May 18, 2005

War stories impact students

Jack Miller and Gene Ferries share insights about fighting in Korean War

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Forgotten no more, the Korea War was front and center Monday for ninth grade students at West Junior High. The three-year battle against expanding Communism that killed 54,000 American soldiers was put on the students' radar screen thanks to two area veterans: Jack Miller and Gene Ferries.
      The pair visited the school all day to describe their experiences during the war. They also outlined the history of the war, some of the major campaigns, the involvement of the United States and the other parties involved, including China and the Soviet Union.
      "It was not a very big peninsula, but a lot happened in a short time," said Ferries, who received a Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds received in 1951.
      The war began with a June 1950 invasion of the South Korea by the North, when 120,000 troops plus Soviet tanks and planes swooped down the peninsula. President Harry Truman obtained a resolution from the United Nations Security Council ordering the aggressors back. This move was possible because the Soviet Union had been boycotting the United Nations at the time, removing their sure-fire veto of that resolution.
      Noting that the North Koreans ignored the UN resolution, Ferries described the United States involvement, led by General Douglas MacArthur, and the three-year quest to retake lost ground.
      It was a bitter war, fought in a country of extremes: heat of 120 degrees in the summer and 30 below in the winter. The poverty stricken country was devastated by the war, though Ferries was amazed at the transformation he saw on television during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
      "They went back and forth three times, Seoul was absolutely demolished," recalled Ferries, who served in 1951 with the Army's First Calvary division. "When we went through Seoul in 1951, when I got there, the only thing standing was the railroad station and city hall, and they were skeletons; the rest were shacks."
      Listening to snapshots of history from someone who lived it made the Korean War real to the students.
      "You don't really hear about the Korean War and by being here, they kind of put it in perspective for us," said Bethany Cunningham.
      Delving into their personal experiences, the veterans brought along everything from uniforms and weapons to dog tags and equipment. They filled two tables with decades old Army paraphernalia that had been a part of their daily lives.
      The backpack alone weighed 60 pounds and everything they carried or wore was necessary for survival. Men became mobile bombs as they loaded pockets, belts and shirts with grenades and ammunition before a patrol because the small squads of men were mostly on their own.
      Hygiene - and everything else including hot food and sleep - took a back seat to survival.
      "We used our helmet as a bathtub, you could wash your hands and face," said Ferries, who also displayed a World War I helmet that his father wore. "We had two showers in two and a half months there. But you had to shave, no beards, they didn't want you to look like a rummy."
      Cunningham was particularly impressed by a 90-mm tank shell plus an ammunition box, which Ferries weighted with rocks and sand to mimic the ten-pound boxes soldiers carried - by hand, while marching, all day - to feed the machine gun.
      "We realized how heavy everything was and that they had to carry it around all the time," she added.
      Now in their 70s, these veterans fulfilled another important mission: bring the Korean War to life for a new generation. Their visit coincided with the students' current history studies; earlier in the year, World War II veterans discussed that more well-known era.
      Notably, these Korean War veterans performed a needed service for students by presenting a war that lingers in obscurity.
      "They [the students] look on the map and they get mixed up with the Vietnam War, there are two peninsulas and two parallels," said Inara Kurt, a history teacher at the school. "We talk about the 17th parallel and the 38th parallel and there's north and south and, for the kids who weren't around, it's very confusing."
      "So for kids who don't have any connection it's kind of tough," she added. "And we want to get these veterans while they're still willing and able."