Great Sacrifice Can Produce Great Results

This weekend as Americans enjoy cookouts, beach reading, shopping sprees, blockbuster movie openings, and good times with family and friends, many of us will also take time to remember America’s military men and women who died in defense of our freedom. It is, after all, Memorial Day Weekend.

But there’s another group of Americans, far from home and separated from loved ones, who will also make it a point to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for the ideals Americans and other freedom-loving people around the world cherish.

Remembering the Hungnam Evacuation

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Bobcat” Koltick, USMC, and his family. They had traveled four hours from their home at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to Geoje Island to be part of a ceremony at the Hungnam Evacuation Memorial, a monument to the December 1950 military and humanitarian operation.

LtCol Koltick, a Marine aviator, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, and Deputy Commander for Marine Forces Korea, was the honored guest of the event sponsored by the Hungnam Evacuation Memorial Committee, a group of former North Korean refugees and their descendants who make an annual pilgrimage to Geoje Island to commemorate the Hungnam Evacuation, the largest military amphibious evacuation of civilians, under combat conditions, in US history.

The unprecedented two-week long operation at the port city of Hungnam on North Korea’s east coast, withdrew over 103,000 UN troops, mainly US soldiers and Marines, and their equipment, supplies, and vehicles, and 100,000 North Korean refugees who were fleeing from the approaching Chinese.

Some of the former North Korean refugees rescued at Hungnam with Lt.Col Koltick after the ceremony. (Photo credit: Hannah Koltick)

Every Day I Spend in Korea

In his speech, LtCol Koltick honored his brothers in arms who fought and died during the Korean War.

“When the US Marines arrived in Korea in 1950, they experienced some of the fiercest fighting imagined . . . they fought to stabilize the Busan perimeter . . . they led the advance from Incheon to Seoul, and fought to recapture the city of Seoul.”

He also talked about the brave men who lost their lives at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir "in some of the bitterest fighting US Marines have ever had to endure” and gave recognition to the courageous refugees who made their way with the Marines through knee-deep snow and enemy fire to Hungnam. He concluded:

“Every day I spend in Korea . . . I am reminded that great sacrifice can produce great results.”

The Republic of Korea has evolved from a war-ravaged, impoverished country with few natural resources to one of the most dynamic, wealthy, and promising democracies in the world – all in a span of less than 70 seventy years.

On this Memorial Day then – and every day – it is altogether fitting and proper that we honor those who sacrificed their lives for our country and its allies, and remember the American men and women stationed on the front lines of potential flashpoints around the world who continue to protect what our fallen heroes fought for throughout our history. These well-trained and dedicated soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are ready to fight the battles they hope will never come.

Semper Fi!