Cautious hope on war anniversary
Historic meeting recasts some views at Korea remembrance
More than 100 veterans and their families gathered at the Korean War Memorial in the Presidio on Monday to remember the start of a war that never really ended.
Most of the men there were veterans of the war that began June 25, 1950, when North Korea’s army invaded South Korea, and that halted three years later in a tense, armed truce that has lasted for 65 years.
The ceremonies were all about war and remembrance, but there was also an undercurrent of hope that the recent meeting of President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un may have written the final chapter of the war.
“It was the greatest war in my day,” said Donald Reid, who was a sergeant in the Marine Corps. “It was the first time we stopped communism and gave freedom to South Korea.”
And now, he said he hopes the agreement Trump announced with the North Koreans could be the beginning of a new day.
“We are on a path to peace now,” he said. “Only six months ago, we were talking about nuclear
war. It’s wonderful. We got Kim Jong Un to sign an agreement, and we’ll enforce it.”
Monday’s ceremonies were held in front of a long, curved wall at the Presidio. The centerpiece is a picture carved in stone of Marines going over the sea wall in Inchon, South Korea, leading the way in a daring landing that nearly won the war.
“That’s my company,” said retired Col. John Stevens. Stevens is in his 90s, and moves slowly, but in 1950 he was a captain who fought his way up the Korean Peninsula to the Chosin Reservoir in the far north of the country. He was the last unwounded officer in his brigade when he was evacuated.
He is hopeful, but cautious about the deal between Trump and Kim.
“I hope something comes of it, but the North Koreans haven’t kept their word in the past,” he said.
There was little doubt Monday how a delegation of South Koreans felt about the war and its aftermath. Close to two dozen South Korean veterans, many wearing medals, came to the Presidio event. They stood respectfully to sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” but belted out the Korean national anthem as if it were a rock song.
And they rose, waved flags, and clapped their hands when women of the Korean-American Senior choir offered a rousing chorus of a song called “6-25” sung in South Korean schools every June 25 to mark the anniversary of the war.
“It’s very famous,” said Moon Choi of the Korean American Community Center. “It’s a reminder of the war.” He was only 1 and living in Seoul when North Korea invaded.
He is not sure about the peace effort.
“The communists killed my grandfather,” he said. And he remembers that the North Koreans were led by Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. “We’ll see,” he said. As part of the agreement between the two leaders, Kim promised to send home the remains of Americans missing from the war and still in North Korea, where thousands of American remains were left behind.
“If we get back even one of those missing men, the deal Trump made will be worth it,” said Wallace Levin, who served in the U.S. Army during the war.