'Scattered like petals': Ceremony honors 43,808 names on Korean War Wall of Remembrance

"Young men with blue eyes, who crossed rough seas carrying rifles and shells / for the freedom and peace of a strange country whose name they did not know — / you burned more fiercely than the flames of artillery fire, / and your souls fell like petals upon black ash. / Tears hotter than candle wax gathered on those petals, / and you scattered into the soul of a flower upon the dark cinders." — So Kang-seok, "Souls of Petals, Names That Pierce the Heart"

In Washington, D.C., there stands a memorial with 19 statues of soldiers in uniform and a wall bearing the names of 43,808 individuals — the Korean War Veterans Memorial and, within it, the Wall of Remembrance.

On Saturday, Korea's Memorial Day, Saeedun Church and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation (KWVMF) co-hosted a wreath-laying ceremony at the site.

So Kang-seok, senior pastor of Saeedun Church, offered his tribute through a poem he wrote when the Wall of Remembrance was built. Attendees were moved to remember the veterans who gave their lives for Korea as he recited: "We will not forget you. / When Koreans come to Washington, they will always stop here / and remember your names. / … May the names of the guardian angels of freedom and peace, engraved on this wall of memory, / rise as stars of love and peace / above the truce line where dark storms rage."

Glen A. Galtere, a 97-year-old American Korean War veteran and pastor, offered a memorial prayer. "Let us remember those who are no longer with us — those whose remains we cannot even locate," he said. "Those of us who were there can never forget our comrades, the bodies of soldiers piled upon one another. So in the deep silence of our hearts, let us remember those who were so special and precious to us."

Lou Ann Sherk, a representative of families of Korean War fallen soldiers, then delivered a response address. "Today, we honor deeply the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who lost a loved one during the Korean War," she said. "Behind every name honored on this wall was a promising life, a family that loved them, and a future forever changed." She said she hoped the wreath would serve as a symbol of remembrance, honor and commitment — "a commitment that we will never forget those who fell, a commitment to recognize with humility and gratitude the dedication of Gold Star Families, and a commitment that the lessons of service, duty and sacrifice will endure forever in the life of this nation."

The Wall of Remembrance was erected in July 2022 within the Korean War Veterans Memorial to honor the sacrifice of American servicemembers killed in the Korean War. A wall 130 meters long and 1 meter high encircles the Pool of Remembrance, bearing the names of 36,634 fallen American troops and 7,174 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) soldiers.

When the wall was built, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans provided government funding, while SK Group and Saeedun Church were among the private donors. Saeedun Church donated an additional $10,000 (about 16 million won) to the KWVMF at Saturday's ceremony.

About 100 people attended the event, including American and Korean-American veterans and their families, bereaved families of fallen soldiers, and representatives of Saeedun Church, to pay their respects to those who died in the war.