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CLEAR Temp: 73 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Saturday, August 30, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine Joy Magazine Tempo A & E RogueValleyAutoFinder RogueValleyHomeFinder Real Estate Showcase Wellness Connection Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Employment Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend July 25, 2003 Soldier returns to Korean peninsula By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune JACKSONVILLE — Doug McLean had mixed feelings about returning to the Korean peninsula. "I’m going back to visit a city that didn’t exist when I was there, at least not like it does now," said McLean, 73, before leaving Wednesday for Seoul, South Korea. "It changed hands four times during the war," added the Jacksonville resident, who was wounded in the Korean War. "At different times, the North Koreans and the Chinese and then the United Nations forces controlled the area. It was a nasty war." McLean is now back in the "area" as one of 400 people from nearly two dozen nations invited by the Federated Industries of Korea to attend a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean War armistice on Sunday. Advertisement Each of the guests, selected by the group because of their participation in the war, are on an all-expense paid, week-long trip to South Korea. A Navy medical corpsman wounded while serving with the 5th Marine Division, McLean will be among more than 1,500 veterans gathering at Panmunjom on Sunday morning for an hour-long ceremony ending at 10 a.m. Exactly 12 hours later, the time the truce took effect half a century ago, a 21-gun salute will be fired off at the U.S. military headquarters in Seoul. A formal banquet will be held that night for the returning war veterans. The city along the Han River, established as the Korean capital around 1400, was nearly destroyed by the war that also almost took McLean’s life. Seoul now burgeons with some 10 million people. While McLean may not recognize the city, the Portland native expects the trip, his first back to the Korean peninsula, will bring back long-forgotten memories of what has become known as the "Forgotten War." The retired businessman also hopes to see a few others from Fox Company attached to the division’s 2nd Battalion. Some never made it home. They were among the more than 37,000 Americans killed or missing from the war that began on June 25, 1950. In addition, about 140,000 South Korean soldiers and 3,200 soldiers from 15 different nations under the U.N. banner also died. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans and Chinese soldiers were killed. McLean had been in the country nearly six months, all on the front line with his Marine company, when he was wounded at the end of May 1951. The battle occurred near the 38th Parallel about 50 miles north of Seoul. "We had just moved up to a new location on the front," he recalled. "We were moving up the hill to engage the enemy and got about half way there when the whole world ended with a tremendous explosion." An 82 mm mortar shell slammed into his platoon. "It killed our platoon sergeant, and took one of the legs off our squad sergeant, who was a good friend of mine," he said. "I was the third one down the row." McLean, wounded by eight pieces of shrapnel, ended up in a foxhole with the wounded squad sergeant. "We spent a lot of time in that foxhole — I couldn’t tell you how long," he said. "I kept giving him morphine. He made it." McLean, who returned to Oregon in 1953 and attended Lewis and Clark College, lost track of the wounded sergeant after the war. He tracked him down via the Internet a few years ago. The sergeant has since died. "We were wounded about the same place where it all ended," McLean said of the 38th Parallel, where an uneasy truce has been in place for half a century. The likelihood of reunification between the two Koreas remains a long shot, he observed. "There will never be a reunification until the dictator in North Korea is gone," he said, although noting he doesn’t believe that country poses a nuclear threat as some have claimed. "North Korea is trying to blackmail us for money," he said. "There is no way they could support a war. They can’t even feed themselves." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Rogue Valley Auto Finder Rogue Valley Job Finder --> Rogue Valley Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times