HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN!
Photo courtesy of Wayne Freedman, ABC7 TV News
John at work in his office.
Photo courtesy of Wayne Freedman, ABC7 TV News
On April 22, John R. Stevens, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (Ret.), celebrated his 99th birthday. John is a World War II and Korean War veteran, and Korean War Memorial Foundation Co-Founder and 2nd Vice President. The Covid-19 pandemic precluded any possibility of a large and well-deserved festive gathering.
So John celebrated the occasion in his typical fashion: working alone in his office, just as he has been doing nearly every day since he helped launch the Foundation more than a decade ago.
“John is without question a man of few words – but they’re usually words that are just right in context. A few
years ago, a San Francisco TV news reporter was interviewing him for a Memorial Day story. While discussing the Chosin Reservoir battle, where John and the understrength 1st Marine Division were surrounded by
over 100,000 Chinese troops, the reporter asked, ‘So what’s it like to be surrounded?’ Without missing a
beat, John quietly replied, ‘Lots of targets.’ Not a politically correct answer, but a candid one that any combat
veteran can relate to.”
– Gerard Parker, Executive Director, Korean War Memorial Foundation