Searching for the truth about a relative who disappeared during the Korean War…
The first six months of the Forgotten War were the bloodiest and most deadly in known history. Soldiers like my wife’s uncle, Donald Matney, went from playing sports in occupied Japan to fighting for their lives against an opponent in Korea who was better prepared, better armed and knew no rules. Simple farmers, like fictional Woo Kyu-Chul, were torn from their Korean farms and forced to flee for their lives in front of the vicious onslaught of the North Korean Peoples Army. In every early battle, the NKPA brutally defeated its foes. After being in Korea less than three weeks, Corporal Donald Matney simply disappeared.
In the summer of 2002 at the urging of my wife’s aunts, Donald’s sisters, we decided to research what happened during those early weeks of the Korean War. We attended government updates, conversed with veterans and others who lost loved ones, read many books, researched records and requested government documents. After many years, we petitioned the government to disinter a specific unknown soldier buried in the Punchbowl in Hawaii. The result of our efforts is the book “A Korean War Odyssey.” In it, the reality of the Korean War is told through the alternating perspectives of young Donald Matney and Woo Kyu-Chul. When Donald disappears, the narration continues with the major events of the war interspersed with what we did to locate and return him home. The journey concludes recommendation on how to research loved ones lost at war.
I hope you enjoy it.
To purchase a copy of A Korea War Odyssey, please visit:
To inquire about purchasing your autographed copy, please email:
A press release can be seen at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/
An interview with Tom Gormley can be heard at:
A great article on A Korean War Odyssey is at:
https://www.militarytimes.com/
See an article I wrote in the September-October 2021 Graybeards pages 22-24:
A Trafford “Gold Seal of Literary Excellency” Read!
