re: Why doesn’t our society ever talk about how few Korean War vets are left?

My great-uncle and grandpa both were in the Korean War. Both passed away within the past 6 years.

My grandpa lied about his age a few months shy of 17 to join the army. Back then, you could join at 17, and unlike today, you could fight in wars at 17, so he was 17 when he went to Korea. He was paid $22 per week. He would keep $5 for himself since the army paid for everything else and sent the rest of the money to his parents in Crowley to help raise his 6 younger siblings because they were just poor Cajuns with not much. There were 9 kids total.

He kept a military helmet from those days in his paint and body shop. He took a ballpeen hammer and hit it, making a rounded dent in it, and when people asked about it, he would tell them he got shot in the war, and the bullet ricocheted off. He was always good for a BS story. He would eventually tell them the truth, but not before stringing it out for a bit.

The truth is, he never really saw a lot of action in the war, but he became a champion boxer in the Army, and that is what he was known for long after.

My grandpa was a strong boxer from his Army days, and my uncle was a smart arse, so after the war, my uncle would usually start shite in a bar and run to my grandpa to defend him. Many stories, and if you knew them, you would realize how funny the stories are and on par with the way they were.

Only the youngest of the 9 siblings is still alive, but he always resented my grandfather because my grandfather built a very nice life, and he remained pretty poor. That was despite the fact that my grandpa literally sent money as a 17-year-old kid in a foreign war to help raise him and make sure he was fed.

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Handled properly the "War" would have been won quickly and decisively leading to the elimination of Kim il Sung and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea

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I'd like to hear your plan to handle the war properly that would lead to no North Korea. Especially how you would handle the ~1 million Chinese troops that entered the war in Nov 1950 differently than Truman/Eisenhower did. The war ended about the best way it could after that point, with a still free S Korea and no WWIII.

My grandad was stationed at Kadena air base on Okinawa during Korea. Was in a b29 unit

Because people move on.

Unless someone was personally affected by a war, tragedy, natural disaster, etc….they move on.

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Doc told him he could undergo treatment and last 6 months, or not and last 6 weeks. He denied treatment and died 8 weeks later in his chair at his poker table, with a cigar in his hand and scotch in his glass.

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Went on his own terms. Nice

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My grand dad was in three wars: WWII Korea and Vietnam.

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That is very impressive.

My great uncle joined the USMC fresh out of high school to island hop in the Pacific in World War 2. He stayed in and started boxing when he was at Camp Pendleton. He got to be pretty good and was prepping for the Olympics in I think '52 maybe (obviously before my time) when his unit got called up to go to Korea. He actually could have gotten a waiver to not go but went anyway. He ended up getting his hand damn near completely severed off in combat. Ended his boxing career as a fighter but he went on to open a gym and train no telling how many guys to box, including me. He was also my hero and the main reason I also wanted to become a Marine.

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FYI, it's pronounced KO-rhea.

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I’ve often heard it pronounced Kore-Ree-Er by older generations.

My wife's grandfather served in Korea. I never really got to talk to him about anything. He had Parkinson's and was starting to have signs of Alzheimer's when I met him, so we didn't develop enough of a relationship to have a "tell me about Korea" conversation.

I do have his 1911 that he carried, which is odd. I didn't think they were allowed to keep those. I think he kept it "just because", because it's not in the shape of something that he'd be sentimental about. He filed the s/n off, it needs a good cleaning, and I don't know where the magazines are for it.


As Donald Draper told WW2 vet Roger Sterling in Mad Men about Korea... "Not much to say. You boys used up all the glory."

My dad enlisted in the navy at 17... after losing a brother in WWII. Grandma had to sign the papers being he was a minor and cried the whole time.
Served during Korea on a repair vessel and got to see a variety of ships.