For those that served in Korea from 1954 to the present.....

[kenmar]

....this information from a House Armed Services Committee press release may be of interest to you.

The National Defense Authorization FY2003 conferees have come to agreement
and the House has passed the agreement.

The Senate will follow in a few day's and the President is expected to sign it early next week.

Included in theact islanquagethatauthorizes the issuance of a Korean Defense Service Medal to be issued to military personnel who served in this area between July 28, 1954 and an undetermined date in the future.

This also includes Navy personell who served in the Korean waters for more than 30 days.The exact lanquage in the billrelated to Korean veteranscan be found at this link...

http://www.kdvamerica.org/Legislation.html#ndafy

[Boats]

Ken,

I sent a copy of your thread to my neighbor he's an x-Korean Vet
Thanks

[kenmar]

Thanks to you for thinking of him...

Boats, you have "collect old car manuals" in your profile. How old are are talking...

[kenmar]

After the President signs the FY 2003 NDA into law. You have to fill out a DD Form 149. This is a correction of military record form. Be sure and send in a copy of your DD 214. The address to mail the completed form to is on the back of the form. Different branches have a different address. You will receive notification that your claim is being forwarded to a review board. Within a year you should receive the findings of the board, a DD Form 215 and your KDSM. The DD Form 215 should be kept with your DD Form 214. The DD 215 is the correction of military record showing you are awarded the KDSM.

Below is a relatedarticle from a Ventura newspaper.....

By John Mitchell
November 20, 2002
A bill championed by Rep. Elton Gallegly that pays tribute to military personnel who have served in South Korea since the Korean War was part of a broad defense spending bill passed by Congress last week.

When it is signed by President Bush, it will direct the Department of Defense to issue a Korean Defense Service Medal to the more than 1.5 million American servicemen and women who have pulled duty in South Korea since July 1954.

During that time, many of them have come under fire by North Korean soldiers, especially in the area of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.

More than 1,200 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed, many hundreds wounded and at least 87 captured and tortured in incidents in the postwar period.

At the urging of veterans, Gallegly, a Simi Valley Republican, introduced the Korea Defense Service Medal Act in the House of Representatives last year.

A short time later, a companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico.

"For reasons only understandable to Department of Defense bureaucrats, the department refused to recognize the dangerous mission our military men and women face on the Korean Peninsula," Gallegly said. "Even as North Korea continues unprovoked attacks on its South Korean neighbors and admittedly pursues weapons of mass destruction, the DOD continues to insist the mission is not dangerous enough to warrant a service medal."

Gallegly said that in light of the fact that North Korea sponsors terrorism, he felt it was important to recognize American military personnel who serve in South Korea.

This summer, the medal act was included in the broader National Defense Authorization Act, a defense spending bill that, in part, gives the military a pay raise, increases payment for out-of-pocket housing expenses, authorizes $15 billion to combat terrorism and $130 billion to develop new weapons and equipment.

Korea veterans John Maclean and Norm Tredway are looking forward to receiving their medals.

"My reaction to getting the medal is elation," said Maclean, a Ventura resident who had a few scary moments when he was an 18-year-old Army private in Korea from 1959-60. "But it's a bittersweet victory because so many of our fallen brothers did not live to see it happen."

Maclean credits Tredway and others for the research and paperwork that motivated Gallegly.

"We started this effort as a simple mail-in campaign in August 1999," said Tredway, national commander of the Korea Defense Veterans of America. "Then we came out with a Web site, and it took off like a shot. Elton Gallegly was the first man to step up to do the honorable thing. He is very good to veterans."

Tredway, of Dunellen, N.J., experienced the dangers of the DMZ from 1955-56. "We were pinned down 30 minutes by automatic fire one time, and I was part of a team that captured seven North Korean agents infiltrating through the DMZ."

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