Louisville Korean War veteran remembers life behind the front lines as Army mechanic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Korean War is infamously known as "The Forgotten War," but some of those men and women who fought overseas are our neighbors here in Kentucky.

Including Gene Walters, an Army veteran from Shively.

"I went as many as two, sometimes three nights without sleeping," Walters said when describing his life as a mechanic in the Army.

It was life behind the front lines.

"Whenever they needed us, we had to do it," Walters said.

Walters' main jobs included fixing and towing military trucks.

"I was glad I wasn't on the front lines, but I mean we worked just as hard working to keep trucks up and running," Walters said.

Walters and his crew were also in charge of shipping off supplies to and from the front lines.

"We were the last trucks that hauled the equipment and material and everything up to the front," he said.

But that wasn't how Walters imagined his career in the military.

While he worked as a mechanic in Louisville before being drafted, he went through basic training expecting to be fighting on the front lines.

"I guess they pulled that out of my record, I was glad with that anyhow," said Walters. "I said, 'Hell, I'll go work for my country, do whatever they want me to do,' so that's what I did."

When he shipped off in July 1952, he left behind his family and one special person in particular, whose picture hung by his cot his entire time overseas.

"There's a picture hanging on the wall behind me, it was actually a picture of my girlfriend when I went over," said Walters. "Believe it or not, now we're 66 years married."

Nearly 70 years later, the Walters' legacy of military service continues. His granddaughter was a nurse in the Navy. And his grandson, Anthony, is a Marine pilot stationed in North Carolina.

Anthony Walters made the five-hour drive to Washington D.C. to join his grandfather and dozens of other veterans on Honor Flight Bluegrass, knowing it was an opportunity he couldn't miss.

"Each generation owes it to the ones before it and the ones after it to serve and it's nice to be here with you," Anthony Walters said, looking at his grandfather.

As Gene, his son and grandson walked through D.C. together, it was not only a reminder for Gene to remember how special of a moment it was, but to have served his country overseas too.

"There ain't no better place to live than these United States," he said.

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