[NEWS CENTER Maine] 한국전 참전용사들에 평화의 사도 메달 수여 | Maine Korean War veterans receive long awaited honors

Maine still has one of the highest proportions of military veterans of any state in the country we have honored many of them over the years but one group has been somewhat overlooked 207's Don carrian is here with that story Don hi Robin Sam the Korean War 1950 to 1953 involved more than a million American Service members but those veterans have never really gotten the attention other vets have received last week the state of Maine tried to change that on the National Mall in Washington in the shadow of the trees is the haunting and slightly mysterious Memorial to those Americans who fought the Korean War a conflict that 71 years later is still looked on as the Forgotten War took 38,000 troops that's a lot George Maxim had just turned 17 when he joined the army Before the War Began I quit school and my father said you either find a job or we're going to sign you up to go in the army and that's just what they did I was 17 years and 5 days did you know what you were getting into no but I learned awful fast so did about 40,000 other maners who served during the war George was a cook in a military police Battalion when they got orders to ship out to Korea I want to tell you we hit hit a storm that kept us down below deck for 3 days at that point in the war the US and South Korean forces had pushed the North Koreans back toward the Chinese border so George and his Battalion landed in North Korea to help with refugees but then the Chinese Army invaded from the north the Chinese was getting too close for comfort so our commanding officer says we're gonna get the hell out of here we ain't gonna by then Stanley hodon from Booth Bay had joined the Air Force as an engine mechanic stationed in Korea they needed engineers and guys to fly them with them so I went for them on I was on flying status but I wasn't a pilot or anything flying c47s like this on regular shuttle missions between Korea and Japan there was three of them and they took turns going from Korea to Japan back and forth St oh really and people that big general or something would come we'd have to take them up to the front lines and stuff all that and as with most Korean War veterans one of their strongest memories is the cold there was a cold and so much snow some of the guys were standing right up in Fox and freeze to death cuz they didn't finish him the the stuff they should have had we had to find a a a steel Peg to drive in the ground so we could use a wooden Peg to hold a tent up that's how cold it was the cold took its toll but the battlefield took more by the ceasefire in 1953 nearly 38,000 Americans had been killed 242 of them Mayers Maine however has now remembered with us and Korean flags and of the with the US national anthem and the Korean 15 Veterans of that war and three dozen families of departed veterans gathered at the State House to Mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the Korean War your husband your brother your fathers and your grandfathers faced un imaginable challenges the Korean Council General came from Boston to offer personal thanks it is greatest honor for all for me and for all the Korean people standing in front of you but I cannot express enough thanks and respect with any wor um just to say thank you [Applause] then in a hall that has honored many other main vets these 15 Korean veterans finally received the credit due from an official of the government they helped to save Stanley J hodon Stanley hodon and George Maxim both told us they never got a big welcome at the time and didn't really expect one there weren't big parades or big things to honor you nothing I just TR this when I come home I come back I went over on a ship and I come back on a ship and I was the Air Force I mean it was it kind of weird really but the years have gone by and they have thought about it I wasn't a fighting Soldier so but I think about a lot of the guys that didn't make it there 38,000 troops that didn't come home and I think about those guys a lot they all do these veterans are in their 90s now a lifetime away from the war most of us still know little about but now we know these veterans served and sacrificed and that finally has been honored a lot of people probably don't know it but Maine does have a Korean War Memorial it's in Bangor in the the beautiful Mount Hope Cemetery uh the memorial was built with donations of money and materials and labor provided by the main National Guard it's right there in honor of those 242 Mayers who died and the 40,000 who served and a lot of those Korean War veterans from Maine have gone down to Washington DC as part of Honor Flight you've reported on them numerous times Don yeah yes uh and uh George Maxim who we interviewed there he did make make an honor flight trip both said is very meaningful yeah all right thanks John stay with us