Forgotten War

Forty-two years after it ended, the Korean War is finally getting its monument in Washington.United States troops still stationed in South Korea -- 37,000 strong today -- serve as a constant reminder of "America's forgotten war." Yet there has been no memorial in our nation's capital to that terrible conflict in which a generation of Americans paid a dreadful price.In three years in Korea, there were 137,000 American casualties (compared to 200,000 in eight-and-a-half years in Vietnam; more than 8,000 Americans are still listed as missing in action in Korea, five times the number for Vietnam)

Remembering the Korean WarWhen Americans study American wars, they tend to jump from World War II to the Vietnam War and skip entirely the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.This "police action," as President Harry Truman called the conflict, is known as the "forgotten war."Yet this war should not be forgotten. It was the stimulus that awoke the West to communist aggression. This conflict initiated a 41-year contest known as the Cold War, and as a result NATO grew from a paper tiger into a real military force.

A group of veterans, their friends and families, gathered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Canton yesterday to recall the conflict that figured so large in their lives and yet left such a faint impression in the nation's historical memory.They witnessed the unveiling of 19 stainless steel statues of Korean War-era foot soldiers, trucked from a foundry in Beacon, N.Y. They will form the last element of the Korean War Veterans Memorial nearing completion in Washington. Many hope the national monument will soothe the bitterness of the years of neglect.

The front ramps of the landing craft dropped into the surf. Hundreds of helmeted men fought their way ashore, battling for a beachhead in the face of withering enemy fire.Scores fell, dead and wounded. The bodies of those who never reached the beach drifted slowly on the waves; others died on the sand. The cries of the wounded filled the air.It was D-Day.But not the bloody landing in Normandy against the Nazis, commemorated June 6 by hundreds of Allied veterans and heads of state. This was the ferocious June 15, 1944, invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, one of many D-Days on America's island-hopping march toward Japan.

Face the real truth on drugsIt appears that George N. Buntin Jr. of the NAACP may have the keen vision to see that the so called "war" on drugs is not working and perhaps another avenue for this problem should be explored (news article, July 31).A huge amount of courage will be needed to continue along this line of thinking.It is a view not shared by Michael Gimbel, director of the Baltimore County Office of Substance Abuse, whose comment on the subject is "[it] would only create a larger population of addicts commiting more crime."

THE 40TH anniversary of SK Day came and went last week, neglected as usual, despite what President Clinton said.SK Day -- the initials stand for Stalemate in Korea -- is, I'll admit, not as big a deal as VE Day and VJ Day, but it and the war it ended deserve some respect.That war gets none. It's the Rodney Dangerfield of wars. It was not even called a war while it was being fought. Today, 40 years after its armistice, there is still no Korean War Memorial in the nation's capital. That finally is going to change.

TONGDUCHON, South Korea -- Historians have called the three-year "police action" that ended 40 years ago this week "The Forgotten War," "The Hidden War" and "The Unknown War."For U.S. soldiers stationed next to the North Korean border, the lessons of the Korean War are anything but forgotten.Each day, some of the 7,600 men in the 2nd Infantry Division -- the advanced detachment of the 36,000 U.S. troops remaining in South Korea -- prepare for a tank assault from the north."You hear a lot here about the mistakes of the past," said Spec.

Today is the anniversary of a historic event that has special significance to black history in Harford County.It was on Sept. 29, 1864, during the Civil War, that the Union army for the first time deployed division-sized units of black soldiers in a victorious battle.The engagement, the Battle of New Market Heights, Va., proved to doubters that black soldiers could fight just as well as whites.Ablack soldier from Harford County, Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, played a courageous role in the battle.

Washington. -- In late July, U.S. veterans of a certain vintage are likely to start remembering names like Pusan, Inchon and Wonsan. Millions of young Americans have never heard of those places, which is understandable. What grates is that so many who are old enough to remember them don't.The other day in Phoenix, men who fought in Korea with the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division got together to reminisce. That was the fun part. When they started looking at the present and future, they were not as happy, because they believe they and their comrades are still getting the runaround.