Verner Newman’s ballcap, the one proclaiming him as a Korean War veteran, usually is met with indifference.

Even when he first returned to Lawrence after serving two stints in Korea in the Navy, people didn’t want to talk about the war. Maybe they didn’t understand it, he said. Maybe they were just tired of talking about battles on the heels of World War II.

From the beginning, he said, it was destined to be the Forgotten War.

“People just forget or don’t care,” he said. “My grandkids, they don’t know anything about the Korean War. Ain’t nobody ever pat us on the back.”

That changes, in part, on Saturday at the Kansas University campus, when officials will dedicate the new Korean War Memorial. A ceremony is set for 8:30 a.m.

For years, the memorial to the Forgotten War was itself seemingly forgotten. The idea for the site first originated 30 years ago.

The memorial joins shrines already in place for World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War.

“It was obvious to everyone what was missing on campus, and that was a Korean War memorial,” said Jeff Weinberg, assistant to Chancellor Robert Hemenway. “It was long overdue.”

U.S. involvement in the Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953. The United States was the main participant in the United Nations’ aid to South Korea, which had been invaded by North Korea.

A shadow box of Bernie Hill's Korean War service medals and tags is now on display at American Legion Dorsey-Liberty Post No. 14, 3408 W. Sixth St. Hill, shown at the Legion hall Thursday, will be on hand for Saturday's dedication of the Korean War Memorial on the Kansas University campus. Hill served in the war from 1951 to 1952 and completed his service as a Sgt. First Class in the infantry.

The memorial sits on Memorial Drive and features a small plaza with benches, a plaque with the names of 44 students, alumni, faculty and staff killed while serving in the armed forces during the war. It also has a plaque explaining basic information about the war and a sculpture of four cranes by Jon Havener, a KU design professor.

The most significant hurdle to the memorial’s completion — about $100,000 in funding — was surpassed last year primarily through gifts from Koreans, both those living in the United States and alumni living in South Korea.

“We worked on it, but it lost momentum,” said Greg Wade, a landscape architect who served on a memorial committee in the early 1990s. “It’s an accomplishment. It’s an important contribution to the campus that’s been held up for a long time.”

No ‘big picture’

For Bernie Hill, a Lawrence native who served nine months in Korea in the Army, the memorial is a tribute to an entire generation.

“It’s long overdue,” said Hill, a retired truck driver. “I think anything for a memorial for us — any war — is good.”

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Hill, 75, was drafted in 1951 and stayed in 21 months. He said he remained frustrated with the way the war was handled. More troops should have been sent to complete U.S. objectives and minimize casualties, he said.

“You never knew what your objective was,” he said. “You took off and took a hill, and the next thing you know they want you to pull back. There never was a big picture.”

He said he sensed indifference — but not a lack of support — from Americans. World War II veterans and their families weren’t interested in dwelling on the conflict in Korea, he said.

“They wanted to get back to their lives and family,” he said. “They took their uniforms off and put their work clothes on.”

No protests

Workers set the sculpture Korean

While World War II transformed KU, bringing hundreds of military personnel to campus for officer and technical training. No such transformation happened during the Korean War, though ROTC numbers did increase during the era.

“A lot of World War II veterans were enrolled at the time at the university,” said Bob Roth, of Larned, a 1954 KU graduate. “Those people had made a lot of sacrifices, and their friends … wanted to serve in respect to them.”

Roth, who was in the Air Force after the war, said he didn’t remember any protests over the war like the ones that would later divide campus during the Vietnam War era.

“I honestly feel it was unchallenged,” he said. “I don’t recall any opposition whatsoever.”

Good experience

Newman, who left KU to serve in the Navy, now considers his 22 months there one of the best experiences of his life.

“It gave me a good background,” he said. “I met people from all over the world.”

Newman, 74, scoffs at the idea that the events in Korea didn’t constitute a full-blown war. Some still refer to it as simply a conflict, or a “police action.”

“It was a war — that’s for sure,” he said.

He said memorials like the one at KU — as well as the national memorial dedicated in 1995 and the state memorial dedicated in 2003 — were helping teach a new generation about what happened in Korea.

Now, when he wears his hat in public, people sometimes come up to him.

Their message: “Thank you.”

— Kansas University student Janette Crawford contributed to this report.