Old soldiers revisit youth in South Korea
Advertiser News Services
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — Old soldiers gathering on the border where the Korean War ended 50 years ago yesterday remembered the snow and heat of the battlefields, sobbed at the memories of buddies lost and celebrated the prosperity of modern South Korea.
Korean War veterans lingered at the Korean War Monument after its unveiling ceremony in Seoul yesterday. Korean War veterans from all over the world are in South Korea to observe the 50th anniversary of the armistice that ended the U.N.-supported war in Korea.
More than 1,200 veterans, some in wheelchairs, many holding hands of spouses and children, gathered in a tent in the southern half of Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone, to mark the 50th anniversary of the armistice signed July 27, 1953, which stilled the guns but did not officially end the war.
More than 5 million people died, were wounded or went missing during the fighting.
Wearing combat medals, the veterans gazed at the foggy, rain-shrouded land of their enemy. A North Korean soldier stood guard as veterans toured a military hut straddling the demarcation line and took snapshots.
"I came here in 1952. I was 24 years old. I came here again just a week ago at the age of 75 to see it again," said Victor Bielen, a former Marine from Wisconsin. "What comes to my mind first is the peace we have right now."
Veterans from 22 countries arrived in South Korea to commemorate the 50th anniversary. But it is a bittersweet time for a celebration. The crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program is a blunt reminder that all is not resolved.
But the veterans, most of them visiting for the first time since the war, were thrilled to see the transformation of South Korea. The highrises of Seoul, the wide boulevards, the traffic jams and the sharply dressed youths are revelations to veterans.
Associated Press
Buddy Savetz was dazzled by the bright lights of Seoul.
An American veteran of combat is alone with his thoughts at the dedication of the Korean War Monument in Seoul.
"It's a modern metropolis. Who would have believed it?" said Savetz, a 72-year-old gift shop owner from Merrick, N.Y., who last set foot in this country more than half a century ago as a young GI.
Charles Ehredt, 73, a retired hospital administrator from Altoona, Penn., recalled the South Korean capital when the streets were dirt roads lined by poplar trees, and the main waterway, the Han River, had no bridges except for a pontoon structure built by the U.S. Army.
"There were refugees everywhere — old people dying by the sides of the road, women having babies by the roads, people carrying the wounded on their backs," recalled Ehredt, who was looking at vintage tanks at the Korean War Memorial museum in Seoul.
As for his reaction to the modern-day Seoul, Ehredt exclaimed: "It is proof, if there were any doubt, that the efforts of the American troops were not in vain."
That message was reinforced at a lavish banquet Friday night at Seoul's Hyatt Hotel honoring veterans from all 22 countries who fought in Korea under the U.N. flag. Speakers ranging from former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to South Korean business leaders thanked the veterans for their contributions to South Korea's prosperity.
The Federation of Korean Industries is paying for the trips of hundreds of the veterans, whose names were drawn by lottery.
The celebrations are gratifying to Korean War veterans, who have sometimes complained that their sacrifices have gotten less recognition than those of World War II or Vietnam veterans. Almost 34,000 Americans died during the three-year conflict.
"When we came home, we weren't spat at, we weren't applauded. We were just forgotten," said Savetz, who notes that he rarely talked about the war. "Maybe it is because the war was never officially over and could always start up again."
In anticipation of the festivities, the North Koreans have been surly, calling the main event scheduled yesterday at the truce village of Panmunjom a "dangerous act."
Another discordant note has been the undercurrent of anti-Americanism.
Even though South Koreans have been unfailingly kind, often cheering as the veterans drive by in tour buses, many younger people resent the American role in Korea. In recent months, South Korea has been rocked by large demonstrations against the continuing U.S. military presence.
Yesterday at Panmunjom, a tearful Fred Daniel Bertrand, a former U.S. Marine sergeant, said the "most difficult part of the war was what you left behind, your buddies, people who didn't make it."
The morning ceremony at Panmunjom was timed to coincide with the hour the armistice was signed — 10 a.m. local time on July 27, 1953. An evening ceremony, including a 21-gun salute, was held at the U.S. military headquarters in Seoul to mark the time the cease-fire took effect 12 hours later.
Philip Datz, a veteran from Beaufort, S.C., said he was approached on the street in Seoul the other day by an elderly man who just kept repeating the words, "Thank you."
"I think that was all the English he knew," Datz said. "But it was enough."
