THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250401
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Dick Gallmeyer is a friendly man with a ready laugh, a lifetime of memories and a big, big idea.
Working mostly alone, with a handful of helpers in far-flung states, the 63-year-old Army veteran is trying to gather together a few old service buddies. From his home in Fox Run, near Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach, he is trying to convince people in Hampton Roads and nationwide that he will pull off the first-ever reunion of all Korean War veterans.
It would be a pretty big party: More than 5.76 million U.S. military personnel served during the three-year conflict, from 1950 to 1953.
Gallmeyer doesn't see why it couldn't happen.
``For all these years, we've been ignored,'' he said.
The idea came to Gallmeyer while he was in the hospital last spring; he has been undergoing treatment for a cerebral hemorrhage he suffered three years ago.
``I kept looking at a book of pictures from the war, and when I got out of the hospital I got on the computer and the phone,'' he said.
He's been busy promoting his idea ever since - working the telephones, writing letters, spreading the word through the media.
Whether the convention will progress beyond an idea is unclear; Gallmeyer says he has begun receiving checks, and hotel reservations are being made, but there's a lot left to do in just eight months.
He has picked Oct. 19, 20 and 21 as the dates.
He has plans for activities, including the use of hotel-based computers to reunite entire units and help vets find old friends.
``The fellows are saying that's important because they wouldn't recognize each other,'' he said.
He even says only half in jest that some government support would be in order.
``We had free C-rations over there,'' he said, chuckling. ``I think the government is about due to give us a free buffet.''
If this old soldier has his way, he and his buddies will converge on the beach and get reacquainted, dance to '50s-era music, go on tours of the city, have a parade, a fireworks display and re-enact the last hour of the last day of the war.
Gallmeyer remembers it.
He was a sergeant in the 58th Field Artillery of the 3rd Infantry Division. He worked as a radio operator, a forward observer, in liaison and observation. When he was pulled back to division artillery headquarters, he took over the radio section there.
He spent the war at the central front, an area dubbed the Iron Triangle, right in the center of the 38th parallel.
``When the war ended, at 11 p.m. on the 27th of July, all day long and prior to that we were blowing the heck out of everything,'' he recalled. ``We had dug in a little deeper. I was in charge of the 3rd division artillery radio section and I called the net together and they counted down - 5,4,3,2,1 - and everything stopped, all the firing, as far as we could see in the air. Several minutes later the fellows starting popping out of their foxholes and bunkers and you'd hear a pop and a gurgle several seconds later.''
Most weren't guzzling champagne, and they didn't care.
``It was water, beer, whatever,'' recalled Gallmeyer, chuckling at the memory of the relief he and his fellow soldiers felt.
``I was very fortunate. All I lost in the Korean War was a little hearing.''
It's a war story he hopes he'll be able to tell again and again, one weekend this fall. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON/
Dick Gallmeyer, 63, has taken on the mammoth task of organizing the
first-ever reunion of all veterans of the Korean War. He has picked
Oct. 19, 20 and 21 for the event.
Graphic
TO ATTEND THE REUNION
The Korean War Veterans Reunion is planned for Oct. 19, 20 and 21
in Virginia Beach. To reach Dick Gallmeyer, call 467-1233.
KEYWORDS: KOREAN WAR VETERANS REUNION
by CNB