'A lot of good people got killed;' Treasure Coast Korean War vet shares memories
ST. LUCIE COUNTY − At 93 years old, Gordon Case said he made a memory he won’t forget some 70 years ago.
He’d enlisted in the U.S. Air Force out of high school in 1950, and was returning on a troop ship in San Francisco.
Case, now a longtime resident of northern St. Lucie County, had spent a year at a base in Korea, arming F-51 Mustangs and F-80 jets with napalm, bombs, rockets and ammunition supporting fighting during the Korean War.
“All of a sudden, everything came to a dead stop, and they brought a big crane over, and they dropped it down into the hold ... and they brought up 13 coffins,” Case said. “Those guys are no different than I was. And I think every man on that ship felt that it 'could have been me'. I'll never forget that as long as I live, never.”
More than 34,000 Americans were killed in action during the Korean War; about 103,000 wounded; and more than 7,800 missing, according to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
The military conflict was fought from June 1950 to July 1953 when an armistice was reached, and since then the United States has kept a large military presence in South Korea.
The Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs states more than 75,000 Korean War vets live in Florida, and Case calls his service in Korea “the best thing I ever did in my life.”
‘Forgotten war’
Beginning five years after World War II ended, the Korean War, the first in which the military was desegregated, has been referred to as the “forgotten war.”
“(Then President Harry) Truman didn't want to call it a war for some reason, so they called it a police action,” Case said.
Korea was divided into two sections at the end of World War II along the 38th parallel, a latitudinal line, between an American-backed government in the south and a Soviet-backed government in the north. On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops mounted a coordinated attack along the parallel and headed south.
Truman didn’t pursue a declaration of war from Congress, and committed American forces to a combined United Nations military initiative amid Cold War tensions. More than a dozen other nations sent troops under U.N. command.
“It was pretty serious, and a lot of good people got killed over there,” said Case, a widower.
Harold Trieber, 87, is commander of the Korean War Veterans Association Chapter 106, which includes the Treasure Coast.
He said the Korean War, between World War II and Vietnam, for “some reason or other” gets lost.
“We were sending people over there, and they were coming home, and some weren't coming home,” Trieber said. “Nobody paid much attention to it, so it’s the forgotten war. They don't teach it in history.”
Trieber joined the Air Force when he was 17 in December 1953, and was on active duty for four years. At times, he flew on a KC-97, a four-engine refueling tanker, a model of which is displayed on a shelf in his St. Lucie West home.
“Most of my assignments were basically to keep the radios in our aircraft, in our squadrons, operative,” Trieber said.
Trieber, a Connecticut native, said the Korean War Veterans Association is important for future generations.
“We have a legacy, because we still have troops there defending the border. We signed an armistice,” he said. “It's important that our children and our grandchildren remember these things.”
‘A whole bunch of ammo’
Case, born near Rochester, New York, said he was about 30 miles behind the front lines. Although his training was in electronics, when he got to Korea in June 1951 he quickly learned those skills weren’t what was needed.
“What we have is a whole bunch of ammo out there. We got a bunch of napalm out there and a bunch of bombs. … You guys are going to be armorers,” Case recalled. “So that's what I did for a year in Korea.”
Case said it was tough when a crew chief would wait for a plane and pilot to return from a mission, but the plane and pilot did not return.
“When a crew chief goes through that he doesn't get real chummy with the next pilot that he gets assigned to, because his heart can't take it,” Case said.
In the first 12 months of the war, Case said, pilots from World War II who were in the reserves abruptly were recalled, getting telegrams “to be somewhere in 14 days, or 10 days … because it was a matter of emergency,” he said.
“Five years later, your mind is different. You probably put on 10, 15, 20 (pounds). One guy, I think he had put on 20, 25 pounds,” Case said. “I seen them strap that guy in, and I thought this guy is scared ... he didn't make it back.”
Ultimately, the fighting ended with an armistice – the longest negotiated in history − signed July 27, 1953. Since then the United States has kept a large military presence in South Korea.
Korean Defense
Current Port St. Lucie City Councilman David Pickett, Jr., 60, in 1989 was deployed in Korea as a defense soldier at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, about 40 miles southwest of Seoul.
“A Korean defense veteran is someone who served in Korea after the armistice was signed,” said Pickett, a city councilman since 2020. “I was in charge of transportation for that company.”
In Korea, he trained to be prepared for combat any minute, he said.
“Constantly being ready to go to war and keeping all your equipment ready to go was something that they stressed and something that we worked to do every day,” Pickett recalled. “And that helped shape my career to constantly be ready and be vigilant of something that could happen at any time.”
Pickett also serves as president of the Korean War Veterans Association, which has chapters nationwide for veterans of the Korean War and defense soldiers who continue to serve in Korea.
“I'm in charge of 125 different chapters across the United States, representing 5,000 members, ranging in ages from 50 to 90," Pickett said. "We have over 300 members … here in Florida."
The Treasure Coast chapter has two Korean War veterans and the rest are defense veterans. A chapter in Vero Beach has eight Korean War vets, Pickett said.
“One thing that I've come to find out about these guys, they're proud of what they've done for their country, but they're also very humble,” he said. “There isn't a guy that's been over there that wouldn't give you the shirt off his back.”
Homesick holidays
While stationed in Korea, Camp Humphreys’ officials tried to make the holidays special, Pickett remembered, but their Thanksgiving meal didn’t rival your grandmother’s cooking, he said.
In Korea, Pickett had his Thanksgiving meal in a dining hall with fellow soldiers, both American and Korean.
“What I found is funny now is we had turkey, they had fried fish and kimchi (traditional Korean side dish),” he recalled. “You get a couple slices of turkey, a scoop of mashed potatoes, some dressing and gravy, and they definitely had pumpkin pie. But they didn't have things you're used to like grandma's bread.”
He remembered the efforts to make the holiday “as comfortable and as traditional as possible.”
Recently, Pickett and a group of American vets visited Camp Humphreys as guests of the America Korea United Society.
American soldiers continue to be based in Korea to protect the peace, Pickett said.
“The guys that fought in the Korean War, they're the ones that saved South Korea from Communism. And the defense veterans there, they constantly train, and they're ready to go back to war in a moment's notice,” he said. “Because there's just a ceasefire that was signed, and North Korea or China could choose to invade South Korea at any time.”
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.