 The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Illinois Department of
Veterans Affairs, Illinois Korean Memorial Association, and the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, along with media
partners from the Illinois Press Association and the Illinois
Broadcasters Association, are sponsoring this series: "Illinois
Remembers the Forgotten War." For more information, visit
www.illinois-history.gov
or
www.veterans.illinois.gov.___
Illinoisans killed in action in Korea, April 1952
By county of residence
(Source: U.S. Department of Defense records)
Cook:
-
SA Milton J. Kosar,
Navy, April 21
-
Cpl. Henry A. Monzo,
Army, April 24
-
Cpl. Joseph M.
Nowicki, Army, April 5
-
Pfc. Richard S.
Streeter, Marines, April 21
-
Pvt. Carl P. Weiss,
Army, April 3
-
Lt. John C. Workman, Navy, April 20
DuPage:
- Pfc. Delbert F. Austin, Marines, April 25
Lake:
- Cpl. Guido J. Corsini, Marines, April 15
LaSalle:
- 1st Lt. Amos J. Jackson, Army, April 19
Lawrence:
- Pfc. Jerry R. Bryant, Marines, April 5
Lee:
- Pvt. Charles H. Schaefer, Army, April 23
Key events during the Korean War, April 1952
April 1952 began in Korea with the armistice talks at Panmunjom
still ongoing -- and the deaths of soldiers continuing at the front,
where small patrol skirmishes and the occasional artillery duel kept
the body count high and morale low. An executive order signed by
President Harry S. Truman on April 17 helped reduce morale even
further, as it extended the enlistments of U.S. armed forces
involuntarily for nine more months.
Meanwhile, tensions in the U.N. prison camps were growing. For
months, the main issue bogging down the armistice talks had centered
on the question of repatriation of prisoners. The Geneva Convention
held that all prisoners must be returned to their country of origin.
But Truman knew very well the tragedy that occurred following World
War II, with hundreds of thousands of Russians, Lithuanians,
Ukrainians, Cossacks and others forcibly returned to Stalin's Soviet
Union, and to imprisonment or death. Because of that, the U.N.
insisted that North Korean and Chinese prisoners who did not want to
return to their homeland would not be forced to do so. That decision
led to the prisoners being screened to determine their intentions
after the war.
By April, a struggle was raging within the camps between the
prisoners themselves. Tens of thousands of the prisoners desperately
wanted to stay in the south, while the hardened Communists among
them wreaked brutal retribution on the "turncoats."
Prisoner-on-prisoner violence was common, and kangaroo courts led to
summary executions. The U.N. guards had essentially lost control of
many of the camps.
On April 20 the United Nations Command announced that only 70,000
of the 132,000 Communist prisoners in U.N. camps wanted to return
home to China or North Korea. Both sides in the war had been using
POWs as propaganda instruments and bargaining chips at Panmunjom,
and this practice would continue until the end of the war.
Illinois Korean War Memorial
The Illinois Korean War Memorial is in Springfield's Oak Ridge
Cemetery, the same cemetery that contains the Lincoln Tomb. Oak
Ridge is the nation's second-most visited burial ground, behind only
Arlington National Cemetery.
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 Dedicated on June 16, 1996, the memorial consists of a
12-foot-tall bronze bell mounted on a granite base. At the
circumference of the base are four niches, each with a
larger-than-life figure representing a branch of the armed services.
Inscribed on the base are the 1,754 names of Illinoisans killed in
Korea.
The Illinois Korean War Memorial is administered by the Illinois
Historic Preservation Agency and may be visited daily free of
charge.
Korean War veterans oral history project
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
The oral history program at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum offers "Veterans
Remember," a collection of interviews with Illinois residents
about their wartime experiences. The audio interviews on the
library's website,
www.alplm.org/oral_history/home.html, concern the experiences of
Illinois veterans who fought in several conflicts, including the
Korean War, as well as the experiences of those on the home front.
Visitors to the website can listen to or watch the interviews in
their entirety. Several of the interviews have transcripts, and most
have still images as well.
Website visitors will need a computer capable of playing MP3
audio files or MPG compressed video files in order to listen to the
interviews. The transcripts and still images are also accessible.
Volunteers conducted and edited many of the interviews and developed
the transcripts that accompany them.
Korean War National Museum
The Korean War National Museum, or KWNM, celebrates the 60th
anniversary of the Korean War with a new board of directors, new
professional staff and a renewed focus on getting a world-class
museum built now, in the lifetime of the Korean War veterans. Recent
news media reports have outlined a proposal of the KWNM to obtain
7,000 square feet of prime space on Navy Pier in Chicago for a
state-of-the-art, world-class museum where visitors could come to
honor and learn about the service and sacrifices of the Americans,
South Koreans and their U.N. allies in the "forgotten victory."
Those plans are continuing to be developed, and the KWNM hopes to be
able to share some exciting news soon.
Meanwhile, the Denis J. Healy Freedom Center, at 9 South Old
State Capitol Plaza in Springfield, is open Tuesday through Saturday
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are
accepted.
The KWNM welcomes donations of photographs, documents, diaries
and artifacts of those who served in the Korean War. To learn more
about the KWNM, or to volunteer or donate, visit
www.kwnm.org or look for the
museum on Facebook.
Korean War booklet
The Illinois Korean Memorial Association, an all-volunteer
organization, has published a booklet, "A Brief History of the
Korean War," copies of which have been provided free of charge to
public libraries, high schools and junior high schools in Illinois.
Individuals may obtain a copy by sending a $10 check or money order
to: Illinois Korean Memorial Association, P.O. Box 8554,
Springfield, IL 62791.
Tax-deductible donations are welcome. All donations go to the
book project and to the upkeep of the Illinois Korean War Memorial.
[Text from file received from
the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency]
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