Local Korean War veterans and their families were honored to be a part of a seminar called Remembering the Forgotten War, hosted by Operation Bugle Boy and the Missouri River Regional Library.
The Tuesday night seminar was a reminder to the veterans their sacrifices and services are what made the difference in the Korean War.
Keynote speakers included retired Lt. Col. Steven Tharp, a Jefferson City native, and former Army officer William Miller, publisher of the Missourian in Washington. Both men took the audience on a journey down memory lane.
Miller talked about a time when he asked a Korean graduate student at the University of Missouri, who won the Korean War. The student responded, saying, "I guess no one won the war."
Miller immediately asked the student to think about the rights and the high standard of living he had growing up in South Korea.
"Do you think if North Korea had taken over you would be able to live the good life you have?" Miller asked. The student answered, saying, "I guess we won the war."
Throughout the evening, stories like this were used to drive home the fact that without the veterans seated in the audience, none of this would be possible.
"In my opinion, no country was more grateful for the service of U.S. troops than South Korea," Miller concluded.
Tharp currently lives in Seoul, South Korea, and was able to present a timeline of events from 1950-present day.
He called present day South Korea comparable in size to the state of Indiana. He talked about the close quarters neighborhoods are in relation to each other, and how the past conflicts between Koreans and the Japanese shaped their current perspective of each other.
"In the '90s, my wife was in awe that a Japanese woman was pleasant to her," Tharp shared. "It did not to occur to her that a Japanese person could be anything other than an animal. And she was born 12 years after the Japanese colonial period."
Veterans in the audience said Tuesday's seminar was a good history lesson.
After the event, audience members had a chance to look at recent pictures of South Korea taken by Miller during his 2015 visit and autograph a book titled :The Coldest Winter" written by David Halberstam, a story about the Korean War. The books will be sold at Samuel's Tuxedos and Gifts and Candlewood Suites in town in an effort to raise money for the Honor Flights.
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