Illinois and the Korean War, April 1951 -

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Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The State of Illinois is commemorating the 60^th anniversary of the Korean War by supplying information each month about the stateâ€™s involvement in the conflict.Â

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, Illinois Korean Memorial Association, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum are sponsoring â€œIllinois Remembers the Forgotten Warâ€ along with media partners the Illinois Press Association and the Illinois Broadcasters Association.Â For more information, visit www.Illinois-History.gov or www.veterans.illinois.gov.

Â Â Â Illinoisans killed in action in Korea, April 1951

By county of residence

(Source:Â U.S. Department of Defense records)

CassÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Robert F. Johnston, Army, April 12.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Virgil L. Knowles, Army, April 24.

ChampaignÂ Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Arthur Ligon, Army, April 11.

CookÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Tito Angarano, Army, April 11.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Charles J. Bedore, Army, April 25.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Robert A. Bell, Army, April 14.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Lee Bluit, Army, April 21.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Glen D. Bogard, Army, April 28.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Herbert F. Bonas, Army, April 4.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â SFC Norbert A. Brzycki, Army, April 23.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Stephen Drochowski, Army, April 6.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1^st Lt. Raymond C. Drury, Jr., Army, April 12.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â SFC William J. Flynn, Army, April 10.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Charles F. Freeman, Army, April 11.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC William A. Gibson, Army, April 24.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. William C. Goetz, Army, April 29.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. William J. Hemskey, Army, April 15.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Leo Henry, Jr., Army, April 23.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Robert H. Hilgenberg, Marines, April 23.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Richard Jankowski, Army, April 23.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Byron Kacheris, Army, April 26.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Robert Kolasinski, Army, April 9.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Michael Misovic, Jr., Marines, April 23.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Robert J.M. Murphy, Army, April 8.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Joseph C. Ratti, Army, April 30.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Humberto Romero, Army, April 25.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Roger W. Smith, Army, April 8.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sgt. Edmund W. Suhren, Army, April 18.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. George H. Thomas, Marines, April 17.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Henry C. Tilden, Army, April 4.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Wilbur E. Waldon, Army, April 22.

CrawfordÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC William A. Morris, Army, April 22.

Douglas Pvt. Herman L. Jacobs, Army, April 22.

DuPageÂ PFC Antoni M. Pawlik, Army, April 26.

FranklinÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Thomas E. Rotramel, Army, April 4.

GreeneÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Eldon E. Fox, Army, April 23.

HenryÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. John J. Sawickis, Army, April 30.

Jackson 1^st Lt. Donald R. Allmon, Army, April 5.

KnoxÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Duane E. Mahnesmith, Army, April 12.

LaSalleÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Floyd V. Knutson, Army, April 25.

LawrenceÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Leslie R. Heath, Army, April 23.

MarionÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Daniel Donaldson, Army, April 12.

MassacÂ PFC Oreall L. Allen, Army, April 23.

McDonoughÂ Â Â Â Â Â SFC Robert R. Hillyer, Army, April 18.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pvt. Claire Martin, Army, April 25.

MorganÂ Sgt. Robert L. McManus, Army, April 25.

PeoriaÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Kenneth R. Jackson, Army, April 5.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC John E. Purple, Jr., Army, April 9.

PulaskiÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â SFC James Maxwell, Army, April 25.

SalineÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1^st Lt. James L. Frazier, Marines, April 30.

TazewellÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Richard E. Morrissey, Marines, April 23.

VermilionÂ Â Â Â Â Â 1^st Lt. Orville J. Lipscomb, Marines, April 25.

WhiteÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sgt. Floyd C. Sweatt, Army, April 7.

WinnebagoÂ Â Â Â Â Â Cpl. Byron B. Daer, Army, April 25.Â Â Â Â

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PFC Clifford F. Pratt, Army, April 23.Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Key events during the Korean War

April 1951

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â April 1951 began with U.S. Army units at the 38^th Parallel and the war once again being fought in North Korea.Â But the fighting at the front was often a sideshow to the political feud that had been simmering for several months and which boiled over in April.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â General Douglas MacArthur, commander of all United Nations troops in Korea, found it difficult to accept the new war strategy of President Harry Truman â€“ a strategy of containment and attrition rather than one of rolling back communism and liberating all of Korea.Â MacArthur publicly criticized the new strategy by the Democratic President, but the final straw occurred when the General sent a letter to Republican Congressman Joseph Martin of Massachusetts advocating the use of Chinese Nationalist forces to expand the war.Â The letter was read aloud in Congress on April 5.Â A furious President Truman relieved MacArthur of his command on April 11 and replaced him with General Matthew Ridgway.Â Lieutenant General James VanFleet took over Ridgwayâ€™s duties as commander of the 8^th Army.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â MacArthur was a popular figure with the American people because of his leadership during World War II and the early stages of the Korean War.Â Trumanâ€™s popularity, on the other hand, was at a low point as a result of the heavy casualty figures from the Korean War and a host of domestic troubles.Â The newly-unemployed MacArthur returned to a heroâ€™s welcome in the United States and addressed a joint session of Congress on April 19, taking part in the legislative debate on the war.Â MacArthur, when asked of his future plans, made the famous statement, â€œI now close my military career and just fade away.â€Â Indeed, MacArthur did gradually fade from public view, and was never again to command an army.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The real war raged on during April.Â United Nations forces launched Operation Rugged on April 5 and continued to push the Communist armies farther north.Â In the warâ€™s first major aerial duel, more than 40 Communist fighter jets (piloted by Soviets) attacked a United States bomber formation on April 12, with 11 Communist fighters and two U.S. bombers shot down.Â

History was poised to repeat itself again in Korea, as the initiative in the war suddenly changed on April 22.Â Communist forces launched the largest attack of the war on that date using 250,000 soldiers, who smashed through United Nations troops along a forty-mile front in a drive toward Seoul.Â Chinese and North Korean divisions pushed U.N. forces back about 35 miles but were finally halted just short of their goal of recapturing the South Korean capital.Â Tales of extreme heroism filtered out of the battle, including the valiant hilltop defense by the British Gloucester Regiment, which suffered 80 percent casualties in the process.Â By April 30 the determined infantry resistance and the wall of steel put down by United Nations artillery and the Far East Air Force stopped the â€œhuman waveâ€ attacks.Â Time magazine, when interviewing an American officer who fought in the battle, quoted him as saying the enemy was â€œspending people the way we spend ammunition.â€Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Although United Nations forces had suffered heavy losses and gave up territory they had regained just days before, the Communist Spring Offensive, as it became known, was considered a U.N. victory because Seoul had not been captured and the Communist forces had suffered an astounding 70,000 casualties.Â Â Â Â Â

Illinois Korean War Memorial

The Illinois Korean War Memorial is located in Springfieldâ€™s Oak Ridge Cemetery, the same cemetery that contains the Lincoln Tomb.Â Oak Ridge is the nationâ€™s second most visited burial ground behind only Arlington National Cemetery.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Dedicated on June 16, 1996, the memorial consists of a 12-foot-tall bronze bell mounted on a granite base.Â At the circumference of the base are four niches, each with a larger-than-life figure representing a branch of the armed services.Â Inscribed on the base are the 1,754 names of Illinoisans killed in Korea.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Illinois Korean War Memorial is administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and may be visited daily free of charge.Â

Korean War Veterans Oral History Project

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museumâ€™s Oral History Program offers â€œVeterans Remember,â€ a collection of interviews with Illinois residents about their wartime experiences, at the Libraryâ€™s website,Â www.alplm.org/oral_history/home.html.Â The interviews concern the experiences of Illinois veterans who fought in several conflicts, including the Korean War, as well as the experiences of those on the home front.Â Visitors to the website can listen to or watch the interviews in their entirety.Â Several of the interviews have transcripts, and most have still images as well.

Website visitors will need a computer capable of playing MP3 audio files or MPG compressed video files in order to listen to the interviews.Â The transcripts and still images are also accessible.Â Volunteers conducted and edited many of the interviews and developed the transcripts that accompany them.Â Â Â

Korean War National Museum

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Korean War National Museum (KWNM) celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War with a new Board of Directors, new professional staff, and a renewed focus on getting a world-class museum built now, in the lifetime of the Korean War veterans.Â Recent news media reports outlined a proposal of the KWNM to obtain 7,000 square feet of prime space on Navy Pier in Chicago for a state-of-the-art, world-class museum where visitors could come to honor and learn about the service and sacrifices of the Americans, South Koreans and their UN Allies in the “forgotten victory.”Â Those plans are continuing to be developed, and the KWNM hopes to be able to share some exciting news soon.Â Meanwhile, the Denis J. Healy Freedom Center, located at 9 South Old State Capitol Plaza in Springfield, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Â Admission is free, but donations are accepted.Â The KWNM welcomes donations of photographs, documents, diaries, and artifacts of those who served in the Korean War. To learn more about the KWNM, or to volunteer or donate, please visit www.kwnm.org or look for the Museum Facebook.

Korean War Booklet

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Illinois Korean Memorial Association, an all-volunteer organization, has published a booklet, A Brief History of the Korean War, copies of which have been provided free of charge to public libraries, high schools and junior high schools in Illinois.Â Individuals may obtain a copy by sending a $10 check or money order to:Â Illinois Korean Memorial Association, P.O. Box 8554, Springfield, ILÂ 62791.Â

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Tax deductible donations are welcome.Â One hundred percent of all donations go to the book project and to the upkeep of the Illinois Korean War Memorial.Â

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