My Niece Robin asked me about my time served during the Korean war, What Korean war? If you research it you will discover there never was a Korean War! Our government refused to call it a war even though 33,600 American died for their cause and more than 100,000 wounded.

It was know as The Korean "conflict" in Washington and also was known as a "Police Action" in the early days as we were only supposed to help the South Koreans in their Civil War. Let me tell you, It was a WAR!. It started when North Korea launched a massive surprise attack against the South on June 25, 1950. It finally ended in July 1953. I served in the Navy aboard the Battleship USS Wisconsin. We patrolled the coast of Korea in late 1952 and early 1953 bombarding coastal targets. No one won this "War"!

On April 11, 1951, President Truman announced the dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his duties as Allied Commander of United Nations forces in the Far East. As commander, MacArthur led U.N. forces north to the Chinese border, but was forced to retreat south as China entered the fight with North Korea in November 1950. By late winter of 1951, the U.N. forces had regrouped against communist forces, and fighting continued along the 38Th parallel. President Truman was furious as he felt MacArthur was exceeding his orders. This was a real shock to most of us in the service as he had been the commander in chief under our presidents since WWI. But that's another story.

I spent many nights at "Battle Stations" as we patrolled and bombarded the shoreline refineries and oil depots with our 16" projectiles which weighed more than a ton and could hit a target more than 20 miles away. I have always been thankful that I served in the navy and not had to endure the hardships that the Marines and the Army suffered ashore. We had a comfortable place to sleep and 3 warm meals a day out of harms way.

When the troops came home from WWI there were ticker tape parades and celebrations as we welcomed home the troops from overseas. There were even bigger parades and celebrations as the troops returned from WW2 to our shores. The Viet Nam war was similar to the Korean one in the sense everyone felt we should never been there in the first place, Nevertheless In all three wars there were honors and accolades bestowed on all the returning Vets. There always seemed to be a program to help with education, welfare, health

In those days men of my age were assigned a draft number according to your birth date. In 1951 I was going to be 20 years old in July and I was worried about the draft.