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Review:
August 4, 1995
Dear Mr. Euwer,
Your sister kindly forwarded to me a copy of your book, NO LONGER FORGOTTEN, and it caught up with me during my visit to Houston last week. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate both your sister's kind gesture and your hard work to bring to light the sacrifices and courage of those who served in the Korean War. I am proud to have it for my Presidential Library collection. Best wishes to you, sir, and thank you again.
Sincerely,
GEORGE BUSH
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 26, 1995
BOOK PUTS FACE ON FORGOTTEN WAR
Korean War Memorial dedication ceremonies are set for tomorrow in our nation's capital and one of the veterans in the Distinguished Visitors Section will be Robert Euwer.
He is one of the volunteers who have spent several years raising funds for the project, which is located near the Vietnam War Memorial. And, by the way, he also has written and published a book: NO LONGER FORGOTTEN -- The Korean War & Its Memorial.
Bob's most vivid memories from that war include something that happened while he was using the latrine and some "Chinese artillery came whistling in." Actually, the shells being shot weren't Chinese to begin with. The Chinese got them from the Russians. But they weren't Russian shells to begin with, either.
"Before I could move from my 'unprepared' position, a shell burst close by and showered the latrine with pieces of shrapnel," Bob wrote on page 54. One fragment stuck in the wood about 6 inches from his head.
"I gave it a moment to cool and then pulled it out," he said. "It had a logotype printed on it that read... Minden Ordinance, Minden Louisiana USA." The Russians had acquired some ammunition from the United States in agreements reached when World War II was winding down a few years earlier. "Could you beat that," Bob wrote. "They were firing our own ammo at us. Ammo made, moreover, quite close to home."
Bob said his wife came from Arcadia, just a few miles up the road from Minden.
WOUNDED, BUT WALKING
Another piece of that shell gashed one of Bob's knees. The wound had him limping for a while, but it healed OK and he never reported it. He said he didn't want a Purple Heart that said: "injured while sitting on the pot." Bob now lives in Granbury and is retired after a long career as a petroleum-hunting geologist.
He said it was against the rules to keep a diary if you were fighting in Korea because it might have fallen into enemy hands and they might have learned something from it that our generals might have preferred them not to. So Bob wrote letters home at a rate averaging almost one a day. He included as much detail as was allowed in them, figuring they could serve the same purpose as a diary.
He referred to those letters when working on his book. It is organized in chapters alternating between the big picture and Bob's personal experiences. Each chapter also includes the citation text for a Medal of Honor recipient. Bob also included some reproductions of newspaper reports about major developments in the war at sites such as Porkchop Hill, Arrowhead Ridge, Old Baldy.
He said his work as a lieutenant in the war was as a forward observer and a platoon leader, during the last several months of action. ONLY ONE DATE MATTERED
"I essentially dedicated 1953 to the cause," he said. "That was the year Princess Elizabeth became Queen of England, Edmund Hillary scaled Mount Everest, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. In baseball, the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee and the New York Yankees won their fifth straight World Series. In Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell starred in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Gary Cooper was the number one box office attraction. Top popular songs included Doggie In The Window and Stranger in Paradise. But these were all happenings I was mostly unaware of. The only important happening to me in 1953 occurred on July 27 when the Korean War came to an end."
Many of us don't know very much about the Korean War. It happened while I was in elementary school. That was before I paid any attention to newspaper stories. And before television came to our house.
In many ways, Korea got lost in the shadow of World War II. People were busy enjoying the boom that followed the prolonged period of shortages and rationing.
And, although there was controversy about Korea, it did not approach the level of controversy sparked by the Vietnam War, a few years later. So, sandwiched between a bigger controversy, the lessons of the Korean War have not had as much study and consideration from many of us as they should have.
Perhaps this monument -- and memoirs like Bob's -- can help focus our attention and change that.
--Thom Marshall
At last, after 42 years, a memorial stands in honor of the 5.7 million Americans who were in the service during the Korean War. The author reviews the war and the long and difficult road towards the completion of the memorial.
Today, a conclusion to any story about the Korean War would be that, after 42 years, it is now recognized by a memorial on the Mall adjacent to the Lincoln and Vietnam memorials. In essence it is "NO LONGER FORGOTTEN".
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July 27, 1953
"We have won an armistice on a single battleground, not peace in the world. We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
