한국전쟁 참전 어느 老兵의 편지

fabiano 감동적인.... 0 1183 2007.01.31 14:40

고마운 은덕을 잊어서는 안되!

먼 타국에서 대한민국을 위해 청춘을 불사르고 산화되어 간 5만여명의 귀한 희생자들...
그 가운데서 오늘까지 살아남아 아직도 대한민국과의 이 인연을 잊지 못하고, 지금까지
이렇게 우리를 생각해 주다니...
그들이 있기에 이 국가가 이렇게 건강할 수 있었습니다. (뎀보)

2006년 11월 9일(목요일), 미국 달라스의 'Letters to the Lost' 프로젝트가 실시되는 동안,
테드 바커 씨가 편지들을 받았다.
발송된 메시지는 이렇게 간단했다: '한국전쟁에서 목숨을 잃은 분에게 한 통의 편지를 보냅시다.
' 하루 만에 11년에 바커 형제에 의해서 시작된 '한국전쟁프로젝트'(Korean War Project)에 답신들이 오기 시작했다.
본 간청이 나간지 3주만에 바커 형제는 50통이 넘는 편지와 이메일을 받았다.
그 중에는 한국전쟁에서 아버지를 잃은 딸들도 있었고, 학교 친구들로서 전우들을 잃은 역전의 용사들도 있었다. (사진/AP/LM Otero)

[부록1] 한국전쟁 참전 노병의 편지

[영어원문기사]

[부록2] Korean War dead memorialized on the Web

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer

DALLAS - The message was simple: Write a letter to someone lost in the Korean War.
Within a day, responses started pouring in for the latest effort by brothers Hal and Ted Barker to remember the war their father didn't like to discuss.
In the three weeks since their plea went out, more than 500 letters and e-mails have arrived--from daughters who lost their fathers to veterans who lost friends to schoolchildren thanking those who died for their freedom.

"It's been a catharsis for a lot of people," said Hal Barker, 59.
"They write a letter telling the person who was lost how their life turned out."

It's been 11 years since the Barkers, inspired by their father's reticence, started the Korean War Project, an online memory bank for the 1950s conflict that claimed about 36,500 U.S. lives. They have helped comrades reconnect
and tried to get relatives of the missing to submit DNA to the U.S. government to help with identification.

The brothers have long struggled for funding to maintain the site, and they said recently they are about to give up.
That prompted Hal Barker to ask those on their e-mail list--44,000 strong--to send "Letters to the Lost."

It was an idea that resonated with others. "It's a stack that's 18 inches high now," Hal Barker said.

The letters appear on the project's Web site.

Janis Curran said it was difficult to write to her father, who went missing on May 18, 1951.

"I tried it so many times, and I kept getting bogged down because I wanted to say so much," said Curran, 59,
of Diamond Bar, Calif. "It was one of the most difficult things I had to do."

Curran met the Barkers when they helped her find out more information about her father, Lt. Charles Garrison,
a Navy pilot whose plane was shot up, forcing him to bail out.

"We have missed you every single day that you have been gone, over 55 years now," she wrote.
"Some days are harder than others, especially the happiest days like weddings, and the births of your grandchildren and great grandchildren, even one great-great grandchild.
I wish you could have known them."

Mark Hartford, 58, of Columbus, Ohio, wrote to the 19 people who died during the 13 months he was stationed along the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea.

"I was in the zone the nights you were attacked and killed. I was in the zone during the days you were ambushed and killed," wrote Hartford, who served in the zone about 14 years after the war.

"I've carried the names of 19 teenage soldiers in my heart for 40 years now," Hartford said Thursday from Washington, where he is lobbying to get a plaque placed near the Korean War Veterans Memorial to commemorate the soldiers who served in the Demilitarized Zone after the war.

Hartford planned to go to the memorial Saturday for a ceremony to honor those who served in the zone.

On the Net:

Korean War Project: http://www.koreanwar.org

<자료/ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/letters_to_the_lost>