South Korea honors U.S. veterans
for bravery in Korean War
By Sandra Jontz,
Washington bureau
Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes
Thad Wins, right, who fought in the Korean War in 1951, receives a medal of honor from an
unidentified South Korean official as a sign of South Korea's appreciation of American
involvement to keep communism out of the country. |
WASHINGTON — Standing side-by-side in two rows, as straight as
their old bones would allow, 10 men who shared more than aging bodies and nightmares of
war were honored for their bravery against the threat of communism on foreign soil.
They were honored not by their peers of Americans, but by the foreign
government for whom they took up the fight half a century ago.
These men, members of the Maryland Korean War Veterans Association,
each stepped forward at a reception Friday night at the residence of South Korean
Ambassador Yang Sung-chul to receive a Korean medal of honor praising them for their
valor.
“To me, this means a grateful nation that acknowledges what a
few of us have done, and for that I am honored,” said 68-year-old Samuel Fielder Jr.,
who fought with the 1st Division of Marines at Bunker Hill in 1952. “This is an honor
that is very rare for a human being to get.”
Monday marks the 51st anniversary of the onset of the Korean War
— a conflict that officially has not ended.
“Koreans have reserved the month of June as a time to remember
the spirits of the fallen heroes,” said South Korean Minister of Defense Kim
Dong-shin, who attended the reception following a week of meetings with senior U.S.
officials in Washington.
Kim met Thursday with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to
discuss an array of defense issues, including the ongoing threat posed by North Korea and
its government’s failure to let nuclear inspectors examine nuclear and ballistic
missile programs.
Though Friday’s reception was more about reverence than
politics, Kim took the opportunity to speak to the audience of around 200 about South
Korea’s future.
“As the new millennium begins, the focus of the world is again
on Korea,” Kim said. “Last year, the two Koreas held the historical inter-Koran
summit for the first time in 50 years of division. The world witnessed a new possibility
that the South and the North could embrace a new era of reconciliation and cooperation,
moving away from hostility and confrontation. Since the inter-Korea summit, North Korea
began opening its once-closely shut door gradually.”
Even when the two Koreas unite, said an optimistic Kim, Americans
still will be needed and welcomed in his nation.
“The implementation of the reconciliation and cooperation policy
toward North Korea is firmly anchored in the strength and solidity of our combined defense
posture and alliance,” he said. “I am confident that our [Republic of
Korea]-U.S. alliance will continue to deter North Korean threats and will remain key to
maintenance of peace and stability in Northeast Asia.”
He ended his speech by asking the ambassador’s guests to raise a
glass for a toast.
“Wi ha yo,” he said, which in English means:
“Let’s go together.”
Friday’s ceremony was as much for Vincent Krepps as for his twin
brother, who remains one of the missing-in-action from the Korean War, he said.
“My brother is right here beside me, even if he
isn’t,” said the 70-year-old soldier who fought on the Pusan Perimeter. Krepps
traveled in October 1998 to Korea in hopes of locating his brother’s remains —
or a least an answer about what might have happened to his beloved twin.
Boris Spiroff, a veteran of both the Korean War and World War II,
just wants people to remember, he said.
“I feel forgotten. The whole war was forgotten. Too many people
don’t know about Korea,” said the 81-year-old author who penned a book in 1994
after finding letters he sent to his wife while oceans apart.
His wife died in 1990, and in giving away her clothing to the
Salvation Army, Spiroff found a shoe box filled with his letters. Four years later,
“Korea: Frozen Hell on Earth” was published to help others remember, he said.
But Americans are not the only ones to be remembered, said
72-year-old Walter Jordan.
“We should honor the Koreans for all the suffering they went
through,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about what I saw, I get very
emotional, but we should thank them for their suffering.”
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