I was invited to breakfast last week by my friend and agent Al Curtis. If you can believe this, Al booked my first professional gig when I was 18-years old.

Al invited me to meet his friend Larry Sassorossi, the Executive Director of the Korean War National Museum. I'll be honest with you, of all of America's military conflicts, I know the least about the Korean War ... so, who better to learn from than Larry?

I learned that a new Korean War National Museum project is in the works. The new location for this national museum is Springfield, Illinois, across from the new Abraham Lincoln Museum.

During breakfast, I admitted to being ignorant about the Korean War, but Larry was more than kind and filled me in on some important facts about the war.

Larry pointed out that the Korean War was a stop-gap in the spread of communism. In fact, I did some research myself and I read that the Korean War, was the first time the spreading of communism had been stopped in its tracks, and it actually began the downfall of the Berlin Wall.

Although the war is known in history as the "Forgotten War" it was the first time helicopters and jets were used by the American military.

I asked Larry about the popular television show; M*A*S*H*; supposedly taking place during the Korean War. I asked him how Korean Veterans react to the way the war was portrayed, and Larry said most Korean War Vets hated M*A*S*H* because it was more a of a statement about the Vietnam War and not the Korea War. Larry even pointed out the "long hair" and "sideburns" worn by "Hawk Eye" and "BJ" were not popular during the early 1950's. According to Larry, it was recently revealed that the producer of M*A*S*H* was trying to make an anti-Vietnam War statement, and before his death recently, he stated he realized that he was wrong to use the Korean War to make a statement about Vietnam and never meant to hurt or dishonor the Korean War Veterans.

SIDEBAR; James Garner (TV's "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files") is a Purple Heart recipient and Korean War Veteran. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin  and television icon Ed McMahon are both Korean War veterans and all three of them are helping to raise funds for the new Korean War National Museum. ~ Closer to me, Jonathan Brant's father-in-law, James Bender served in Korea as a Marine as is hallowed as one of "Chosin Few" and US Congressman Peter Roskam's father "Sweet" Roskam is a Korean War hero as well.

I came away from the breakfast "a fan" of the new Korean War National Museum project and I actually felt a bit smarter about our Korean War heroes. I asked Larry how they were trying to raise funds to build the new museum in Springfield and he said they are organizing a national campaign to raise the funds needed to build the museum. James Garner, Buzz Aldrin and Ed McMahon are writing letters and Larry and his staff are reaching out to patriots to help with the funding.

54,246 American Service Members died during the Korean War (1950 - 1953), There are almost 2.5 million Veterans. Please help honor these brave men with whatever you can give. To learn more about this patriotic project and how you can donate to help build this museum, visit www.KWNM.org. You can email Larry directly at Larrysasso@kwnm.org and ask him how you and your family can get involved.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Larry showed me two photos take from the same vantage point. One was a photo of Seoul, Korea taken during the war, the other was a photo taken a few years ago from the exact spot. I was astonished; the city is beautiful  ... Larry smiled and said, "you see Joe, it wasn't so much a 'forgotten war' as it was a forgotten victory."

If you know a Korean War Veteran, please pass important, uplifting information on to him and make sure he gets to see the Korean War National Museum website; it honors him and the men he served with.

 

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