by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
More than a dozen veterans from American Legion Post 328 of St. Joseph took part in the Veterans Day Parade and Social at the campus of the St. Cloud VA Health Care System.
Jerry Reischl of St. Joseph was one of those veterans in the 10th annual parade in St. Cloud and a member of the St. Joseph post for more than three decades.
“I volunteered for the draft in 1956 and had basic training in Arkansas, and another advanced infantry basic in New Jersey and then had two years of service,” Reischl said of the Korean War.
The 83-year-old is a husband and father of three, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of six. He has been married for more than six decades after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.
“I think the military is good for young people, and I think it did me a lot of good, too,” said Reischl, who was the color guard chairman for the American Legion in St. Joseph for the past 15 years.
The Korean War may be a distant memory to some, and for those younger, the conflict may be something they have only read about in history books or learned about in school – or only think about on Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
The war began on June 25, 1950, when about 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel, which is the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.
“I would have been drafted in another month or two,” Reischl said of the reason he volunteered for the draft.
Reischl said he believes Americans are getting better at paying their respects to, or honoring, veterans for their service, for their sacrifices and for the freedoms U.S. citizens enjoy.
The Korean War ended in 1953, but not before five million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the conflict and left the Korean peninsula still divided between North Korea and South Korea.
“We did a lot of marching in the parades for the Fourth of July,” Reischl said of his civilian life. “It’s kind of a thrill to do the parade on Sunday (at the St. Cloud VA) because a lot of the people thank us as we go by them, and little kids stand and salute as you go by.”
Almost 40 units participated in the 10th annual Veterans Day Parade and Social at the St. Cloud VA Health Care System on Nov. 6, including the American Legion Post 328 of St. Joseph.
Marching in the parade were also members of the American Legion Post 254 and the VFW Post 6992, both of of Sauk Rapids, as well as a trolley for World War II and Korean War veterans.
“You talk to the guys (who) march in parades and they’ll tell you when the parade starts, they’ll have goosebumps all the way through because of this,” Reischl said. “As a rule, most people treat us great, and it means a great deal to us.”
St. Joseph American Legion Post 328 was named after St. Joseph World War I veteran John Kuebelbeck, who is buried in France.
