There was a little news article a couple weeks ago that meant a lot to me and was largely overlooked by most of the mainstream news media outlets. This is not a political blog post in the least, but one of the things President Trump was successful with during the June 12th meeting with the North Korean leader was, his agreement to return the remains of US soldiers that fought and died during the Korean war from 1950-1953. The best estimate of remains that are still in North Korean is 5,300. That is 5,300 families that were never able to bury their sons and daughters. For me, having served in the military, this was one of the most honorable actions from a President that I know of.
There were 33,652 US service men and women that died in battle during the Korean War and another 3,262 that died in the region from illnesses, accidents and other non-battle causes. The total number of young Americans that we lost in the Korean War was 36,914. To give you some context, we as a country have lost 6.828 young men and women since 2001 in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts since 911 happened on September 11, 2001.
Those men and women that died in the Korean War would be about the same age as my mom and dad who are both in their early 80’s. Think about all those families that heard the knock on the door with someone in uniform telling them their child was killed in battle.
Now, think about the significance of finally bringing these service men and women home so they can be laid to rest with their families. That is one of the things the President got an agreement on. KT