REMEMBERING THE DEAD IN KOREA: U.S., MISSOURI FLAGS WILL FLY AT HALF-STAF

All American and Missouri flags at state buildings will fly at half-mast today and on July 27 for the next three years to honor Americans who died in the Korean War.

In ordering the observance, Gov. Mel Carnahan urged organizations and individuals to fly their flags at half-mast today as well to honor the war dead and the state's 94,000 Korean War veterans. Carnahan is a Korean War-era veteran.

Nationally, President Clinton has declared today National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, at Panmunjom. Forty-seven years later a permanent peace treaty has never been signed, and troops guard the border.

The war began on June 25, 1950, when Communist troops from North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations reacted by sending air, naval and ground forces after the North Koreans refused to retreat.

Korea was the 5-year-old United Nation's first police action, with 16 countries contributing troops, although the United States accounted for nearly half the 1.1 million soldiers. North Korea eventually was backed by 780,000 Chinese troops and Russian military equipment.

Urban Winschel is one of seven Korean War veterans who reside at the Missouri Veterans Home. A native of Perryville, he was drafted into the Army and then called up as a reservist when the war began. He was sent to Korea to shore up the Army's 1st Cavalry Division.

Winschel, now 75, counts himself fortunate that he never fought on the front lines. His unit was in reserve during the battle at Pork Chop Hill, one of many bloody battles of a very bloody war.

Korea is sometimes called "the forgotten war" because Congress never formally declared war against North Korea and because it was the first war in which American soldiers were not welcomed home as heroes.

A memorial to Korean War veterans was dedicated at the National Mall only five years ago.

Winschel, a member of Perryville American Legion Post 133, says the country had mixed feelings about the war. But he thinks it was one the United States had to fight.

"Those people didn't have anything," he said, speaking of Korea. "Japan really kicked them around during the second world war."

Comparing that to the Communist invasion of South Korea, he said, "I don't want to see anything like that.

"We had to stop them someplace," he said. "We might not be living in a free country otherwise."

After the war, Winschel returned to Perryville, taking a job first as a laborer and later in farming with his father.

More than 37,000 American servicemen and servicewomen died in the Korean War, including 919 Missourians. About 1 million South Korean civilians were killed. About 580,000 United Nations and South Korean troops and 1.6 million Communist troops were killed, wounded or reported missing.