Medals of the Forgotten War

 

Above are medals that were presented to an American soldier during that the Korean War. Starting from the top left the medals are:

Bronze Star

Army Commendation Medal

Purple Heart

Army Good Conduct Medal

National Defense Medal

Korean Service Medal

Quite a selection.

Being sandwiched between WWII and the Vietnam War it truly seemed to earn its sobriquet of The Forgotten War, unless you were one who served or had family that did. In fact, it can probably be said that if not for the television show M*A*S*H, it would still be mostly forgotten. Which is sad when you consider that over 36,000 American soldiers gave their lives in just shy of three years. Of course, that pales in comparison to the approx 140,000 South Korean soldiers that died. In comparison though to the just under 7,000 deaths of American soldiers during the 13+ years of the War on Terror, it sort of makes you wonder it is still so forgotten.

The Korean War was the first major confrontation in the post-WWII world and pit the forces of the United Nations (28 nations participated in the war in various roles, 17 with combat troops) against North Korea, China, the Soviet Union and their allies (6 other nations). Quite a scrum, which could have easily swung out of control to become World War 3, the fact that it didn’t is sort of miraculous. In fact maybe instead of the Forgotten War, we should start calling it the Close Call War. Regardless of the name, one thing can be said. There are plenty of medals to go around.