Post Scripts: The forgotten war

It was June 25, 1950, that the Korean War began. A conflict that killed millions became "The Forgotten War" in many American minds. But for the aging soldiers of the Korean War, 1950-53, it can never be forgotten. I am one of them. I was lucky, though, I was only actually in Korea about four months having spent a month in Tokyo before I went to Korea.

I had stayed in the non-active reserves after I was discharged from World War II but don’t ask me why. I didn’t go to meetings or training and got no pay for staying in the reserves. Maybe I thought having achieved the rank of Captain, if I ever had to go to war, it would help to be an officer instead of an enlisted man.

For some unknown reason they decided to call up the inactive reservists for the Korean War first before they called those who were still in training, and that included me.

We had just been in Mountain Grove, Mo., about eight months. I had purchased a weekly newspaper, The Try-County News, which was only a year old and was in competition with an old established newspaper. Life wasn’t easy, but I was making progress in my business and making friends. All of a sudden I got order to report for active duty and had only a short time to decide what to do with my business. Kathy was in no condition to run the newspaper having two little girls to take care of and very little knowledge of the business.

I finally found a man who was willing to buy the newspaper. After all the arrangements were made we found out he had very little money to pay down on it and his monthly payments would be small. There was no time to change my mind as Uncle Sam had called.

My first assignment in the fall of 1950 was as public information officer at Fort Knox, Ken., and I moved my family down there on Thanksgiving. We had nice quarters on the post and with my position, I got in on lots of interesting assignments.

Suddenly in July 1951, I got orders to serve in the war in Korea. I moved my family back to Kansas City where my parents lived and also Kathy’s sister, so they would have family close-by and I took off for Japan the first of September. I remained in Tokyo for a month before I was assigned to Korea, the coldest place I’ve ever been.

The war in Korea had been going on over a year when I got there, but equipment and supplies were still not up to where they should have been. Peace talks were going on, but not making much progress. Our tents were cold and Kathy sent me all kinds of things to try to help keep me warm.

I was assigned once again to General MacArthur’s Press Staff like I was during World War II, but it wasn’t the same. Thank goodness my time in Korea was short because it was finally decided it was a mistake to have called up the in-active reservists who had not been in training and, happily, before too long my time in Korea was over.

Getting back to my family in Kansas City was the most wonderful feeling and I will never forget arriving at the airport in Kansas City seeing my wife and soon to see my precious little girls asleep in their beds that night in February 1952. In another month we had a new home in Gallatin, where we took over the operation of the Gallatin Democrat and North Missourian newspapers.