Steve snapped some photos of the Veteran’s Day Events on Saturday and Sunday. He also added some information, too!
Steve writes, “Sunday I photographed Jack and his restored MB and M-100 trailer at the ceremony on Veteran’s Day,at the new Veteran’s Cemetery 10 miles West of town. Jack restored this Jeep exactly like the one he drove in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. It’s complete with machine gun mounted on the passenger’s side. I asked, and he said that most of their Jeeps were beat up MB’s left over from WWII. They didn’t see many “new” M38A-1 Jeeps during his tour.
Jack is a great man because he goes around to the local schools teaching kids how war is not a good thing, but it is necessary to protect our freedom from those who want to change us. He saw heavy action. Now he see that we are gradually losing our freedom as time goes on. He is now growing frail, and cannot go to as many schools as before. I told him I know someone who can make a professional video tape of him to preserve his presentation. He would like to do that.
He has a Korean friend who was 8 years old living through the Korean War. She accompanies Jack to the schools and shares her story of what their civilian family endured throughout the war in Korea. I don’t know her name, but she was the lady in the back of his Jeep in Korean attire during the Saturday’s Shasta City parade shown below.
The medallion Jack holds was from the Mayor of Seoul, South Korea marking the 50th anniversary of the war. The Mayor visited all the Korean Veteran’s groups and awarded that medallion to those who fought for his country. His gratitude meant a lot to that soldier, who never went back to that forsaken land, until much later in life. The City of Seoul was devastated during the war, and is now one of the most modern cities in the world. He didn’t recognize the airport when he landed several years ago. The old airport he remembered was a swampy land that was weathered by war.