SEOUL _ A U.S. veteran feted in recent days for his service in the Korean War has acknowledged he never fought in the war.
Joseph F. Shearer, 64, of Cleveland was one of 13 veterans honored at a ceremony June 3 ahead of the 50th anniversary of the 1950-53 war on June 25.
A local charity, Kwang Sung Foundation International, invited Shearer to South Korea on the recommendation of the Korean War Veterans Association, based in Beaver Creek, Ohio. Shearer, president of the local chapter in Cleveland, had told both groups that he was injured in battle.
On June 3, South Korea’s veterans association presented him with a plaque thanking him for Korean War service. On June 5, Shearer was a guest of honor at a military parade at the country’s army headquarters, and he was given a special tour of two U.S. military bases on June 6.
At June 3 ceremony, Shearer talked to The Associated Press about the wounds he said he suffered in the Korean War and the comrades who had died in the fighting. His account, published June 3, was challenged by his brother, Don Shearer of Medina, Ohio. On June 6, Shearer acknowledged that he served in South Korea after the war ended and that he had lied about his Army record.
The war ended on July 27, 1953, and a document obtained from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis showed Shearer served in Korea afterward, as a private with the 38th Infantry of the 2nd Division from Oct. 3, 1953, to Jan. 3, 1955.
“The records are right,” Shearer said. “I wanted to be here in ‘52 when I was 16. Unfortunately I could not get here.”
Paul Cho, spokesman for the Kwang Sung Foundation, said, ‘We simply assumed he was here and wounded during the war.” He added, “We are confused, but we don’t want to make a big issue out of this. The fact is that he did serve in Korea, although not during the war.”
Another veteran, Edward L. Daily of Clarksville, Tennessee, has been in recent headlines after conceding that war records show he could not have been at Nogun-ri, where he claimed to have participated in the killing of civilians in the chaotic early days of the Korean War.