Suntree Air Force veteran, 96, heads to D.C. for Korean War Wall of Remembrance ceremony
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Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Donell "Don" Mathews flew dozens of daredevil Korean War nighttime combat missions along and near the infamous MiG Alley as a navigator aboard B-26 Invader bombers.
"We would go down low looking for trucks, trains, ammunition dumps, searchlights, antiaircraft batteries," recalled Mathews, who served his Korean War combat tour from 1951-52.
Mathews retired from the Air Force in 1977, and he built a home in Suntree the following year. He flew to Washington, D.C., to attend the Flag Day 1992 groundbreaking ceremony for the Korean War Veterans Memorial (featuring a speech by President George W. Bush). And he went to the memorial's 1995 dedication ceremony (featuring a speech by President Bill Clinton).
Now, Mathews — who celebrated his 96th birthday on Saturday — is returning to the nation's capital. He will attend Wednesday's dedication ceremony of a new granite Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
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This major expansion on the National Mall will bear the names of more than 36,000 Americans who lost their lives during the war, along with the names of more than 7,100 Koreans who died working alongside the U.S. Army.
"You have people who want recognition for their husbands, their sons, their grandparents, whoever fought," said Mathews, wearing a red sports jacket bearing a gold-threaded 13th Bomber Squadron "Grim Reapers" patch.
"And of course, the Korean War memorial is very inspiring. It's just beautiful — but there are no names on it," Mathews said.
"There will be the names of five, or more, that I have flown with that unfortunately lost their lives," he said.
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All told, 5.8 million Americans served in the military during the Korean War from June 1950 to July 1953. The casualty list includes 8,200 troops who were missing in action, buried at sea or lost — and another 103,284 were wounded, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation reports.
The eye-catching memorial features 19 stainless-steel statues of troops wearing ponchos. Each stands about 8 feet tall amid patches of juniper bushes.
The Wall of Remembrance project was funded by $22 million in donations from the U.S. and the Republic of Korea, the National Park Service reported.
“While this project was being built (during the 1990s), the veterans would come by and say, ‘Hey, where's the wall with the names on it?’ And I told them, ‘You're at the wrong project. You're looking for Vietnam,' " recalled retired Army Col. Rick Dean, vice chair of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation.
"And they said, ‘No, my foxhole buddy was killed in Korea,’ " Dean said.
"Right now, this memorial does a great job of honoring those who served and what they accomplished. But it doesn't do the ultimate for honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice," he said.
Of the new Wall of Remembrance's 100 granite panels, the first 84 bear the names of Army veterans. The next 10 panels list Marine Corps names, followed by the Navy with two panels and the Air Force with the last four.
Dean said names of the fallen are sorted by rank, then listed in alphabetical order. Organizers chose to list the lowest enlisted ranks first before ascending to higher ranks, illustrating the toll of combat to the general public.
He said 53 of the 100 panels contain the names of Army private first classes: "War is devastating to the younger generation."
"These guys were 17, 18 and 19 years old, and they made their ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom and democracy," Dean said.
"Just think what they could have contributed if they lived a full life," he said.
For Dean, the Wall of Remembrance is personal. His grandfather, Air Force Col. John R. Lovell, has his name on it.
Lovell was on a December 1950 reconnaissance mission over the Yalu River when Russian MiG-15s shot down his RB-45C Tornado bomber. He was taken prisoner by Chinese troops and later beaten to death by North Korean civilians, the Korean War Project reports. His body was never recovered.
“So my grandfather is still missing in action. His name is on that wall. And it's a family thing. It's my hallowed ground for my grandfather, and for the other families of the missing in action," Dean said.
"It was a tribute to my grandmother who lived for 50 years without her husband coming home, as well as my mother," he said.
Born in 1926 in Wauchula in rural Hardee County — with 11 brothers and sisters — Mathews is a product of Florida's bygone past.
He recalls walking 2½ miles along a sandy dirt road to and from Oak Grove Grammar School, and his home had neither electricity nor a telephone. Water came from a pitcher pump.
During that era, Mathews and his classmates attended "strawberry school" during summer so they could take time off to pick strawberries and perform farm chores during winter months.
He graduated from Wauchula High School in 1942 at age 16, after he had worked two years shining shoes in a barber shop.
Mathews enlisted in the Army Air Corps in July 1944 and became a tail gunner on B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers. His last flight took place in August 1945, the month the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II.
During the Korean War, Mathews logged 43 missions from Kunsan Air Base near the Yellow Sea — he said they only flew at night because of the deadly threat of Soviet-built MiG-15 fighters.
Mathews later served as a deputy director of personnel in the Pacific Command during the final years of the Vietnam War. After his 1977 Air Force retirement, he worked for The Kroger Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp.
FLORIDA TODAY ran a front-page photo on July 26, 1995, showing Mathews wearing his red sports jacket at the new Korean War Veterans Memorial. He stood alongside buddy Charles Hinton, a retired Air Force major who logged 50 combat missions with the 13th Bomber Squadron as a B-26 navigator.
Hinton, a Satellite Beach resident who founded Brevard County's Seniors at Lunch program, detailed his wartime experiences in his 2014 book "Korea: A Short Time in a Small War." He died at age 90 in 2018.
Mathews still golfs two or three times per week — he has been a Suntree Country Club member since July 1978. The club hosted his 90th birthday party in 2016.
Among his Korean War stories, he recalled a nerve-rattling December 1951 combat mission where his B-26 flew so low over North Korea's Haeju Peninsula that he could see soldiers sitting around campfires.
In fact, Mathews said the pilot was erroneously flying so low that he couldn't lower the nose to fire on an anti-aircraft battery. And the aircraft nearly ran out of fuel.
"The next mission he flew, he did not come back," Mathews said.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Korean War Air Force veteran heads to D.C. for Wall of Remembrance
