Traveling Korean Memorial Visits Waynesburg

Traveling Korean Memorial Visits Waynesburg

by Stephanie Lampe

On a beautiful day at the end of May, the Traveling Korean Memorial arrived at the Greene County Fairgrounds. A large number of volunteers turned out to serve as escorts and to help set up the memorial including local high school football teams from Carmichaels, Jefferson- Morgan, Waynesburg, and West Greene.

“It’s the best escort we have ever had,” said Dianne Boggs. “We have never had that many show up to help out.”

Dianne Boggs, along with Dana Bresler and Jeannie Ignash, is a member of Freedom’s Never Free, a non-profit organization in Lancaster, Ohio. They are the only members who accompany the memorial wherever it goes. As the only traveling memorial for the Korean War, they stay busy from the end of March through the end of October each year. They are willing to travel across the United States and have been as far west as Missouri so far. “We do it for our veterans,” Dianne said.

The Greene County Veterans Council, the VFW, the American Legion, had been working on getting the memorial to the area for over a year. When the schedules finally matched up, Rick Black, head of the event, was very pleased and excited. Despite all of his hard work and all of the kind words from Dianne, Dana, and Jeannieh, Rick remained humble. He was just happy that veterans and others attended. “We had quite a few Korean War Veterans here,” Rick said.

The idea for the traveling memorial came about at the Freedom’s Never Free annual event to honor veterans, military personnel, first responders, and their families. They were already doing a traveling memorial for World War II, but they wanted to display one for the Korean War. They tried everywhere, but couldn’t find one, so they decided to make one themselves. Dianne and Jeannie went to Washington, D.C. to look at and study the Korean memorial there. Afterwards, the organization began to build their own Korean memorial little by little.

The Traveling Korean Memorial has the same layout as the memorial in D.C. except for one additional statue holding an American flag. “That statue is there in memory of my dad,” Dianne said. The statues have a metal skeleton covered with Korean War era Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs) from a military surplus store. Over the BDUs are ponchos which were made by members of Freedom’s Never Free. The guns are made of wood, but are modeled after real guns of that time. There are 19 statues in all...14 Army, 3 Marine, 1 Navy, and 1 Air Force. The display was open 24 hours a day from May 31st through June 2nd. It was guarded from 6 p.m. through 6 a.m. The memorial is funded through direct donations. “It is striking at night with the lights on,” Dianne said.

It’s unclear how many visited the display even with the ‘sign in’ book, but it’s safe to say people of all ages, from children fascinated by the statues to veterans swapping stories, enjoyed the display. The ceremony held inside of one building was standing room only. There was also a display of local veterans in another building.

“The most rewarding thing is listening to the veterans stories and seeing their reactions to the memorial,” Jeannie said. “I also love talking to the kids.”

Freedom’s Never Free is looking to make a few changes. They are currently making molds of Korean War Veterans hands. They will use these molds to make new hands for the statues which will replace the current ones. Molds were taken of two local veterans while the memorial was in Waynesburg. They are also working to expand their number of displays. Work has begun on “Small Conflicts” and “First Responders.” The organization is also looking to travel to smaller venues.

“There are so many veterans that cannot make it to D.C. to see the [Korean] memorial. We are all for going to assisted living facilities,” Dianne said.

When thinking about our country’s wars, the Korean War is low on the list of ones that first come to mind. It’s not a long lesson taught in school. For a while it was referred to by Washington, D.C. as a ‘conflict’ instead of a war. Documentaries and books about the Korean War are few and far between. The fact that there seems to be little common knowledge about the Korean War is the reason the it has been nicknamed “The Forgotten War.” Freedom’s Never Free is working hard to make sure that the Korean War Veterans and the 54,246 Americans who lost their lives are not forgotten.

For more information, visit the Facebook page for Freedom’s Never Free or their website at www.freedomsneverfree. com.