David Browning, Dan Childs and Jana Leahy, left to right, represent the U.S. Coast Guard during the second-annual Clallam County Korean War Memorial service in Port Angeles on July 21.

Second-annual Korean War memorial service honors veterans

by ASHLEY ODEN
Staff writer

Freedom is not free.

Most people have heard the words in passing, but few know what the saying means from experience. Korean War veterans and loved ones of soldiers who died fighting in the “forgotten war” certainly do. A group of such people gathered in Port Angeles during the second-annual Clallam County Korean War Memorial parade and service July 21.

Special guest Chanho Kwon, consulate general of the Republic of South Korea, opened with a few heartfelt remarks.

“Last year, I spoke of the significance of this event. Today, I have the opportunity to be here again,” he said first in English, and then in Korean. “The Korean people have not forgotten the war or the American soldiers who served and sacrificed their lives for people they had never even met. Korea continues to pursue peace and prosperity [because of their actions].”

Gerald Rettela, a Korean War veteran and president of the Korean War Veterans Association Olympic Peninsula Chapter 310, gave an update on the proposed Korean War Memorial Highway project, which passed unanimously through the Washington State House of Representative Transportation Committee last spring. If all goes as planned, state Route 113 in Clallam County between the junction of U.S. Highway 101 and the junction of state Route 112 and Highway 112 from the junction of Highway 113 to the Makah Indian reservation in Neah Bay will be named the “Korean War Veterans Blue Star Memorial Highways.”

The purpose of the highways, according to Rettela, is to honor all the men and women who served in the Korean War while educating the community and youth about the three-year period in history.

Korean War soldiers served “in as hostile terrain as Americans have ever fought,” Rettela said. “That should not be forgotten.”

Herbert C. Pitts, a retired major general who fought with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, tried to separate fact from fiction regarding the Korean War.

What soldiers experienced was nothing like the television show M*A*S*H, he said. “There are many other sides to that conflict. But there were no television cameras or cell phones on those fields to capture what really happened.”

Accurate numbers of casualties are hard to come by, even now, more than 50 years after the war. More than 37,000 American soldiers died fighting in Korea, but an exact number of those killed and still missing in action remains unknown.

“What was achieved? Was it worthwhile?” Pitts philosophically asked the roomful of guests. “South Korea is a prosperous, vibrant country compared to its northern counterpart. But freedom’s price is high and that will never change.”
 
Korean War facts and figures
The Korean War began as a civil war June 25,1950, when North Korea attacked South Korea. The war greatly expanded when the United States entered the conflict by executive order of President Harry Truman on June 27, 1950.

Conflict ended when a ceasefire was reached July 27, 1953.

• During the Korean War, the United States referred to the battle as the “Korean Conflict.” Now, the conflict is commonly referred to as the “Forgotten War,” because it was a major 20th century conflict that gets less attention than World War II, which preceded it, and the Vietnam War, which succeeded it.
• Close to 6 million Americans served in Korea and more than 37,000 soldiers were killed, in addition to the thousands of men and women nationwide who remain missing in action after more than 50 years.
• More than 500 Washington state soldiers died fighting in the Korean War, six from Clallam County.
• The Korean War is not officially over. The demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel is still one of the most fortified borders in the world.