Township veteran Don Kengerski describes the chaos of a battlefield in early 1952 near the cities of Chorwon, Kumwha and Pyongyang, designated as the Iron Triangle near the border of North and South Korea.
‘You never get to know anyone very well,? said Kengerski, a Minnesota native and now a township resident, who entered the U.S. Army in March 1951.
‘You’re moving all the time. Men are scattered everywhere on a battlefield’no one clusters together, and we live and sleep in foxholes.?
It’s been almost 60 years since Kengerski, now 79-years-old, put down his weapon and joined the ranks of Korean War Veterans’later joining the Ortonville VFW Post 582.
‘After 60 years our numbers are dwindling,? said Kengerski.
‘The future of the VFW now is with the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict veterans’we have about 100 members, and need others to keep going.?
The VFW Post 582 meetings are on the third Wednesday of every month at the Old Town Hall, Ortonville.
Jerry Newberry, director of communications for the VFW of the United States in Washington D.C. said the foundation for the VFW in Michigan and nationwide starts in the grass roots efforts of small posts like Ortonville.
‘We understand that joining the VFW is not a priority of many young men and women returning from Afghanistan or Iraq,? said Newberry.
‘It’s tough out there’but consider other VFW members have been there and had many of the same experiences.?
In the United States today 1.9 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are eligible for the VFW, with about 15 percent currently participating.