Yes, I remember that date in June 1950. It seems like forever ago and I guess it was. I was a Junior in Stonewall High School. A lot of the boys who were just a little bit older than me had joined the National Guard. It was “easy” money and the guys enjoyed the training and even getting to go to camp every summer for more advanced combat training.

Like I say, I was too young, but my brother Gerald decided he needed to join in with his buddies and tried to enlist. Gerald did real good ‘till he had to take a physical. That big fall he had taken off a cliff on a 2nd grade field trip down at Centrahoma had caused him to “compound” his right leg. Plus, he had flat feet. Defeated, rejected and dejected, Gerald didn’t go with his buddies when they loaded up and shipped out. He stayed home, which was a mixed blessing for the rest of us. He missed Korea.

I didn’t know Korea from Shinola that June night in 1950 when I heard people talking about the North Koreans invading South Korea. Didn’t realize that South Korea was a “client” state of ours and we were legally and morally obligated to defend them from the invasion.

I was operating the projectors upstairs at the Main Theatre in Stonewall that night. The second show had started, and I had crawled through the access door from the projection room out on top of the big marquee to change some letters. That’s why and how I was up in the air, above the small crowd of guys talking on the sidewalk below about their fate and about this strange new war — The Korean War.

It was all we heard and talked about for the next several days. The people of Stonewall were against any kind of war but President Harry S. Truman had made up his mind and eventually mobilized a bunch of people to go over there and fight. In fact, 1.8 million young men would eventually answer Truman’s call. It turned out to be a big deal. Over 36,500 Americans would die in Korea. More that 103,000 were wounded in what is now sometimes called “America’s Forgotten War.” Thousands of our American young men went missing, through capture or whatever, and have never been accounted for. What a disaster.

South Korea was “saved” but the country was completely wrecked. Millions of South Koreans died in the conflict. North Korea was finally brought right back and was saved from annihilation. Today, North Korea still exists, under the thumb of a ruthless, seething, hating, Communist dictator who almost weekly threatens world peace with his threats of nuclear tipped rocket power. Oh Harry Truman, where are you and people like you when we need leadership, Years later, after my service to Uncle Sam ended, I worked with a grizzled old Marine who had served in WWII. He had stayed active in the reserves and after that fateful attack in June, my friend Henry Lockard was called up. Like me he didn’t know where Korea was either but after reporting that night he was outfitted in combat togs, armed and put on a transport, bound for Japan. From Japan, my friend and his hastily formed group were flown to an airport which was under sniper fire. He and the others unloaded under fire and raced for cover. Henry was shot (almost immediately) through his right leg and was felled on the airstrip.

Somehow, they took him back on this same transport plane, flew him back to the states, fixed him and discharged him. Henry told me that he certainly approved of the length of his war. Very short!

Me? I never touched foot in Korea. Joined the Navy instead. Saw Korea from the ocean and thanked God I never had to go to this awful place.

Be sure and go to church Sunday and on this 4th of July just let me say, “God Bless America.”

Wayne Bullard, D. Ph

cwaynebullard@gmail.com