The most emotional moment for President Moon Jae-in during his trip to Washington, was
the visit to a very special exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Marine Corps.
He expressed gratitude to the War heroes and their families.
One of them: Admiral Robert Lunney.
Our Moon Connyoung got to sit down with the only surviving veteran from the evacuation
operation that saved thousands of Koreans including the parents of the Liberal leader.
"He said 'I see thousands of refugees on the beach' and he said 'I can take my ship in
and save as many as possible.'"
67 years is a life time ago for most of us.
But, not for Korean War veteran J. Robert Lunney, who has spent every day of those nearly
seven decades thinking about Christmas 1950.
Robert Lunney had just turned 23 in December 1950, an enlisted navy man who found himself
aboard the SS Meredith Victory, ship employed to carry supplies for U.S. servicemen during
the initial months of the Korean War.
Now 90 years-old, Lunney that Christmas in 1950 is still crystal clear in his mind.
"They were streaming by the thousands to the port of Heungnam.
Because at that time, the Chinese had cut off all of the land roots South.
We were totally encircled by the Chinese and we were the last ship.
And they drove by the thousands to the shore to the beach head at Heungnam, waiting to
be saved."
On the afternoon of December 22nd, in gale force winds and swirling snow, Admiral Lunney
and his crew began to load tens of thousands of refugees from Hungnam, North Korea.
"We had the weather, the cold winter.
And the trip south through the mine fields out of Hungnam fortunately we had the seventh
fleet firing into the Chinese positions.
We were able to accomplish the loading of 14 thousand people from December 22nd to December
23rd, which took us about 13 hours to load these people.
We also learned to say ' ', and that was to make refugees fast and keep them moving."
On Christmas Day, 1950, the US Merchant ship "SS Meredith Victory" arrived at a port on
the South Korean island of Geoje carrying over 14,000 refugees--men, women, and children.
Among them... were the parents and sister of Moon Jae-in, who was born in Geoje two
years later in January 1953.
He is now the President of the Republic of Korea and the very first thing he did on his
first visit to the U.S. as president was to meet and show gratitude of the Korean people
to the U.S. Marine Corps, the army and the soldiers.
"It was more dialogue from the president to myself.
I was the only one present yesterday at his talk at Quantico at the Jangjin Memoria in
the marine corp musuem.
He emphasized how important it was that his mother and father were rescued by us.
And he said that if it hadn't been our rescue of his mother and father and his older sister
as well, that he would not be here today.
He admitted how emotional he was over that thought and how appreciative he was of our
captain and our ship and the rescue of these people."
"What left the biggest impression on you about your meeting with President Moon Jae-in yesterday?"
"The greatest impression I had of a man of his stature was how personable he was.
How easy it was to relate to him.
He had a quick smile, he spent as much time with each of us that served in Korea and listened
to expressions of our gratitude in meeting him."
For Lunney, the meeting with President Moon helped close some old wounds we can't see.
But, the 90 year old veteran still remembers the war that never truly ended; a divided
nation still in conflict today.
"I've always hoped in my lifetime and expressed that even when I was in Korea to see reunification
of the Korean people.
The people in the North and the people in the South are Korean people.
When I looked out at them, I did not see a communist or an anti-communist or a North
Korean or a South Korean, or a friend or foe, I said all I see is Korean people."
Moon Connyoung, Arirang News, Washington.