The Korean War might have stolen
their youth, robbed them of their innocence and certainly shortened their
baseball careers.
Now, 60 years later, the only two
surviving Major League Baseball players who served in Korea say they have no
regrets. Jerry Coleman and Bobby Brown, former infielders for the New York
Yankees, say they would do it all over again.
“Looking back, I realize that was
what turned me into the person I am today,” says Coleman, 88, the only
major-league player to be in combat in World War II and the Korean War. “The
most important thing in my life was not what I did in baseball but what I did
in my service as a Marine in two wars.”
Says Brown: “What I did doesn’t
make me special. It’s just something I had to do.”
There was an entirely different
sentiment toward the Korean War than toward World War II, Coleman remembers. It
was a time when much of America wasn’t even sure where Korea was, and confusion
about what America was trying to accomplish.
“It was widely indifferent,”
Coleman says. “World War II captivated the attention of this country like no
other war. But the Korean War was something you hoped to survive and come back
home.”
Coleman, a lieutenant colonel in
the Marines, flew 120 missions in both wars, earning two Distinguished Flying
Crosses, 13 Air Medals and three Navy Citations. He doesn’t particularly enjoy
speaking of the experience. He saw too many friends die. He even heard the
mayday call of Hall of Famer Ted Williams’ plane crash. Williams survived. READFULL ARTICLE AT
HENDRENGROUP.ME/BLOG
0 comments:
Post a Comment