Remembering Korean War Veterans

I join Hearn in being fed up listening to and reading about Vietnam veterans being mistreated by the public and being the only people who ever fought a war.

Hearn’s letter was well written and very much to the point--that being that Korea was a very real and dirty war. We suffered more casualties--killed, wounded and missing in action in a shorter period of time than Vietnam.

There were so many wounded at times that only “head and belly” wounds could be flown out by the H-13 M.A.S.H. helicopters. Our pilot friend of mine flew 21,000 hours in a six-month period. That is an average of almost six hours per day, every day and that was during the bitter cold winter of 1951! The helicopters had no heaters and we had no heated blankets to cover the patients on the litters, which were mounted outside and in the rotor down wash.

I am a veteran of World War II and Korea and I must admit that notwithstanding the huge jungle, heat, malaria and the suicidal Japanese of World War II, Korea was the worst place in the world to fight a war, including Vietnam! Let me tell you there is no meaner S.O.B. than a North Korean soldier! Ask the few POW who survived the Korean War about tough conditions in the POW camps.

Does anyone recall seeing a Korean veteran stumbling around complaining of “Post-Korean Syndrome?” Sure we all had our bad dreams, cold chills, etc., but we didn’t make a federal case of it.

Come to think of it, Korea was the first war in which the “Foggy Bottom Boys” in the State Department started to tell the military how to fight a war. As a result all we have is an armistice!

I am not especially in favor of a war memorial for every war we fight. Memorials seem to make a lot of non-military people think war is anything but hell. I am, however, very interested in making certain that no one ever forgets the fact that a lot of fine men put their lives on the line for their country. If it takes another memorial, so be it!

DONALD B. THOMSON

Dominguez Hills