A soldier of the forgotten war
By NewsPress Now
Korea is often called the forgotten war. Combat on the Korean Peninsula occurred after World War II and before Vietnam, making it all too easy to overlook the significance of what happened between 1950 and 1953.
It’s not just the general public or the history books. When was the last time you’ve seen a really good Hollywood movie on the Korean War?
The numbers tell the story of a brutal and bloody engagement at the dawn of the Cold War. Our modern eyes have grown accustomed to the media’s sanitized view of war administered from 50,000 feet, but Korea brought an appalling level of bloodshed to combatants and civilians on the ground. The war resulted in 140,000 American casualties, including nearly 40,000 killed in action. An estimated 10% of Korea’s prewar civilian population was killed. Today, 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in Korea to deter an unpredictable enemy with designs on nuclear weapons. Technically, the war never ended because there was an armistice but not a peace agreement.
Like World War II veterans, those who served in Korea are slowly fading into history. We should take the time to appreciate their contribution to an uneasy peace in one of the world’s great flash-points.
Robert L. Fay was one of those soldiers from the forgotten war. Fay, who attended the University of Missouri, enlisted in the Army after communist North Korea attacked the Republic of Korea in 1950. He saw action, earned a combat infantry badge and returned to Missouri after the war.
Fay ended up in St. Joseph, where he raised a family and became known as a successful entrepreneur with two companies: Bob Fay’s TV & Appliance and Bob Fay Finance Companies.
However, it was in civic volunteerism that Fay really made a mark on St. Joseph. He served as a United Way volunteer for more than 30 years, leading the 1973 fundraising drive and twice serving as board president. In 1987, Fay was presented with the agency’s highest honor for volunteerism: the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award.
He gave his time and energy to numerous other organizations, including the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Heartland Health Systems, the YMCA, Head Start, Family Guidance and the Salvation Army.
Fay died Feb. 24 in St. Joseph, another soldier from the forgotten war who’s gone but not forgotten.
This Korean War veteran, like so many of his generation, served with little fanfare and then returned to the job of building families, businesses and communities. Perhaps the best tribute for Fay and others of his generation would be to put aside all of our bickering and rekindle a spirit of service to country and community.
