Received May 2001, from Jim Laursen, SN, 7th div. (on LA '58-'59), jnlaursen@ados.com:

The Republic of China on Formosa (Taiwan) has awarded a medal to every veteran who was at the 1958 Quemoy and Matsu campaign. Then in the later part of 1999, their Ministry of Defense changed the eligibility to any veteran who served on around or over their territories from 1949 to present.

On 25 June, Knoxville-area LA sailors James E. Baker, Don Dessart, Don Woody ? Ray Woodruff got together to reminisce about their Korean War experiences on the ship.  A Knoxville newspaperman wrote a story about this meeting ? James Baker took pictures of the event.  A picture ? the article are included below.
 

Left to right:  James E. Baker, Don Dessart, Don Woody ? Ray Woodruff holding a painting of the USS Los Angeles CA-135.  Don Dessart's friend, Charlene DeRidder, painted the picture for him.

The following article appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on June 25, 2000.  The article is reproduced in its entirety, including the credits at the end.

June 25, 2000
By Sam Venable News-Sentinel columnist  mailto:venob@knews.com

Ray Woodruff remembers the first time it dawned on him that the glory of war ain't all it's cracked up to be. 

"There was this stone that we used to scrub the wooden deck," says Woodruff, who was stationed aboard the USS Los Angeles during the Korean War. "The stone had an indentation in it.  You had to put a broom handle down in it, and then you scrubbed 'round and 'round with sand and water.  Well, one day, we ran out of sand. So they sent 12 or 14 of us ashore to get more." 

We are not talking "ashore" as in some Navy supply warehouse on the United States mainland. 

We're talking "ashore" as in the beach -- which just happened to be behind enemy lines and well-fortified with North Korean troops. 

"They sent a squad of Marines with us for protection.  We dug sand all afternoon and put it in bags and carried it back out to the ship.  Here we'd been bombarding the place for weeks, and now we're out on the beach digging sand. That's when I started gettin' the idea this was a crazy war!" 

It was 50 years ago today that North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea.  Fifty years ago this coming Tuesday, President Harry Truman ordered U.S. air and naval forces to defend South Korea, launching an undeclared war that eventually claimed the lives of 36,516 American servicemen, along with 103,284 wounded and 5,178 prisoners or missing. 

Pretty staggering statistics for what is often referred to as a "conflict." 

I was sitting around a restaurant table a few days ago with Woodruff and three other East Tennesseans who know better.  This was as bloody a war as United States forces ever found themselves in. Like the Vietnam hellhole, which burst into flames a decade later, the Korean war was largely directed by politicians. 

Said Woodruff, who probably reflects the sentiment of most Korean War vets: "The military could have won if they'd been allowed to fight their way." 

Perhaps so.  But half a century after the fact, these four, and thousands more like them all around the country, are content to still be present and accounted for. 

There's Woodruff, who moved to Sevier County in 1980 after retiring from the pest-control business in Ohio.  And James Baker, retired from a career in chemical marketing, who lives in Farragut.  And Don Woody, retired home builder and former mayor of Kingston, who still lives in Roane County.  And Knoxvillian Don Dessart, retired professor of mathematics at the University of Tennessee, who actually is "unretired." 

"I'm still working for the university, under contract," Dessart said with a laugh.  "I'm just like (football coach) Phil Fulmer and (basketball coach) Jerry Green.  If the university wants to get rid of me, they'll have to buy out my contract." 

All four men served on the Los Angeles during Korea.  They knew one another vaguely during the war -- with a total crew of 1,200, the ship was like a small floating city -- but it wasn't until the group's 1999 reunion in Virginia that they realized all lived in East Tennessee. 

They got together the other day to reminisce further.  Or, as Woody put it, "To recall how the four of us single-handedly won the war." 

Mayhap that's taking a bit of liberty with the truth.  But let the record show that the Los Angeles saw more than its share of combat.  It was the first U.S. Navy vessel to take enemy fire in Korea and made two extended cruises along the North Korean coastline, constantly bombarding the port city of Wonsan and occasionally rescuing downed American pilots.

In the early 1950s, the ship's three turrets of 8-inch guns were powerful medicine.  But as Baker puts it, "we're antiques by today's standards." 

Baker, who manned one of those guns, recalled how an instructor told him to be careful with each shot because the cost of each round, "'was like a new Chevrolet going out the barrel.'  Every time they fire a missile on one of today's high-tech nuclear ships, it's more like a million dollars." 

Sam Venable's column appears in the News-Sentinel on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  His column also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com.  He can be reached at 865-342-6272 or venob@knews.com.  His new book, "Mountain Hands: A Portrait of Southern Appalachia," is scheduled for release later this year from the University of Tennessee Press.