VETERANS,
MEMBERS AND FRIENDS,
The KWVA National Board of Directors, the Officers, and the Staff (all volunteers, plus three great employees/associates!),
AND the members of the KVA, SEOUL, the IFKWVA around the world, and the Commander of the UN Command/Combined
Forces Command/US Forces Korea ALL wish for all KWVA members, and all Americans, the best of everything
this Christmas and for the New Year!
A week ago I had the opportunity to revisit, in the winter, the site in NORTH KOREA near where I was
wounded so many years ago. From the trenches of the eastern most position in the PUNCHBOWL you could just
make out HILL 812 further east. The day was snow covered and snowing, the Siberian Express wind was
blowing. Many of you will vividly recall—and feel, with an involuntary shiver—Decembers in KOREA, the BULGE,
the many forests in GERMANY and elsewhere in EUROPE, border patrols around the clock in open jeeps, windshields
down, lights out, training and exercises in LEWIS, YAKIMA, SILL, HOOD, KNOX, BENNING, ORD, JACKSON, BRAGG,
war in BOSNIA, AFGHANISTAN and IRAQ—anywhere that the cause of freedom called for our service.
American armed forces in field, in the winter, standing on the walls for FREEDOM is American, and began
in the bitter winter of 1776 in VALLEY FORGE in the fighting COLONY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
As we remember and reflect this winter day, 2006, let us recall the phrase given to us from the timeless
literature of our English forbearers: GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE.
“FREEDOM’S
FRONTIER”—General B. B. Bell, LR/HO37968, Commander, UN Command / Combined Forces Command / US Forces Korea,
December 2006
National President, KWVA/US
