Thank you Fr. V. for helping us to realize what our heros have done for us. We take them for granted so often - this is a great way for us to continue to remember them.
I'll be remembering all veterans - especially our Mothers & Fathers who fought for our freedom, however they chose to fight, today.
Just thought I'd stop back...my uncle was killed in Korea when my Mom was just a baby. My Mom always said that he was killed by a sniper while he was escorting a priest. I have NO IDEA where she got that info. I've done my own digging, and found online another cousin trying to find the truth himself. He'd heard that our uncle had committed suicide, he'd also heard that he'd been set up by opium traffickers.
We simply don't know what really happened, only that he died while serving in Korea. In any case each year our family, some of whom still live in their hometown, will visit his grave and decorate it, and I think they do this throughout the year. I've always grown up with the utmost respct for him, and I think Mom has the flag that draped his coffin at his funeral.
adoro- Do you know what your uncle's job was? From your mom's account it sounds as if he was a chaplain's assistant. Among their many duties, chaplain's assistants provide security for the chaplains, who go about the battlefield unarmed.
knuckledragger ~ No, that wasn't his job. I have no idea where my Mom got the idea that it was...nothing I've independently found about my uncle points to that, and from what my cousin wrote online in his own research (he posted to a forum looking for connections). Keep in mind that my Mom is bipolar and I first heard this particular story when she was well within the ravages of the disease...she tended to glamorize things and fill in "holes" with amazing stories of people. But sometimes her amazing stories about people were true...this one isn't and I know that for certain.
I think he was just an average infantryman who might or might not have taken his own life. He wasn't anywhere near a priest and I think his death occurred on a train.
Here's info I found online posted by my cousin (names omitted):
I was looking at the (surname) who died in Korea. My uncle X is said to have died of a self inflicted gun shot to the head. The U.S. Army has this as their story. According to someone in the same company he was in, he is said to have told my Grandfather that he was killed by someome bringing opium on his train.
My cousin is trying to clear my uncle's name as he doesn't believe the US Army's story based on the info given to our grandfather.
I'm wondering if someone fabricated a story for my mother and she filled in her own blanks; she was very young when my uncle died and so if it was allegedly self-inflicted, she would not have understood and it would have been very traumatic for her. As it is, I'm not going to ask her directly as such info would be traumatic for her NOW!
7 comments:
What?! No Monday Diary? For two weeks in a row? I'm in withdrawl!
Another great way to remember our veterans...
http://mommvalencheck.blogspot.com/
Thank you Fr. V. for helping us to realize what our heros have done for us. We take them for granted so often - this is a great way for us to continue to remember them.
I'll be remembering all veterans - especially our Mothers & Fathers who fought for our freedom, however they chose to fight, today.
I'm with Adoro! I miss the Monday Diary!!
MJ
Just thought I'd stop back...my uncle was killed in Korea when my Mom was just a baby. My Mom always said that he was killed by a sniper while he was escorting a priest. I have NO IDEA where she got that info. I've done my own digging, and found online another cousin trying to find the truth himself. He'd heard that our uncle had committed suicide, he'd also heard that he'd been set up by opium traffickers.
We simply don't know what really happened, only that he died while serving in Korea. In any case each year our family, some of whom still live in their hometown, will visit his grave and decorate it, and I think they do this throughout the year. I've always grown up with the utmost respct for him, and I think Mom has the flag that draped his coffin at his funeral.
I just keep praying for him.
adoro- Do you know what your uncle's job was? From your mom's account it sounds as if he was a chaplain's assistant. Among their many duties, chaplain's assistants provide security for the chaplains, who go about the battlefield unarmed.
knuckledragger ~ No, that wasn't his job. I have no idea where my Mom got the idea that it was...nothing I've independently found about my uncle points to that, and from what my cousin wrote online in his own research (he posted to a forum looking for connections). Keep in mind that my Mom is bipolar and I first heard this particular story when she was well within the ravages of the disease...she tended to glamorize things and fill in "holes" with amazing stories of people. But sometimes her amazing stories about people were true...this one isn't and I know that for certain.
I think he was just an average infantryman who might or might not have taken his own life. He wasn't anywhere near a priest and I think his death occurred on a train.
Here's info I found online posted by my cousin (names omitted):
I was looking at the (surname) who died in Korea. My uncle X is said to have died of a self inflicted gun shot to the head. The U.S. Army has this as their story. According to someone in the same company he was in, he is said to have told my Grandfather that he was killed by someome bringing opium on his train.
My cousin is trying to clear my uncle's name as he doesn't believe the US Army's story based on the info given to our grandfather.
I'm wondering if someone fabricated a story for my mother and she filled in her own blanks; she was very young when my uncle died and so if it was allegedly self-inflicted, she would not have understood and it would have been very traumatic for her. As it is, I'm not going to ask her directly as such info would be traumatic for her NOW!
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