Proud to Have Served.

• Position: THE WORLD YESTERDAY - Korean War

I am glad to have completed the task of writing about my experiences in this war. I am not certain that I remembered each detail as precisely as it happened. I am sure that there is much that occurred that I just could not or did not want to recall.

They called this The Forgotten War. Of course, it is forgotten; it was six decades ago--not many of us around anymore. I came home in 1952. Even then, I detected little interest in the war. In those years, there were no 24/7 news channels. Most people received their news on the radio or by reading a newspaper. Some people experienced glimpses of the war on fuzzy pictures on their little round TV screens. I do not believe anyone can understand war by seeing a brief film or video clips.

During the three years and one month of the killing, 54,246 Americans died in Korea, including 36,574 service men and women. Parents, spouses, children, and friends of the 54,246 did not forget the war.

Hospitals were filled with the 103,264 wounded in Korea. In addition, 8,177 service men were missing in action. Their families never knew what happened to them. How awful.

People said we lost the war. After all, when it started on June 25, 1950, there were two Koreas divided at the 38th parallel. When the killing stopped on July 27, 1953, there were two Koreas divided at the 38th parallel. Pres. Syngman Rhee's goal of one democratic Korea was never realized.

What would it be like today if we had not fought the war? There undoubtedly would be one Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong Un. The 50,000,000 citizens of South Korea would be living in misery like the sad people of North Korea.

South Korea is a successful, thriving free nation today. The South Koreans are a kind and compassionate people who have survived a brutal Japanese occupation and the devastation of the invasion by North Korea, compounded by the intervention of the...