It wasn't the 360 mile round trip in 5 and half hours up to the mountains of Virginia or the fact it was perfect riding weather that made it a great day. It was the 8 hours with a true American hero and Korean Vet to visit the Korean War Memorial in D.C., my Dad. He turned 81 earlier in the month and it has been on my mind to take him to see the memorial since they built it. We rode down in his pick-up from his house in the mountains to D.C., took the Metro from Vienna and then walked from the Foggy Bottom station to the memorial. Though he is 81 he has the fit and strength of someone in their 60's but none the less that did not keep me from bugging him by asking if he was alright about every 15 minutes when we were out walking. The Mall wasn't too crowded and the area was peppered with the usual protest and special interests that is connected to the area. But that did not keep people around the Viet Nam or Korean War Memorials from paying respect. It was truly a humbling experience to have walked those grounds with my dad. Through the corridor of the Viet Nam Wall you could see the mother's and father's tracing the names of their sons or hear the young girls talking about their grandfather they never met. We made our way over to the Korean War Memorial and as we passed folks we got words of thanks, my Dad wearing his Korean Veteran hat and I in my Army veteran hat. In fact, rewind; when we got off the Metro and had first starting walking down to the memorials, we passed a gentleman who was wearing a well worn hat that said Airborne on it with pins and patches on his hat and vest. When he saw my Dad and I and our hats, he raised his hand in a hardy salute and said thank you! I returned the salute and said "thank you sir." as we continued on our journey. While at the KWM my Dad recounted the men who did not make it back as we looked across the granite memorial wall, and looked at the statue of men across the field. To him it was a familiar site as he was in a heavy weapon squad and recalled marching much like the memorial depicts. He was also a heavy equipment operator in a combat engineer unit and was wounded by mortar fire as he waited to switch with an operator and awarded the Purple Heart. To recount his story: as he stood waiting for the operator to take notice to switch, he was suddenly thrown backwards from a mortar round that landed just short of where he was standing. The blast thrown a piece of shrapnel into his left arm, wounding him. As he gathered himself a lieutenant come to his aide and realizing he needed further medical attention began escorting him to a MASH unit after immediate attention to his wound. The hills of Korea is tough and the lieutenant needed to rest a moment. My Dad not wanting to bleed to death marched on and they were soon seperated. The lieutenant ended up at a different MASH and not able to locate my father reported him MIA. The MASH unit that my Dad made it to tended to his wounds and sent him on to the rear for further treatment. As news was reaching my mom that my Dad was MIA, he was able to get a call in to her stateside telling her he was wounded and being treated. That is when he found out also that he had been reported MIA. Anyway, thanks for letting me share, and I want to thank all those who also served our great nation, the true hero's of freedom that continues to ring even today!
Edited by varyder 2009-05-31 7:08 AM
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