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Veterans come to Reno to recall 'forgotten war'
DON COX
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 10/22/2007
Among the few snapshots Carson City's Val Jensen keeps to remember the Korean War is one of the region where he spent the most difficult and dangerous time of his life.
It's a modern aerial picture of North and South Korea at night. The contrast is stark.
"South Korea is lit up like a Christmas tree," Jensen said of the bright lights in Seoul, that nation's capital, and other cities. "North Korea is dark."
Jensen is one of about 300 veterans of the Korean War who will meet in Reno starting today at the Eldorado Hotel Casino. He and the others figure they helped make the difference in that photo.
"The people were eating out of garbage cans," said Jensen, recalling conditions in South Korea, where he fought as an 18-year-old Army private in 1951. "Now, we're buying their cars."
The fighting stopped 54 years ago, but no peace treaty was signed. For more than half a century, the two sides have faced each other, guns at the ready, across a demilitarized zone that divides north from south. It's one of the few battle lines left in what was the worldwide Cold War.
<<--- Photo: Bob Wallace, 75, of Reno, left, and Val Jensen, 75, of Carson City pose Friday at the Northern Nevada Korean War Memorial at the east end of Fifth Street in Carson City. The Korean War veterans convention will be held in Reno starting today and will continue until Thursday at the Eldorado Hotel Casino. About 300 veterans are expected.
Reno Gazette Journal (Posted 10/22/07)