The Complete Issue - Korean War Veterans Association

How to welcome the troops home
Gene Corsale, Vice Commander of CID
60, Adirondack Chapter {NY}, came
across this editorial in the Albany, NY
Times Union newspaper. It suggests what
the public should do in welcoming back
the veterans of the Korean War.
“The message in the article is very applicable
today in our support of our troops’
efforts,” Mr. Corsale noted.
We present the article just as it was printed
in the June 18, 2007 edition of the
paper. We print it with permission of the
Times Union, and we thank
Editor/Opinion Pages Joann M. Crupi for
her help.
A view from the past
The Times Union is celebrating its history
by presenting a continuing series of editorials
from the past. The editorials, which will appear
each Monday, were written to comment on
significant local, state, national and international
events.
A hero’s welcome for
Korea veterans
With many thousands of American veterans
of the Korean war now returning
home under the rotation program, the
American people must make it their business
to make sure that every home-coming
fighting man has the royal welcome he
has so richly earned.
Every one of these gallant Americans
has made a contribution of immeasur able
magnitude to the welfare and security of
this country.
Not one of them must be permitted to
return to the homeland· without warm and
enthusiastic and sincere and grateful
expression of the high esteem in which he
is held by his appreciative countrymen.
It is not enough, as National
Commander Erle Cocke, Jr., of the
American Legion has emphasized, that the
ports of entry on the Pacific coast should
conduct appropriate homecoming ceremonies
for .the Korean veterans, as all of
them have faithfully and lavishly done.
It is the home town welcome, ex tended
by the people whose names and faces are
familiar to the boys and whose good opinion
and friendship and understanding are
prized by them, which has meant so much
to our fighting men in Korea during their
long months of suffering and hardship and
danger as a matter of anticipation, and it
must never be denied to them as a matter
of neglect and indifference.
The patriotic American people in all
our home towns throughout the land, however
big or small, must be very careful and
very sure, as Mr. Cocke urges, that no man
who has offered his life for his country
shall ever return as a stranger to his home
community.
In taking the leading part in the organization
of hometown welcomes appropriate
to the return of the Korean veterans,
the American Legion is performing a
national service in full keeping with its
own traditions.
“Recognition is due these men as fighting
defenders of their country,”
Commander Cocke declared in announcing
the American Legion program to
organize adequate homecoming ceremonies
in the home towns of all returning
veterans.
“Local expressions of appreciation can
have dynamic effect on the morale and
confidence of our service personnel the
world over.
“All that is needed in many instances is
organization leadership—some one organization
to get the ball rolling.
“When that is done the public will
respond.
“The American Legion is especially
qualified and has a special reason to provide
the push.”
A hero’s welcome for every veteran of
the Korean war, not merely for the sake of
the boys themselves but even more for the
fulfillment of every patriotic and loyal
American’s
sense of national responsibility, must
be provided without fail by the hometown
families and neighbors.
They are indeed welcome home.
Let us not be negligent or timid about
making them feel welcome, and letting
them know they are welcome home.
_________________________________
► First published on Aug. 25, 1951.
MIA Marines
From Korean
War Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing
Personnel Office announced today that the
remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the
Korean War, have been identified and will be
returned to his family for burial with full military
honors.
He is Pfc. Carl A. West, U.S. Marine
Corps, of Amanda Park, Washington. He
will be buried Oct. 4 in Arlington National
Cemetery near Washington, D.C.
West was a member of Weapons
Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, of
the 1st Marine Division deployed near the
Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Nov.
27, 1950, three Communist Chinese divisions
launched an attack on the Marine
positions. Over the next several days, U.S.
forces staged a fighting withdrawal to the
south, first to Hagaru-ri, then Koto-ri, and
eventually to defensive positions at
Hungnam. West died on Dec. 8, 1950, as a
result of enemy action near Koto-ri. He was
buried by fellow Marines in a temporary
U.N. military cemetery in Hungnam, which
fell to the North Koreans in December
1950. His identity was later verified by the
FBI from a fingerprint taken at the time of
the burial.
During “Operation Glory” in 1954, the
North Korean government repatriated the
remains of 2,944 U.S. soldiers and Marines.
Included in this repatriation were remains
associated with West’s burial. The staff at
the U.S. Army mortuary in Kokura, Japan,
however, cited suspected discrepancies
between the dental remains and West’s dental
file as well as discrepancies between the
biological profile derived from the remains
and West’s physical characteristics. The
remains were among 416 subsequently
buried as “unknowns” in the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (The
Punchbowl) in Hawaii.
In May 2006, the Joint POW/MIA
Accounting Command exhumed remains
from The Punchbowl believed to be those
of West. Although the remains did not yield
usable DNA data, a reevaluation of the
skeletal and dental remains led to West’s
identification.
Continued on page 79
71
The Graybeards September-October 2007