Thank you

I love this photo.

Korean War Vets.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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11 Comments

  1. Sweet pic.

    Korea was before Gunny Ermey’s time, but I never miss an opportunity to hit the replay button on his Geico drill instructor video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFgiUm4lQig&feature=related

    Just change the patient’s “yellow” issue with one who can’t handle the thought of the new Missal translation.

  2. Microtouch says:

    My PoP is a Korean war vet. My brother and my son were in Iraq. I couldn’t be more proud of them or of our fighting men & women. God Bless and keep them all.

  3. Mike Morrow says:

    The U. S. veterans of the Korean War are *the* most ignored and forgotten U. S. veterans in U.S. history, even more so than those of the Vietnam era. Those who survived North Korean POW camps, the most savage of any war in U.S. history, then had to suffer years of mis-trust and suspicion by their own government.

    Their service and sacrifices were ignored and discounted by most WWII veterans back home…the same people who 15 years later did little to honor veterans of the Vietnam era. Since neither of these conflicts qualified as a “real” war in the eyes of most of the WWII generation, the veterans who followed them afterwards obviously did not deserve the honor and adulation accorded to WWII veterans.

    I challenge any to find greater heroism on any field than that of Fr. Emil Kapaun, Captain, U.S. Army, who died a prisoner of North Korea in 1951. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Kapaun)

    I say a special thanks to any Korean War vet that I meet today.

  4. digdigby says:

    Korea, the first war we fought not to win. Read the story of Father Emil Kapuan chaplain and POW Servant of God and candidate for Sainthood. (A SHEPHERD IN COMBAT BOOTS). A great read for your teenager or anyone really. The POW conditions were beyond belief. Kapuan, himself dying, went from bunk to bunk where men lay in their own filth dying of dysentery and too weak to move. They would see him and a flicker of humanity would return to their faces…”Father….Father… Father” He would take their filthy rags, break a hole in the icy river and wash them as best he could. He prayed with all his men, with the protestants, the Our Father. With the Jews he improvised as best he could. All loved him. See the site for the cause of his sainthood and pray to him, especially for your service members sick or in danger. http://www.frkapaun.org/

  5. Mike Morrow says:

    I should have cited earlier the eight part series on Fr. Kapaun from 2009 that appeared in the Wichita Eagle: http://www.kansas.com/kapaun/ .

  6. Thomas G. says:

    God bless these vets. The Korean War was truly an infantryman’s war, and it was fought savagely in horrific climate conditions. The story of Pfc Hector Cafferata, Medal of Honor winner, is a case in point – he fought through the night against a Chinese human wave assault, in 25 degree BELOW zero weather, in a t-shirt, socks, and shorts (he was in his sleeping bag when the assault started at 01:00 AM).

  7. A big, hearty SEMPER FI to all my brother Marines out there, living and dead. Thanks for posting this, Fr. Z.

    -Sean Dailey, Sgt., USMC, Jan. 1991-Dec. 1994 (3/11, 29 Palms, Calif.)

  8. Tina in Ashburn says:

    God Bless ’em. I hope they go straight tah heaven for their dear sacrifices.

  9. jaykay says:

    The husband of one of my neighbours was USAF, an Irishman who went to the States in the 50s and enlisted in the USAF. He served in Vietnam, and returned in a wheelchair. Died in 1982, early, as a result of his wounds (they had moved back to Ireland at that stage, and he was on pension). I was in our local cemetery just after All Souls’ and happened to pass the grave. The stone seems to have been erected by the US Govt., as it’s very plain (simple and impressive, I should add). Not unlike the British War Graves’ Commission ones which are common enough here, naturally. His wife’s name is now added. I hadn’t realised she had died, as I thought she had gone to live with the family. God rest that generation. They knew the meaning of uncomplaining sacrifice for the common good.

  10. Peter Kim says:

    As a native Korean, I cordially appreciate numerable Americans’ sacrifice in Korean War. Here is another great story of Korean War hero, who later became a Benedictine brother.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgvcGv-DdQ
    http://vimeo.com/15690428

  11. Peter Kim says:

    I am sorry. I meant “numerous.” During Korean War, captain Leonard P. LaRue (1914-2001) saved 14,000 Korean civilians including five babies born in S.S. Meredith Victory during its 28 hours’ voyage from Heungnam to Pusan. Captain LaRue later entered into St. Paul’s Abbey in Newton, New Jersey in 1954. Brother Marinus (captain LaRue) left a short comment about the miracle that had led him to vocation.

    “I think often of that voyage. I think of how such a small vessel was able to hold so many persons and surmount endless perils without harm to a soul. And, as I think, the clear, unmistakable message comes to me that on that Christmastide, in the bleak and bitter waters off the shores of Korea, God’s own hand was at the helm of my ship.”

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