GOODBYE TO THE NFL
Korean War veterans upset by players kneeling during the National Anthem
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. » Korean War veterans got a warm welcome at Lake George High School during a Thursday presentation about the hardships they suffered during “The Forgotten War.”
Their response to one question prompted the biggest, loudest round of applause of all.
“How do you feel about NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem?” a student asked.
“I will never watch another NFL game,” said army veteran Paul O’Keefe, of Mechanicville.
Cheers erupted among the nearly 200 students on hand in the school auditorium.
“Me too,” said navy veteran Roger Calkins of Saratoga Springs.
“Me, either,” said Gene Slavin, a navy veteran from Queensbury.
Now in their 80s, they’re among the thousands of young Americans who served in Korea from 1950-53.
“How costly was the Korean War?” asked army veteran Bruce Blackie, of Saratoga Springs. “33,629 Americans lost their lives, 113,000 Americans were wounded, 8,117 were missing in action and 7,000 were taken prisoner. Of these, only 3,450 returned home. Fifty-one percent died in prison camps.”
Korean War Veterans Association members, including Bill Reid of Rock City Falls (air force) and Bob Garland of Glenville (army airborne), present “Tell America” programs at schools throughout the area each year. Their goal is teaching young people about a war that’s quite often overlooked in history classes, and their experiences in it.
“At one point in our lives we were sitting in classrooms just like you,” Blackie said.
That all changed when communist North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.
O’Keefe said he was playing basketball during a trip to Hearthstone State Campground, in Lake George, when his girlfriend and future wife gave him a “greeting” from Uncle Sam, which had arrived in the mail.
From shooting baskets, he found himself firing weapons during 16 weeks of intense basic training drills.
“I had never fired a BB gun,” he said. “But you learn fast when you’ve got some big-mouth sergeant pushing you around, making sure you do things right.”
However, the worst was still to come.
O’Keefe described the horrific winter conditions soldiers endured, “living like animals” in foxholes and bunkers, in subzero temperatures in Korea’s mountainous terrain.
In addition to such physical challenges, Korean War veterans faced a whole new range of social and emotional difficulties. The Korean War marked the first time U.S. forces were put in a combat role without approval from Congress. Also, it largely took place in the shadow of World War II, five years earlier, and ended with a cease fire instead of a clear-cut military victory.
So instead of big parades and a hero’s welcome, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines came home individually — almost anonymously — when the peace agreement was finally signed, following two years of negotia-
tions, on July 27, 1953.
All during that time, Americans fought in some of the most fierce battles in U.S. military history such as Pork Chop Hill, Heartbreak Ridge and the infamous Chosin Reservoir.
Veterans are sometimes asked if they believe their service, sacrifice and America’s involvement in Korea was worth it.
“Right now, 50 million South Koreans live in a free and open society,” Blackie said. “They’ve had opportunities to build one of the world’s major economies.”
O’Keefe thanked students for standing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance when school began Thursday morning.
“I was just so glad to get home,” he said. “God bless the 33,000 who didn’t.”