Andersonite back from Korea

HONORING VETERANS:
Kim Chamberlain holds a photo of her late husband Paul.

Anderson resident Kim Chamberlain recently traveled with 59 veterans of the Korean War and their family members to South Korea for a week, participating in the Korean War Veterans Association's subsidized Revisit to Korea Program.

The tour took veterans and family to the site of General McArthur's landing and push at Inchon, the Korean War museum in Seoul, and at the border of North and South Korea, the 38th Parallel or Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Veterans also received service medals from the Korean Veterans Association.

Chamberlain was married to Korean War Veteran Paul Chamberlain, who died in 2007. Paul Chamberlain served in the Korean War as a medic, and as a veteran he was an avid supporter of veterans causes. Kim Chamberlain said she has been honoring veterans of the Korean War for 20 years.

"All veterans should have the opportunity to go back," Chamberlain said. "The gratitude Koreans have shown is so wonderful. It warms my heart how much credit they show for the veterans' sacrifice so they could live in freedom."

The veterans were all 18 to 20 years old when they were last in Korea, Chamberlain said.

"Most were scared to death," she added. "When they left Korea, they thought it wouldn't stand a chance of coming out of the ash. It was bombed, burnt, destroyed. . . ."

Upon revisiting, the veterans were surprised to see how well the country was rebuilt. To reconnect with their past, some veterans looked for old landmarks, she said.

"One man went on location where he fought. It's a parking lot now," Chamberlain said.

Others, she said, tried to look up the names of Korean children who spent time around the military camps. Many of the children were fed and cared for by servicemen, she said.

Her border encounter at the Korean DMZ was intense, Chamberlain said. Unaware of new threats of nuclear proliferation by North Korea during the time of her visit, Chamberlain said she "felt very uncomfortable" coming within twenty feet of an imposing North Korean border guard.

Chamberlain said that spouses of the veterans encouraged the veterans to return to Korea, as a chance to gain closure over a traumatic period in their lives.

"This is where you brought the ghost from, now you leave it," she said, adding that she saw tears in the eyes of some veterans.

To continue honoring veterans, Chamberlain announced that the Korean War Veterans Annual Picnic, held indoors at the Anderson VFW hall, 3210 West Center St., is scheduled for Saturday, June 20 at 12 p.m. The picnic honors Korean War veterans and their families, Chamberlain said, adding that the event is put on by members of the Korean community of Shasta County.

At the picnic, veterans would hear more about the 5-foot-tall granite monument to Korean War veterans planned for installation at the Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo. The monument cost $6,000, of which KWVA raised $3,000. Monument fund donations may be sent to: National Chapter #1 KWVA; LeRoy Neunfeld; P.O. Box 991418, Redding, Calif. 96099.