Korean War veterans honored 'Today we're not going to forget' http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20120523/NEWS01/205230314

Whenever folks ask William Massengale of Petal about his experiences during the Korean War, he says he gives them just "the facts." "I don't elaborate on it. Sometimes you want to forget what happened over there," said Massengale, explaining that it hurts to dwell on "who we lost and what we lost." However, it's the need to remember that spurred a special ceremony honoring Mississippi Korean War veterans on Tuesday at Lake Terrace Convention Center. "All too often the Korean War has been known as the forgotten war," said Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Collins, adjutant general of Mississippi's National Guard. "Well, today we're not going to forget."

It's not simply that the war has become a distant memory, with nearly 60 years' separation from its end in July 1953. The war started in June 1950. It's also the fact the war has suffered the indignity of sometimes being classified as just a conflict or police action in the years since - despite the fact it cost 32,000 Americans their lives. "The folks I served with, they didn't think it was a police action," said Massengale who served for 18 months as a corporal in the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division. U.S. Department of Defense representatives presented more than 50 veterans with certificates of gratitude for their defense of South Korea against invasion by communist North Korea.

The certificates commended them for fighting "in defense of democracy and freedom" as they "stemmed the tide of communism" on the Korean peninsula. The ceremony came through a partnership of the Department of Defense, African American Military History Museum and the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum. It's one of many such events across the nation. Congress authorized the Department of Defense in 2010 to organize ceremonies through 2013 in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the war. Mayor Johnny DuPree began the ceremony by recognizing some prominent Hattiesburg residents who fought in Korea, including former Mayor Bobby Chain and Clarence Magee, president of the Forrest County branch of the NAACP.