Free Republic

  Kim Is Dead, South Korea Lives David C. Stolinsky Dec. 19, 2011 North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is dead. His third son is believed to be in line to succeed him. Aside from the fact that Kim was a bloodthirsty tyrant, I have two additional complaints. The first is that his name cannot be written properly in Arial, the font I use. The problem is that a capital i is indistinguishable from a lower-case L. So Kim Jong Il looks like Kim Jong the Second. The only alternatives are to write il in lower case as Kim Jong-il,...

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - They served our country during a time of war, but now some Massachusetts veterans say state lawmakers are turning their backs on them. The Korean War is already known as “The Forgotten War”. Local veterans of that war say Beacon Hill is forgetting about the state's official Korean War Veterans Memorial in Charlestown.

Vandals target Korean War Memorial Katherine Scott PENN'S LANDING - December 11, 2011 (WPVI) -- For the third December in a row, custodian James Moran says he's picking up the pieces by the war memorials at Penn's Landing. This afternoon he called police after discovering five wreaths destroyed. They were placed by the Korean War Memorial on Veterans Day. "We have young men and women dying in Afghanistan and Iraq for our flag; it's a disgrace this goes on every single year," Moran said. More: See more Action News slideshows Moran says flowers were torn off or stolen. Moran found...

After 60 years of waiting, worrying and wondering, the family of a young Army medic who died in the Korean War is preparing to give him a hometown military burial. The remains of Pfc. Jimmie Jimenez Gaitan arrived Wednesday at San Antonio International Airport. Relatives who've long sought to bring him home were on the Tarmac. SNIP Adams said his uncle was one of more than 4,000 U.S. and United Nations troops whose skeletal remains were returned in 1954 in exchange for repatriation of some 13,000 North Korean and Chinese troops in an initiative known as “Operation Glory.” Gaitan's remains...

In a remarkable testament to new technology, the remains of three Minnesotans who died within weeks of one another as prisoners in the Korean War -- their whereabouts unknown for 60 years -- will be back at home within a month of each other. In a remarkable testament to fate, two of them may have been in the same prison camp at the same time in early 1951. One was James Sund, an Army corporal whose remains will be flown Friday evening to the airport in Fargo, N.D., and receive military honors. He will be buried Tuesday in his hometown...

Robert L. Gibson MSG. Robert L. Gibson, US Army SF (RET), passed away on Feb. 10, 2011. He was born on May 16, 1927 to Lacy & Mary Gibson. When he was 16 he signed up for the draft. He was drafted and turned 18 while serving in Germany during WWII. He stayed in the Army, and became a Paratrooper with Special Forces. He was the youngest Paratrooper in the 17th Airborne according to "Thunder From Heaven". He served in WWII, Korea, and 3 tours to Viet Nam. He served in various outfits including: 17th Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry...

South Korea has joined with only two other countries in the world in dropping the name of the forthcoming film "Captain America" and using the subtitle, "The First Avenger." The other two countries are Russia and Ukraine. According to the New York Times report, "Although that country (South Korea) is one of Hollywood's top-performing territories, resentment about the continued presence of the United States military runs deep." For years now, I have intended to write a column about the most glaring case of international ingratitude of which I am aware. The "Captain America" story has finally pushed me over the...

The story of Reckless is not only remarkable - it is unusual. And once you learn about her, you will see why the Marine Corps not only fell in love with her - but honored her and promoted her every chance they got. And it wasn’t just the Marines that served with her in the trenches that honored her - her last promotion to Staff Sergeant was by Gen. Randolph McC Pate - the Commandant of the entire Marine Corps. You can’t get higher than that in the Marines. Reckless joined the Marines to carry ammunition to the front lines...

The mystery surrounding a US soldier who vanished on the Korean War battlefield 60 years ago has been solved after his remains were identified using DNA testing.

The ghost ships of Mothball Fleet: Incredible pictures of abandoned Navy war ships taken by crew of illegal squatters They are the Navy ships that heroically fought in World War Two, now slowly rotting in a San Francisco bay. And as they are being towed, one by one, for scrapping, in just a few years they will all be gone. A group of illegal squatters gained unprecedented access to the vessels by rowing at night for two years past security and climbing onto the ships, sleeping secretly on board for days at a time. And as these stunning images show,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIo3ZfA9da0&feature=player_embedded

Holding a tattered POW/MIA flag in his hands, Korean War veteran Bob Dumas can not hide the disgust at the vandals who damaged it. "Desecrating a flag that represents so much to the families is unbelievable," said Dumas, 81, of Canterbury. For years, the POW/MIA flag flew on the flag pole outside the Plainfield Post Office, until vandals got a hold of it. "This happened sometime during the night Tuesday night into Wednesday," said Plainfield Deputy Police Chief Michael Surprenant. Vandals removed the flag, cut deliberate holes in it with a knife and then ran it back up the flag...

Seventy-five year old Perry Thrasher is a veteran in the spinal cord unit at the Memphis VA Hospital. He is paralyzed, but his family says he wanted a confederate flag for his room. "His granddaddy was in the Confederate War and it means a lot to him because he served in it. It's just his heritage," says Diane Boatner, Thrasher's daughter. She was shocked by what happened Friday. "He was all upset and crying. The VA Police had come and told him he couldn't have it. He had it right over his bed," says Boatner. She says a nurse saw...

WASHINGTON -- Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang gave a musical shout out to America-hating patriots in his homeland when he played at the White House state dinner last week. During his performance, Lang tinkled the ivories with the famous anti-American propaganda tune "My Motherland" -- the theme song from the Chinese-made Korean War movie "Battle on Shangangling Mountain."

The day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with South Korean and Japanese diplomats, China is calling claims that Beijing is guarding North Korea’s nuclear program an “irresponsible accusation,” Reuters reports. "The responsibility of maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia should be shouldered by all parties in the region – all parties are stakeholders," said China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, responding to Clinton’s dismissal of Beijing’s call for additional talks on North Korea. "We call on the parties to positively respond to our proposals to resolve the conflict through dialogue and negotiation."

...In unbelievably difficult service in the Korean War, his unit was swamped, cut off, overwhelmed by hordes of Red Chinese crossing into Korea. In the worst cold weather imaginable, under fire, starving, acting Sergeant Charles Rangel, in a black unit led mostly by white officers, took a large group of men, led them by example, lifted their morale, as they fought their way out to safety. Men were being shot, freezing, getting captured all around him, yet he got most of his men out...

(Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, setting buildings on fire and prompting a return fire by the South, Seoul's military and media reports said.

N. Korea fires artillery towards S. Korean island, official says SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday fired several rounds of artillery towards South Korean waters and an island near the tense west sea border, the South's military said. The North's artillery shells fell at 2:34 p.m. in the South's waters off the island of Yeonpyeong, some of them landing directly on the island, said Col. Lee Bung-woo, spokesman at the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South's military responded with its artillery firing.

Dear Lord, There's a young man far from home, called to serve his nation in time of war; sent to defend our freedom on some distant foreign shore. We pray You keep him safe, we pray You keep him strong, we pray You send him safely home ... for he's been away so long. There's a young woman far from home, serving her nation with pride. Her step is strong, her step is sure, there is courage in every stride. We pray You keep her safe, we pray You keep her strong, we pray You send her safely home...

The 13th annual Korean War Era/POW-MIA Remembrance Day event begins at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, Wash. All Korean War era veterans will be honored and recognized for their service. (I-Newswire) September 15, 2010 - Separated from his fighting unit, Tacoma native Bill Moeller trudged through thick snow in thin rubber boots near the Chipyongni area of Korea. He hid behind boulders while a troop of Asian soldiers marched past, then glanced over his shoulder to see white flares, indicating a Chinese surge forward. “The hill behind the lights appeared to be moving, like...