Three flags are popping in the brisk knowing breath of wind above the community park. It is a cold, clear winter morning. They’re building a monument there to the “Forgotten War”: a conflict we tried our best to ignore.
American soldiers froze in summer uniforms. Under supplied and under manned they fought to the death while we buttered our bread and basked in the persistent glow of an old victory.
They were scattered and broken on the anvil of our national negligence yet they persevered. Steely eyed they fired into the night at an enemy they did not know and could not see … and they waited.
They fought for each other while hoping and praying that we would come: yet we faltered. We failed them. Not until the heels of their boots tasted the salt of a southern sea did we take notice.
Yesterday’s hero blinded the world to the plight of our troops warring in a divided land.
Finally we came. The tide was turned but the fallen will not rise again. Some broken have mended … some have not.
So we erect a monument to honor them. We cast in stone a remembrance upon the land where our children play.
So little … so late … yet we salute ... Inchon, Chosin Reservoir, Pusan … the list weighs heavily on our national soul.
They fought bravely and did not waver. They would not give up the battle even when they knew we had forgotten them.
Farewell and God bless dear brothers of the Korean War. Thank you. Where once we forgot …let us here … in this time and place … and forever more … remember.
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