Korean War veterans from West Michigan honored with medals

PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — Six Korean War veterans were awarded the Korean Ambassador for Peace Medal on Saturday, more than 70 years after major fighting stopped on the Korean Peninsula.

One of the veterans honored at the Portage District Library was Hubert Gibson of Kalamazoo.

The Hastings native enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school in 1949 and served for four years.

"it was a part of my life and it was a good part of my life, really," he said.

After boot camp, he went to school to work on diesel engines. He had about a week left of training when the conflict broke out, and he was quickly sent to the destroyer USS Maddox. The new assignment also came with a new nickname.

"Somebody went by there and he, he heard Gibson and he says, 'Hoot! We got a guy by the name of Hoot Gibson,'" he recounted. "It's stuck with me ever since."

Gibson says he took care of the engine on the small whaleboat that was used to pick up bailed out pilots from the shore or water. He clearly remembers the time his boat was on its way to pick up a pilot when a truck with enemy troops pulled up to the beach.

"They started firing at us, and we had to leave him, really," Gibson said. "There wasn't much we could do. We didn't have enough armament to make them back off."

According to the U.S. Department of Defense , about 8,000 Americans were missing by the end of the war, with about 37,000 American lives lost.

Many historians say that Korean War veterans did not get the same welcome as the troops who came home after World War II. But on Saturday, members of the Kalamazoo chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and South Korean officials honored Gibson and five other veterans with the Korean Ambassador for Peace Medal.

"The magnitude of the sacrifices made by these young Americans for a very, very small country like Korea overwhelms me," said Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago Hyungin Gee.

It's an award for an act of service that Gibson proudly remembers.