It's often called "the Forgotten War," because the Korean War fell between the better remembered World War II and Vietnam War. Yet on the 60th anniversary of the War's start, it should be recalled as a major victory in the long battle for advancing freedom.

The War began on June 25, 1950., when communist North Korea, without warning, invaded South Korea.  President Truman ordered American troops to prevent the communist conquest of the South.  In the War which lasted three years until an armistice was signed, 54,229 American died.

One who was there was Billy C. Hall of Irvine. A U.S. Marine in world War II, he later joined the Army's 3rd Infantry Battalion National Guard in Orange County, part of the 224th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division, which mobilized in 1950 and was shipped to Korean in 1951.  He also served in Vietnam.  We reached him through American Legion Post 227 in Tustin.  "It was the coldest I had ever been in my life."  Mr. Hall remembered of his two years in Korea.  "We were constantly out in the winter weather. You would get warm, but not warm for long."

Mr. Hall, who is returned from both the Army and as executive director of the Santa Ana City Center Association, said the reason America fought was to prevent South Korea from becoming "just one more communist country that would have been in the area. We were trying to keep North Korea from taking over South Korea." Of the back-and-forth fighting of the War, he recalled, "It was one hill after another."

  One group remembers. "Even 60 years later, the Korean in Orange county are constantly thanking the Americans that we were there." he said. "They have not forgotten that we came in and saved their country."  

Six decades on, it's easy to contrast the communists, starving North Korea of paranoid dictator Kim Jong Il with the free, democratic prosperous South korea of Hyundai, LG, Samsung and Kia.  

Today all Americans should not forget the veterans, including those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, who helped keep South Korea free.