Being Proud On Memorial Day

[Steven Tari]

Watching all the war movies this weekend, I've finally seen Pork Chop Hill. Having seen the movie it brought a lot of different feelings to me putting all these years of stories together for me. My father was a lifer in the Army. He has drug me around the world to different bases my whole childhood. He's fought in Korea and Vietnam. But has never talked about his time in war. When I was real young my grandmother told me how she had been told that my father was killed in the Korean war And how she had buried him. This confused me since he was here. Not until a couple years ago my father and I were having breakfast together with his VFW friends. I found out the whole story of his rising from the grave.

He was with the force that fought on Pork Chop Hill. He was hit by shrapnel during the battle and was taken prisoner by the Chinese. He had lost his dog tags so when the US finally took the hill that's all they found of him. So the Army told my grandmother that he was dead . So my grandmother buried him With out a body. Well during trades of American GI's he was traded. He was messed up pretty bad and was in a comma. So he was a John Doe. When he finally woke up from the comma he let them know his name but the Army never got in contact with my grandmother to tell her. So when he was finally released from the hospital he went home.

He said when he got there the people he knew couldn't believe their eye's. When he got home he knocked on the door, My grandmother answered and Fainted. They never told me what they did with his Grave.

Anyone else have a story about themselves or maybe a family member to share.