(Air National Guard photograph by Staff Sgt. Crystal Housman)
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in the city of Fullerton’s Hillcrest Park last month for the first Korean War Memorial in the nation to display the names of all United States service members who died during the war. The memorial is community-funded and construction is expected to pick up as funding goals are met and restrictions from coronavirus ease.
The Aug. 14 ceremony was attended by a number of important figures, including U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Laura Yeager, who commands the 40th Infantry Division. Of the 2,611 Californians who gave their lives during the war, over 300 belonged to the division. United States Congressman and Navy veteran Gil Cisneros attended the ceremony as well.
California Legion Supports the New Memorial
In appealing to the California American Legion for support of the memorial on March 14, Legionnaire Joe Mackey of Post 829 noted, “for Korean Americans here, [the war] is a very solemn moment. And the [memorial] that we have in Washington D.C. and Lincoln Park doesn’t have a single name of [the] people killed in action; so this is going to be historic, the very first in the United States.”
The following day, the American Legion Department of California’s executive committee, made up of commanders from each of the state’s 30 districts, passed a resolution supporting the construction of the memorial in addition to calling upon the government of the Republic of Korea “to step up and deliver necessary spiritual and material resources to complete the Korean War Memorial Monument in the city of Fullerton soon as possible.”
During the ceremony on Aug. 14, the American Legion was one of several veteran service organizations present.
The Driving Force Behind Fullerton’s Korean War Memorial
Joe Pak, Advisor to the American Legion Bunker Post 829 and Secretary-General of the Orange County Korean War Memorial Monument Committee, began pushing for a new memorial in 2009 and approached several cities in Southern California before finding a working partner in Fullerton.
Joe Pak was motivated to start work on the project because, as he says, “there is not a single Korean War Memorial Monument in the USA that has names inscribed of all 36,492 US soldiers who gave their all.”
He notes, “to Korean Americans, the Korean War is never a forgotten war. Because of US soldiers’ sacrifice, there are 2.5 million Korean Americans that call the USA their home and their country. We, Korean Americans have an obligation to pay our respect and honor all soldiers who gave their all for us, so we have our freedom and democracy.”
California legionnaire and Commander of Korean Bunker Post 829 Tony Pak has also been a driving force behind the project since 2011, and has played a vital role in revitalizing Post 829. The post was created immediately after the Korean war but had been dormant for 30 years.
If you would like to contribute to the Korean War Memorial in Fullerton, you can donate to Joe Pak’s GoFundMe.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.