Massachusetts has not had a navy veteran function governor in additional than 30 years.
That final veteran to function governor was U.S. Army veteran Michael S. Dukakis (1955-1957) who served as an enlisted man in Korea after the Korean War led to 1953. He left the governor’s workplace in 1990.
So it’s of curiosity that Gov. Maura Healey, a non-veteran and a progressive, would take an curiosity within the well-being of Massachusetts women and men who served their nation.
Progressives as a rule are inclined to shun all issues navy.
Dukakis, 89, who enlisted following commencement from Swarthmore College, was a 21-year-old radio operator on the DMZ, the armistice line that also separates the 2 Koreas.
The Korean battle, sometimes called “The Forgotten War”—lodged because it was between World War II and Vietnam– started on June 25, 1950, when the Communist North Korea, later abetted by Communist China, invaded South Korea, then a fledgling democracy and a U.S. ally and protectorate.
It ended again the place it started on the thirty eighth parallel (the DMZ) that separated the 2 Koreas, on July 27, 1953, when the opponents signed an armistice, which continues to be in impact.
A complete of 33,686 Americans had been killed in motion, and hundreds extra wounded through the quick however intensive three years interval.
This compares to the 47,434 Americans killed in motion in Vietnam, a battle that lasted 3 times as lengthy.
Like many wars earlier than, recollections of the Korean War are starting to fade as the lads who fought there are getting old out and taking their recollections with them, simply as their older brothers who fought in World War II have carried out.
For occasion, each World War II veterans former Massachusetts Attorney General Frank Bellotti (U.S. Navy) and former U. S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (U.S. Army) lately noticed their one centesimal birthdays.
Their ranks are thinning.
The ranks are additionally thinning for Korean War veterans as properly. They are being changed by veterans of Iraq, the lengthy battle in Afghanistan, and unsung battles within the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
Still, it got here as one thing of a shock to be taught round Memorial Day that the Korean War Veterans Association, as soon as a vigorous entity, will probably be disbanded and its workplaces on the fifth flooring on the Massachusetts State House shut down.
The discover got here in “The Morning Calm,” the KWVA’s thinned out quarterly publication whose title is from Korea’s deceptive nickname as “The Land of the Morning Calm.”
While the few remaining members can be a part of different KWVA chapters—if they aren’t shutting down too– issues for the Korean War vets won’t be the identical.
Ironically, the demise of the KWVA comes at a time when Gov. Healey has beefed up help for veterans..
Healey, in a Memorial Day govt order, reinvigorated former Gov. Charlie Baker’s Governor’s Advisory Council on Veterans’ Services and named former state Rep. Jon Santiago to move it.
She additionally, naturally, made positive that the 12-member council will probably be woke and that the make-up represents “diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, immigration status, and economic status.”
Healey earlier confirmed her dedication to veterans by naming Santiago because the state’s first cabinet-level secretary of the Executive Office of Veteran’s Services, an workplace and place that was created in 2022 following the deaths on the Holyoke Soldiers Home through the COVID pandemic.
Santiago, a doctor, labored within the emergency room at Boston Medical Center through the COVID disaster. He can be a serious within the U.S. Army Reserve with two abroad deployments.
Healey mentioned of Santiago: “His public health experience and military service” made him “uniquely qualified” for the place.
While we’re not positive which constructing Santiago will work out of, the KWVA workplace in Room 546-4 of the State House will quickly be out there.
The KWVA would proudly flip their flag over to him.
Hail and farewell.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”