For Those Who Fought in Korea

More than 500,000 veterans of the Korean War are expected to gather in Washington to attend the dedication of the Korean War Memorial on Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of the July 27, 1953, armistice that ended the bloody conflict.

President Clinton is scheduled to attend the 3 p.m. dedication, which is part of a four-day celebration that will begin Wednesday and will include a parade, mass muster, memorial services, fireworks, film festival and academic seminars.

The new memorial (pictured left) is in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial and directly across the Reflecting Pool from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Sculptor Frank C. Gaylord’s 19 stainless steel figures, rough-textured and dark, march across the triangular field toward a towering American flag. They’re framed by a low wall of polished black granite, etched with more than 2,400 images of land, sea and air support troops that gaze toward those who fought the war on foot. Louis Nelson was the muralist.

Nearby rests a huge granite stone, inscribed with the words: “Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met. Korea, 1950-1953.”