March 28, 2024

Local Korean War Era group to hold inaugural meeting Thursday

Letters sent out to 140 veterans

Last year, a Fourth of July ceremony was held at the Jasper County courthouse square to dedicate a wall memorial to the county’s veterans who served in various wars.

This year, two county residents are hoping to start honoring a more specific group.

Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop, a longtime fighter for veterans memorials and other recognition, and Marvin Morris, who served during the early 1950s in Korea, are helping put together a new organization.

The Jasper County Korean War and Era Veterans Association will hold its first meeting Thursday. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Newton’s American Legion Hall on West First Street.

Bishop said there are a large number of Korean War-era veterans, per capita, living in the county. He mailed out about 140 invitations to veterans, encouraging them to come to the meeting.

“This will be kind of an organizational meeting,” Bishop said. “We’ll see what the guys want to do. Their level of involvement will be up to them.”

Morris is 81, and joined the Army in 1952. That makes him one of the younger veterans from the Korean era, and the age of some of the others is one reason why Morris wants to get the association going now.

“The World War II group and the Vietnam group both have associations here, and ours is often called ‘The Forgotten War,’” Morris said. “We’re beginning to lose a lot of guys. We’ll see what kind of interest we have.”

The association will welcome any veteran who served in the U.S. military between 1950 and 1955 — regardless of whether they saw combat, or whether they even served overseas. The plan is for the group to meet quarterly, for now, so the next meeting will likely be in late April.

Bishop helped organize Iowa’s Freedom Flights to Washington, D.C., which honored veterans with trips on 2011, 2012 and 2013. However, many veterans are not well enough or capable of taking an airplane ride of that sort.

“That’s another reason why a group like this is important,” Bishop said. “This is a chance for those guys to connect, even if it’s just with camaraderie and sharing stories. It keeps a brotherhood going.”

Bishop said it’s important for the youngest generations of Americans to see its oldest, most self-sacrificing citizens treated well.

“We want them to know it’s never too late to be honored for their service,” he said.

Morris said he knows any gathering of veterans will have a variety of experiences, from men who saw the worst of the front lines to those who saw no combat at all.

“We welcome all of them,” he said. “The ones who never fired a shot are just as welcome as the most decorated.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com