While some of the snapshots have descriptions about the identities of pictured individuals, most of them lack such information and are only waiting to be discovered by the pictured themselves or their families. (image: Democrat & Chronicle)
SEOUL, Jun. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean War veteran Harry Quehl, aged 86, was speechless for a while when he saw his younger 22-year-old self in an old snapshot taken in July 1950 in Okinawa, Japan.
Quehl found himself among snapshots distributed by Betty Perkins-Carpenter and Tiana Stephens, who are campaigning to identify people in 138 Korean war images, probably taken by the U.S government, donated by a woman to America’s Korean War Veteran’s Association.
Stephens, the granddaughter of a Korean War veteran, was dumbfounded and excited to recognize her grandfather’s 16-year-old figure on a snapshot from the donated images.
Determined to give a chance to other Korean War veterans and their families to treasure their memories through the snapshots, she and Perkins-Carpenter have been working together to let the photos return to their rightful owners.
The two women are currently presenting the images on a website: http://koreanwar.democratandchronicle.com
The snapshots were mostly taken during the first three months after war broke out on June 25, 1950. Due to their good quality, they even show the expressions on the faces of soldiers quite clearly.
While some of the snapshots have descriptions about the identities of pictured individuals, most of them lack such information and are only waiting to be discovered by the pictured themselves or their families.
Mr. Quehl, who found himself on one of the images, said that the project was exciting and a good thing to do.
He also shared his memories of the war, about how he operated missions in the sky of North Korea and lost countless colleagues.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
