Much has been heard these past few years about the rumblings – some would say ramblings – coming from North Korea.

Its current dictator regularly threatens the United States and other countries.

Although President Obama this past weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, it could easily be said that the war has never really ended.

Although combat fighting stopped with the signing of an armistice in late July of 1953, democratic South Korea and communist North Korea never signed a formal peace treaty.

And, much like later conflicts, sometimes the veterans who fought in those wars are overlooked.

Many efforts continue to this day to recognize the aging veterans who fought in World War II, perhaps the most studied war ever by historians and military enthusiasts.

One often hears of the ongoing programs to honor those veterans who fought in Vietnam, for example, since many came home during a politically turbulent time when they weren’t honored by citizens for simply doing their duty.

But what about Korea – the so-called “Forgotten War” – the war that sometimes is labeled a “conflict” but definitely felt like a war?

At least 2.5 million people were killed in the Korean War, which went from 1950 to 1953.

The war took on epic proportions in June 1950 when North Korea, supplied and tutored by the then Soviet Union, invaded the South (Republic of Korea).

The United Nations jumped in with the United States being the principal ally backing the South.

It got even messier when the People’s Republic of China came to the North’s aid.

The fighting ended July 27, 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed. It restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a 2.5-mile wide fortified buffer zone between the two Korean nations.

The Times interviewed three Fountain Hills men who fought in Korea and saw firsthand what went on during this Forgotten War.

Here are their stories:

* * *

Don Webb was called up from a Marine Corps reserve company based in Milwaukee, Wis.

He was sent to radio school and by February of 1951 found himself in Korea.

He was a “captain’s runner,” but by the third day the radio got wet and quit working, Webb says.

“So I reverted back to a plain ol’ grunt,” he says.

Webb spent five months in Korea, but it might just as well have been five years or five decades. Five months alone seemed like an eternity.

“I spent 10 days in a tent and the rest of the time was spent in a hole,” he recalls.

During this phase of the war the South Koreans and United States forces only occupied a small part of the southern tip near Pusan – they were fighting the Chinese as they struggled to make it back northward toward the now famous 38th parallel.

“We were constantly on the move, toward the front line,” Webb recounts. “We carried everything on our backs. We literally lived in a hole…

“It got well below zero, and being from Wisconsin, I knew what the cold could do to you.

“A lot of the guys suffered frostbite.”

It’s still difficult today for Webb to recount the many horror stories that he encountered on a daily basis in Korea.

“Not a lot of pleasant things went on,” he says rather matter-of-factly.

He talks in general terms of “being surrounded” and his group having to fight its way out.

One man he calls “Walker” brings a story to life – or nearly death.

Webb was helping carry the wounded warrior on a stretcher when they encountered an incline. The stretcher tilted toward Webb, with blood pouring down on him from the injured man.

But that man survived, and Webb runs into him at military reunions: “I call him my blood brother.”

Eventually Webb himself came “too close” to a mortar and was removed from combat with an injury.

Coming home, Webb admits people didn’t say “too much” to veterans at the time, so different than the ending of World War II, though perhaps a harbinger of what would come for Vietnam War veterans.

“It was an entirely different animal trying to achieve the same ends,” he says when comparing Korea and World War II.

“The basic mission is the same, but each conflict is different.”

* * *

Ralph Truax, a young 88 today, served on the USS Lexington, a naval carrier, in World War II and ended up in the Marine Corps Reserve upon moving back to Minneapolis after the war.

His squadron was activated in August 1950 and he, too, soon found himself at the Pusan Perimeter.

“1950 and 1951 were very difficult periods,” Truax recalled. “There was a major buildup in 1951.”

World War II vintage planes were used to fly close air support for the troops on the ground.

Truax, with his previous war background, was part of a unit in charge of all the armament – the bombs, mortars, guns, napalm and more.

“We made sure everything functioned properly and we had enough supplies,” he says.

While he spent time during World War II on a ship, Truax found himself on Korean terra firma.

“I saw it basically as an extension of World War II with a lot of the same equipment and tactics,” Truax says today.

“Congress didn’t declare war, but it was a UN action. I kind of felt our lives were disrupted at the time. There was little prep time. No one knew where I was for a year.

“It was indeed the forgotten war.

“Because it was a UN action, many citizens didn’t know about it. People didn’t see the big picture then.

“There were two Koreas then, just like today.

“You had the South – democratic, strong economy, individual rights – and you have the North, exactly where they were 50 years ago.”

Truax admits, however, that the sacrifices made 60 years ago were worth it: “They did bring some stability to the region.”

* * *

Bill Bumbolo was drafted into the Army in 1950 and was sent to Korea soon after receiving infantry training and was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division.

Bumbolo has given talks to high school students about his war experiences.

“Upon arrival, a lieutenant looked at my records and noticed that I had applied and been accepted to Fordham University Medical School,” he recalls.

“The officer looked at me and asked if I could stand the sight of blood.

“I answered, ‘Yes sir, unless it’s my own.’ He looked at me and smiled.”

So after four days of training, Bumbolo was declared a combat medic.

Medics were not allowed to carry weapons nor identify themselves in any way as a medic.

“If they did, they would be the first to be killed by the enemy,” Bumbolo says.

“I was involved in many battles and lost a lot of buddies. When I came upon a deceased soldier, I was to place their dog tags between their teeth for identification at a later time.

“I was supplied with only morphine and bandages. There was not much I could do for the wounded.”

One day his lieutenant told him to take a break so a new medic could go out on patrol and gain experience.

“That medic was killed on patrol the first time out,” he says. “I consider it a gift from God that I wasn’t on that patrol.”

After the loss of so many men, his group was relieved from combat and sent to Japan for six months to regroup and retrain replacements.

He later participated in an amphibious landing by sea in North Korea that was designed to be a diversion and fool the enemy into believing the assault was larger than it really was.

“We further convinced the enemy by climbing up and down and around the sides of our ship several times a day for three days, making it appear there were several thousand soldiers,” he says.

“The reality was the enemy was unprepared for our attack by air and land, and they soon retreated.”

He earned nearly a dozen medals and badges from his stint in Korea. “Bumby,” as he was sometimes called, saved many lives while putting his own life in jeopardy.

Bumbolo described the Korean War as a “very vicious, cold war” with no shortage of inhumane treatment.

“It was difficult to come back home,” Bumbolo recalls.

“When I heard a loud noise or a bang, I would jump up out of bed and hide under the bed.

“Even today when I hear noises, I still kind of jump.”

Toward the end of his enlistment, he was promoted to doctor’s assistant. He became proficient with medical procedures.

“My service to my country was quite an experience. I went in the serve as a boy and came home a man,” he says.

Bumbolo married his sweetheart three months after coming back home and went on to have a successful career in the banking industry.

He’s active in his church and veterans groups. He is a member of the VFW and the American Legion.