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 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 the Illinois Press Association and the Illinois
Broadcasters Association, are sponsoring "Illinois Remembers the
Forgotten War." For more information, visit
www.illinois-history.gov
or
www.veterans.illinois.gov.
Illinoisans killed in action in Korea,
February 1953
By county of residence
(Source: U.S. Department of Defense records)
Adams:
- Pfc. William R. Pohlman, Army, Feb. 7.
Champaign:
- Pfc. Richard V. Parker, Marines, Feb. 3.
Coles:
- Pvt. Delmar E. Conner, Army, Feb. 6.
Cook:
-
Pfc. Frederick R.
Fagan, Army, Feb. 14.
-
Cpl. Leonard
Goldsmith, Army, Feb. 9.
-
Pfc. Emil A. Larsen,
Jr., Army, Feb. 28.
-
Pfc. Roy L. Maxwell,
Marines, Feb. 26.
-
Pfc. Michael Rizdy,
Army, Feb. 27.
-
Pfc. Stanley J.
Stefaniak, Marines, Feb. 27.
Fulton:
- Cpl. Leo E. Hilton, Army, Feb. 12.
Kankakee:
- Pfc. Ronald C. Usher, Marines, Feb. 1.
Lake:
-
Cpl. Robert V.
Larson, Army, Feb. 12.
-
Pfc. Robert G. Shoulders, Army, Feb.
21.
LaSalle:
- Pfc. Jack G. Shanyfelt, Marines, Feb. 22.
Marion:
- 2nd Lt. Cyril E. Delay, Army, Feb. 17.
Mason:
- Cpl. Herbert H. Jones, Army, Feb. 24.
Peoria:
- 2nd Lt. Charles D. Garner, Army, Feb. 26.
Sangamon:
- Cpl. Billy G. Morris, Army, Feb. 11.
Stephenson:
- Pfc. Sammie Locash, Marines, Feb. 3.
Tazewell:
- Cpl. Robert A. Bush, Marines, Feb. 23.
Winnebago:
- Pfc. Fred R. Johnson, Army, Feb. 2.
Key events during the Korean War, February 1953
The front line in Korea was quiet in February 1953 -- cold and
quiet. An occasional skirmish flared up between U.S. and Chinese
troops at places with names like T-Bone Hill, Alligator's Jaw, Hill
Detroit and Hill 101. The names were colorful but meant little to
the American public; they were just more nondescript places where
the nation's young men were fighting and dying to maintain what
could only be described as a stalemate. Most Americans were anxious
to bring the war to an end.
More changing of the guard took place in February 1953 as
President Dwight D. Eisenhower made moves to end the Korean War. On
Feb. 10 Eisenhower appointed Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor to replace Gen.
James Van Fleet as commander of the 8th U.S. Army, making Taylor the
commander of all American ground forces in Korea.
Van Fleet had guided the U.S. fighting effort for nearly two
years during some of the hardest fighting of the war. Now largely
forgotten by history, Van Fleet was a highly decorated combat
veteran of World Wars I and II who was wounded leading his regiment
ashore on Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion in June 1944. While
serving as 8th Army commander, he lost his son, Air Force Capt.
James A. Van Fleet Jr., in an April 1952 bombing raid over North
Korea. Upon returning home in 1953, Van Fleet claimed he could have
achieved total victory in Korea in 1951 except for "pusillanimous"
military and political decisions. He retired in April 1953 as a
four-star general.
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 Taylor, Van Fleet's replacement, was one of America's bona fide
World War II heroes, made famous due to his exploits as a secret
agent in wartime Italy, and especially as the commander of the famed
101st Airborne Division, leading the paratroopers through the D-Day
landings, Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.
Taylor immediately set about making changes designed to increase
the efficiency and readiness of 8th Army troops. But he found that
the war in Korea was a very different kind of affair from the one he
fought in northern Europe. There was no movement, only stagnation;
no commitment to victory, only a desire to maintain the status quo
until an armistice was signed. Under these terms, he would grow
increasingly reluctant to spend American lives for the remote and
barren hilltops of Korea.
Illinois Korean War Memorial
The Illinois Korean War Memorial is located 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.
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 names of 1,754 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, at the library's website,
www.alplm.org/oral_history/home.html. The interviews 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 renewed focus on getting a
world-class museum built now, in the lifetime of the Korean War
veterans. Meanwhile, the Denis J. Healy Freedom Center, located 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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