The Worcester Telegram & Gazette - September 18, 2000
Korea veterans are remembered in city's salute
By Margo Sullivan
WORCESTER-- The rows of small white crosses pitched along one of the
ěforgotten hillsidesî in Korea have marked one of the burial grounds of war
dead for almost 50 years since the Korean War ended in 1953.
A photograph of the graves
flashed on a movie screen during last night's tribute to the war's veterans at
Mechanics Hall. Some of the men in the audience, veterans themselves who saw
buddies die in that Far East war, wept and dabbed at their eyes when they saw
the hill again.
The stories of the soldiers who
never came back from Korea -- and the heroic deeds of the men who fought and did
return -- were remembered last night during a salute to the Korean War heroes.
The stories will be told again and again over the next three years, as the
nation begins to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the war, Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., said.
Sens. Kennedy and John F.
Kerry, D-Mass., Gov. Paul Cellucci, and U.S. Reps. James P. McGovern,
D-Worcester, and J. Joseph Moakley, D-Boston, were among the many political and
military leaders from 14 nations attending the Spectacular Salute to Our Korean
War Veterans.
Organized by the Korean War
Memorial Committee of Central Massachusetts, the $40-a-ticket event was designed
to raise $100,000 for the Korean War Memorial planned for Washington Square.
Francis R. Carroll, chairman, said previously that the salute was also being
combined with a day of reassessment to consider the legacy of the Korean War,
the first flash point in the Cold War between the superpowers that lasted until
the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Mr. Kerry, the keynote speaker,
said he hoped the tribute would ěcorrect the terrible injusticeî done to the
Korean War veterans since Korea was labeled the ěforgotten war.î
Mr. Kerry said he was 8 years
old when the first wounded veterans began coming home from the battlefields.
They were returning to a country that was tired of war and eager to move on with
life, he said. People did not want to hear the stories about the battle for
Outpost Harry. They wanted the homecoming veterans to put their uniforms on the
closet shelf and join in the good times and prosperity, he said.
Yet, the stories of this war
are so compelling, he said, people must look at Korea with ěawe.î The
doctors, nurses, chaplains and soldiers served their country, he said, and the
battles in Korea are as important to our nation's history as Valley Forge or the
Battle of the Bulge.
ěThey are heroes,î Mr.
Kerry said, adding they should never again be considered ěforgotten heroes.î
Toward the end of last night's
emotional salute to Korean War veterans, Mr. Kennedy stopped his speech for a
moment to ask the audience a question.
The senator, who was
escorted onstage by former Worcester Mayor Paul V. Mullaney, took a long look
out over the rows of people who had been rocking Mechanics Hall with cheers for
veterans of the Korean War. Then he said, ěHasn't tonight just been something
else?î
The salute had lived up to
every bit of its advance billing, judging from the reaction of the people who
heard Mr. Kennedy's question and answered with loud applause.
The cheers for Mr. Kennedy were
not the night's only emotional high point. John McDermott, one of the original
Irish Tenors, sang ěOne Small Star,î about the loss of loved ones. When the
U.S. Coast Guard band played a military medley, veterans of the various branches
of the armed forces spontaneously clapped along, then rose from their seats,
clapped harder and sang the words.
There were more cheers when
Gumersindo Gomez, president of the Puerto Rican Veterans Association of
Massachusetts, said Worcester was the first in the nation to pay special
recognition to the men of the 65th Regiment, the most decorated in the Korean
War.
Mr. Kennedy also announced new
legislation to offer asylum in the United States to North Koreans who return a
living American prisoner of war. The offer includes asylum for their families,
he said, calling it unacceptable that 8,100 soldiers are still unaccounted for
in Korea.
The Sept. 15 landing at Inchon
is regarded as the start of the three-year war that claimed 54,000 American
lives, he said. Inchon was one of the boldest and riskiest amphibious landings
in military history, second only to the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion when the
Allies invaded Europe, said Mr. Kennedy, himself a veteran of the Korean War.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur took the
enemy totally by surprise when the United Nations forces came ashore behind
enemy lines, the senator said. The troops eventually routed the North Korean
army which, backed by the Soviets, had pushed almost all the way to the tip of
South Korea by the time the Americans arrived, leaving only Pusan, near the
southern tip of the peninsula, unconquered. Gen. MacArthur told President Truman
the war would be over by Thanksgiving.
But on Nov. 25, 300,000
Chinese soldiers, hardened from years in the communist revolution, started a
second war, crossing the Yellow River into Korea and driving the American and
U.N. forces back below the 38th parallel. The two sides fought to a stalemate
until the fighting finally ended with an armistice in 1953. By the end, three
million Koreans were homeless; and besides the 54,000 U.S. soldiers killed, more
than 100,000 Americans were wounded and 8,100 were declared missing in action.
Mr. Kennedy also said the
veterans of the Korean War deserved to receive full benefits, and he demanded
that the Congress budget more money for the Veterans Administration. Veterans
represent ěAmerica at its best,î he said.