'Surely not forgotten': VFW recognizes 71st National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 696 held a special recognition Sunday evening, inviting local Korean War veterans and their family members in honor of the 71st National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.

It was on July 27, 1953, that military leaders from the United States, North Korea and the People’s Republic of China signed the Korean Armistice Agreement to “insure a complete cessation of hostilities,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to a proclamation by President Joe Biden dated July 25, the day is to honor both the service and sacrifice of the “36,000 Americans and more than 7,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army soldiers who laid down their lives for the sacred cause of freedom.”

“We recommit to upholding their legacy through our alliance with the Republic of Korea and by securing the future they gave everything for — one of peace, stability, and prosperity,” the proclamation reads.

Louis Drawdy, a retired master sergeant with the Marine Corps, served for over 21 years and was in post-war Korea in 1967-68, 1975-76 and 1978-80. He finds holding services like the one for the armistice is important.

“We have to remember our past so that we don’t forget the mistakes that we made, (because) otherwise we’re doomed to make them again,” he said, “and our history for the last 240-some odd years as a nation has shown that we are prone to make the same mistake over and over again because, basically, we’re not paying attention to our past.”

Glen Fry, a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Bosnia and Kosovo, who augments the VFW’s Honor Guard, second-year trustee and judge advocate for the post, has both first-hand experience and familial ties to Korea.

“My uncle served in Korea. He was a Marine and he was part of the Marine Corp and Army units that were cut off at the Chosin Reservoir,” he said. “To me, Korea today is just as much, if not more, of a threat than it was in 1950.

“They’re more subversive than they were … and the defense of the Korean Peninsula and the defense of the Korean people, which I have met having been stationed there, is paramount,” Fry said. “We cannot allow tyrants and bullies to dictate international policy to anyone.

“As a former member of the United States Military, I believe it’s our duty to have a show of force for the world to ensure peace.”

Bob Howe, who served as the Daviess County Coroner for 25 years, first arrived in Korea in August 1950 — two months after the war began — as a Navy Corpsman before leaving April 1951.

At the time, Howe, now 93, was underage to serve.

“I was 16; but back in those days it wasn’t uncommon for people to not have a birth certificate, and I told them I didn’t have (one),” he said.

While Howe said the Korean War tends to be coined “the Forgotten War,” it has been “surely not forgotten for those who were there.”

“When I first got there, they only had about a 25-mile radius around the (Pusan port). It was surrounded, and you could hear the artillery going on at the very end of South Korea,” he said. “And then in September, we made an invasion of Inchon and I was aboard a hospital ship and we took on (the) wounded ….”

Following Inchon, Howe said his ship, which followed the 1st Marine Division, went up north to Hungnam. Around Thanksgiving, Howe said the Chinese came into war and trapped forces at the Chosin Reservoir.

Howe, who is a member of the “Chosin Few” as he was responsible for taking casualties, said “the temperature (was said to be) 35-40 (degrees) below zero.”

“Most of our casualties were from frozen limbs,” he said, “... I remember one time I cut the boots off a Marine and his legs just practically came off. The flesh just came off.”

During Sunday’s ceremony, Howe received a special LST-325 “thank you” medallion and neck ribbon for his service during the war.

Drawdy and Fry find recognizing veterans informs people, especially the younger demographic, of where freedom stems from.

“I think part of the problem is the education system has changed in the way material’s presented. For example, I had to take government when I was in school, I had to take geography, I took American history,” Drawdy said. “Some of those things are not being taught (or) being taught as deeply as perhaps they should be.

“... We have to be vigilant that we’re not asleep at the wheel if something happens,” he said. “Not only do we have to teach our children our history so we don’t repeat those mistakes, we have to teach them responsibility to go out and vote. Every vote really and truly actually counts ….”

“We don’t normally fight for freedom, but we fight for U.S. interest and our allies’ interest abroad ….,” Fry said. “... The influence of those (who) have served are being downgraded in the eyes of our youth — both within the education system and within society as a whole.

“I think that it’s important that those of us veterans that have served, especially those of us that have served in combat, keep bringing up — regardless of what media and society does — (that), ‘Hey, you have what you have today because of us that became before you,’ ” Fry said.

Additionally, Fry finds it vital that people are aware that “freedom isn’t free.”

“It comes at the cost of blood and sacrifice not only on the part of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen that have given their lives,” Fry said, “but also at the cost of our youth because they are the ones that are asked to sacrifice, at the cost of our families, those of us that are married and everything — our wives and significant others have sacrificed while we’re gone; they go through being alone, and staying at home and doing the things that we have to do while we’re off ensuring the freedom that we have.”