Louisiana Legionnaire submitted father’s story to Legiontown.
G.M. Forman submitted to Legiontown a powerful account of Roland Forman, G.M.’s father, and his memories of service in the Korean War.
“The ‘Forgotten War’ that my dad remembers.
He remembers the bitter cold. It was so cold, the ground froze so deeply that the dead soldiers were piled up for months until the ground thawed enough to bury them.
He remembers the fleeing refugees being slaughtered by the North Korean and Chinese communist troops.
He remembers the camp orphans he "adopted.”
He remembers the shelling, and his comrades-in-arms to the left and right of him no longer there when the bombardment ended.
He remembers not sleeping for days because of the seemingly never-ending waves of enemy troops assaulting his position, blowing whistles and horns, throwing rocks at first, then grenades, then small-arms fire, then rifle fire, then bayonet charges.
He remembers that if you did fall asleep, you froze to death.
He remembers his friend taking his night patrol because his new 90-day wonder ordered him to a briefing, and his buddy being captured when it should have been him.
He remembers that there was no such thing as PTSD for his generation.
He remembers there were 7,747 American soldiers still unaccounted for from the Korean War as of June 2017. [According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the current number is over 7,600.]
He remembers what most don't, that the Korean War is the longest continuous war in U.S. history with only a "cease-fire" being agreed upon. We are still at a state of war (more than) 67 years later. There is no treaty or armistice declaring an end to the war.
He remembers that the politicians called it a "police action," a politically correct, euphemistic term denying it was ever a war. A war lost between World War II and the Vietnam War. A war barely even worthy of being remembered by Hollywood. No wonder it is forgotten.
My Dad,
Master Sgt. R. Forman
U.S. Army Infantry
Korean Combat Veteran”
Roland Forman is a member of American Legion Post 175 in Metairie, La.
- Honor & Remembrance