Every one of the 555 days he was a prisoner of war in Korea, Jack Ledford faced a “life struggle.” The only reason the Fredericksburg native survived it was a Hill Country upbringing that toughened him up, he told those gathered for a remembrance of the Korean War last Wednesday, July 27. Led by
Every one of the 555 days he was a prisoner of war in Korea, Jack Ledford faced a “life struggle.”
The only reason the Fredericksburg native survived it was a Hill Country upbringing that toughened him up, he told those gathered for a remembrance of the Korean War last Wednesday, July 27.
Led by Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Commander Jim Bisson, the purpose of the gathering that filled the Frantzen-Ahrens Post 7105 on South Washington Street was to pay due tribute to “The Forgotten War.”
Sandwiched between America’s biggest war, World War II, and its longest war in Vietnam, the Korean War sometimes gets overlooked, which led to its unfortunate moniker.
But, there was little forgetting by the Korean War veterans, their families and friends and veterans from other conflicts who gathered at the VFW Hall to recall the fighting that officially began on Sunday, June 25, 1950, and changed so many of their lives.
Three years of battles ensued with troops pushing back and forth across the 38th parallel, but it was essentially a trench war by its second year.
The final armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953, ceasing fire and creating the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
By that time, though, the United States had suffered 33,686 battle deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. That morbid sum included: 23,637 killed in action, 2,484 who died of wounds, 4,759 who went missing in action and 2,806 who succumbed while prisoners of war.
What’s more, the non-battle deaths tallied 2,830, while some 103,284 suffered wounds.
“It was an experience I wouldn’t want anybody else to go through,” Ledford recalled. “I just thank the good Lord every day that I can get up and move around and do what I can do.”
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