By Jung Sung-ki
Fifty-nine years ago, 21-year-old American twins were called to serve as soldiers in Korea, which was in the middle of a fratricidal war between the U.S.-backed democratic South and the North supported by communist China.
What the twins witnessed when they first arrived were devastated buildings and homeless people. They were engaged in fierce battles near the 38th parallel to help South Korean troops fight against the North Korean and Chinese forces.
The 80-year-old twins _ Roy Franklin and Ray Wesley Brinkley _ revisited South Korea last week on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War.
What they saw in Seoul this time was very “different” from that in the war. They were proud of South Korea having been transformed into a global economy and a full democracy.
“When I came (to Korea) the first time, I didn’t know what I expected. We came at night time and didn’t know anything (about Korea),” Ray Wesley said in an interview with The Korea Times at the Lotte Hotel in Jamsil, southern Seoul. “What we knew was it was war but not what we’re facing. We had never been in war and combat before. It was frightening.”
Both were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division but served with different units. They landed in the port of Busan in April 1951.
Roy said he participated in the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge, a month-long battle between Sept. 13 and Oct. 15, 1951. The battle was one of several major engagements in an area known as “The Punchbowl.”
The battle site is located in the hills of North Korea a few miles north of the 38th parallel, the pre-war boundary between South and North Korea.
Both sides suffered high casualties during the battle _ over 3,700 American and French, and an estimated 25,000 North Korean and Chinese were wounded or killed.
“Everything is more than I expected,” Roy said. “I just can’t believe there are so many buildings in Seoul now. I recognized this is a different place from what we remembered. It’s amazing to me to see...”
The twins were part of 170 American and Belgium Korean War veterans and their families invited by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs last week to visit Korea.
The ministry has invited hundreds of foreign war veterans almost every month to commemorate the war anniversary since April.
“The freedom, peace and prosperity enjoyed by the Republic of Korea are the results of your blood and sweat in the war,” South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said in a welcoming speech last Thursday at a ceremony for the revisiting war veterans. “The Korean government and people will never forget your solemn sacrifice and contribution.”
Twenty-one nations under the U.N. flag sent combat and medical troops to fight alongside South Korea. The foreign nations also provided South Korea with aid for postwar reconstruction.
About 1.94 million U.N. troops participated and of them, some 40,000 were killed and 120,000 were injured or missing in action.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a permanent peace treaty.