent to the fighting....

Many Memorial Day ceremonies for military veterans will take place in the presence of those being honored. While all deserve the gratitude of their countrymen, Orangeburg American Legion Post 4 Commander Chester Tomson Jr. said the solitary table ensures another group is never forgotten....

They couldn't know that the answer was among 17 boxes of remains that the North Koreans turned over nearly two decades ago. Nor could they know that the DNA the Army collected from his surviving siblings several years ago would finally help solve the riddle....

Hold At All Costs, a documentary about a little-known, eight-day battle near the end of the Korean War, is airing on public-broadcasting stations throughout the country this Memorial Day weekend, including Monday night in San Diego....

Svehla, all of 19 years old, already wounded and leading a faltering platoon under withering fire on a hard-fought hill in Korea, gave his life by throwing himself on a grenade that landed near him and some of his buddies....