CEDAR FALLS -- Korea is called the "Forgotten War."

For veterans like Norm "Duke" Duquette, Sid Morris, Ken Lind and Don Shelton, it hasn't been forgotten. Gathered around a table on the Oster Regent Theatre stage with fellow veterans Jim Anderson, Bob Welter and Lyle Murty, their memories are crystal clear. Their war stories range, at turns, from harrowing to humorous. The language is a bit salty, like the tears that well up in their eyes when recalling fallen friends.

Audiences will hear their stories and view photographs and memorabilia from the Korean War during the Cedar Falls Community Theater's production of "M*A*S*H," which opens tonight and runs through Oct. 10. Director is Gary Baumgartner.

The men are among 15 Korean War veterans who met for six weeks with Baumgartner and others, in an effort to make the stage production as authentic as possible.

"People think about the humor from the movie and TV show, but there's a serious story to tell. We wanted the tenor of the show to reflect that this was a real war, as well as the lighter moments. These guys are true heroes. There are Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, combat pins and other medals among them," says Baumgartner.

Theater manager John Luzaich called Korean War vet Sid Morris of Cedar Falls. "I told him what we were doing and he contacted veterans he knew, and suddenly we had 15 veterans who were willing to help," Luzaich explains.

Morris is vice chairman of the Iowa chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association. Veterans from Cedar Falls, Evansdale, Waterloo and Plymouth, Minn., participated, representing all U.S. military branches.

Baumgartner recorded their stories on cassette and had it transferred to compact disc. "Everything has been compiled into a movie that will play between the different scenes, of guys telling their stories. It's the only time I can recall in this community when live theater and a movie have been combined into an all-encompassing experience," Baumgartner says.

An honor guard, provided by Cedar Falls AMVETS Post No. 49, will take place at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Photographs and artifacts from the war will be displayed in the lobby.

The Korean War began June 25, 1950, when North Korean troops swept across the 38th parallel and attacked South Korea. Officially, it was a police action. Nearly 37,000 American servicemen were killed in three years, a higher figure per year than the 58,000 American casualties spread over 10 years in Vietnam. About 20,000 troops from other countries were killed, along with 4 million Chinese, 2 million North Koreans and 1 million South Koreans.

It ended with an uneasy armistice in 1953.

"Korea came on the heels of World War II and people were tired of war -- that's one reason it's forgotten," says retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Duquette, who was a prisoner of war for 19 months.

The men shared a single hope. "To get the hell out in one piece," says Lind of Waterloo. At 20, he took shrapnel in his head when his Marine unit faced down a Soviet-made T-34 tank on a mountain ridge. He served with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Easy Company.

"If you did your job, the job you were trained for, you had a chance," recalls Bob Welter of Cedar Falls, who served with a "whiz-bang outfit" or rocket battalion in the 1st Marine Division, 11th Marines.

They recall bitter cold, knee-deep mud and huge rats.

"We fought through some of the worst winters ever recorded. Man, it got cold -- and mine was the deepest foxhole in Korea," says Morris, smiling. At 18, he was a forward observer in the 7th Infantry Division, directing firing of white phosphorous and explosive rounds for artillery.

Shelton recalls casualties he treated as a Navy corpsman serving with the Marines, under withering mortar attacks by the North Koreans. Lind, Murty, Anderson, Welter and others vividly describe human waves of Chinese forces spilling into South Korea: the first wave firing mortars, the second and third waves picking up weapons from the dead.

"What we are proudest of, is that the Korean War was the first war of Communist aggression and we stopped it. At great cost, but we stopped it," Morris says.

Contact Melody Parker at (319) 291-1429 or melody.parker@wcfcourier.com.

{M3SIDEBAR

"Unarmed, alone and unafraid" was the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron's motto.

In Korea, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Norm "Duke" Duquette lived it for 587 days as a prisoner of war, held first by North Korean troops, then held by Chinese Communist forces in a prison camp along the Yalu River dividing North Korea and China.

The decorated veteran was a recon pilot in a Lockheed RF-80 Shooting Star, armed with cameras instead of guns, when he was shot down Jan 26, 1952.

"I tried to bail out but the canopy wouldn't open," Duquette recalls. "I stood up on my seat and tried to force it open. Wouldn't budge. The ground was coming up fast so I slid back into my seat but didn't have time to strap in. The plane flipped and rolled -- 3 or 4 feet of snow probably kept it from coming apart - and I was knocked out. When I came to, the plane was right side up and I was upside down, blood pooling on the maps beneath me. I could move, so I knew I wasn't dead."

The canopy was gone. He flopped over the edge and into the snow. It wasn't long before he was surrounded by North Korean soldiers firing automatic weapons. He surrendered.

Suddenly doubled over from excruciating back pain, Duquette realized "I'd busted up my back in the crash and I couldn't stand up straight." Soldiers paraded him, nearly crawling, through a village as peasants threw stones, then drove him to a bunker where his head wound was wrapped -- "the extent of the medical care I received at the hands of the North Koreans."

Taken to an interrogation center, he was beaten and an officer threatened to shoot him. Like other POWs, Duquette refused to confess to fictional charges of using germ warfare against the North Koreans. Through months of confinement, he spent time in solitary and was frequently interrogated and tortured. He nearly starved to death.

When shot down, Duquette weighed 170 pounds. At repatriation, he weighed about 100 pounds.

Duquette remained in the military until 1970, including service with a U.S. Marine Corps air squadron and as a carrier jet pilot. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, both for valor, and the Purple Heart for combat wounds.

His story appeared several years ago on a PBS "American Experience" documentary, which included a letter his wife, Louise, wrote to her husband days before he was shot down.

Go & Do

"M*A*S*H," Cedar Falls Community Theater production,

Oster Regent Theatre, First and Main streets, Cedar Falls

Performances: 7:30 p.m. tonight, Saturday and Sunday and Oct. 1, 8, 9 and 10; Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Tickets: $18 for adults; $10 for children or full-time students, available at the box office or by calling 277-5283.