State of South Dakota

EIGHTY-SEVENTH SESSION
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2012

318T0761

HOUSE COMMEMORATION NO. 1013

Introduced by: Representatives Hawley, Abdallah, Blake, Brunner, Cronin, Dennert, Elliott, Fargen, Feickert, Feinstein, Gibson, Haggar, Hansen (Jon), Hickey, Hunhoff (Bernie), Hunt, Iron Cloud III, Jensen, Jones, Kirkeby, Kirschman, Kloucek, Kopp, Liss, Lucas, Miller, Moser, Munsterman, Nelson (Stace), Novstrup (David), Rozum, Schaefer, Schrempp, Scott, Sigdestad, Solum, Street, Stricherz, Tulson, Turbiville, Van Gerpen, Venner, Wick, Willadsen, and Wismer and Senators Sutton, Begalka, Bradford, Brown, Buhl, Cutler, Frerichs, Fryslie, Hansen (Tom), Heineman, Holien, Hunhoff (Jean), Juhnke, Kraus, Krebs, Lederman, Maher, Nelson (Tom), Novstrup (Al), Nygaard, Rhoden, Tidemann, and Tieszen

A LEGISLATIVE COMMEMORATION, Commending and honoring those who served in the Korean War, on the sixtieth anniversary of the war's end.

WHEREAS, on June 25, 1950, communist North Korea invaded the Republic of Korea with approximately 135,000 troops, thereby initiating the Korean War; and

WHEREAS, after three years of bitter fighting, hostilities ended in a cease-fire marked by the signing of the armistice at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953. After sixty years, the peninsula still technically remains in a state of war; and

WHEREAS, during the Korean War, approximately 26,000 South Dakotans and nearly two million United States troops served in the Korean theater of operations, along with the forces of the Republic of Korea and twenty other member nations of the United Nations, to defend freedom and democracy; and

WHEREAS, one hundred sixty South Dakota residents died while serving in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953; and

WHEREAS, since the end of the Korean War, the United States has maintained large-scale military forces in Korea, ranging between 50,000 and the current level of 28,500 United States Armed Forces members serving in Korea to defend against external aggression and to promote regional peace; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Defense Sixtieth Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee is committed to locating and recognizing American veterans of the Korean War:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT COMMEMORATED, by the Eighty-seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, that the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Korean War be recognized and that those who served there be commemorated and honored.