Finding connections in Korean War photos

• Betty Perkins-Carpenter, 83, an Air Force veteran, owns more than 100 Korean War photographs and her attempt to ID soldiers has become a labor of love.
• The Democrat and Chronicle teamed with Kodak Alaris to scan the photos and create an online gallery of the images
• Perkins-Carpenter said she hopes the photos will rekindle memories of what has come to be known as "The Forgotten War"

Editor's note: This story was originally published in 2014. 

Only a couple of the 14 battle-weary soldiers appeared to notice their picture being taken.

It was Aug. 9, 1950, and the caption typed in blue ink on the back of the photograph read: "American soldiers enjoy their first soft drinks during a break in the battle against Communist led North Korean invaders, somewhere in Korea."

From the looks on their faces, they weren't enjoying anything.

The image is one of 138 captured by the Department of Defense during the first three brutal months of the Korean War that are now, 61 years after the conflict ended, in the possession of a Penfield woman for whom identifying the subjects of the photos has become a labor of love.

"There are fathers who didn't come home, there are grandfathers who didn't come home," said Betty Perkins-Carpenter, 83, an Air Force veteran who trained stateside soldiers in water safety during the war. "Those who did come home, we're in our 80s now, so time is of the essence to get these photos to them."

Special project:Snapshots from the Korean War

In commemoration of the ceasefire that ended the fighting on July 27, 1953, and to assist in Perkins-Carpenter's effort, the Democrat and Chronicle teamed with Kodak Alaris to scan the photos and create an online gallery of the images.

Many of the photos include captions identifying soldiers and their hometowns. But many others present something of a mystery. In one snapshot, an Army captain talks to three nuns at a railroad station. In another, unidentified soldiers camouflaged in leaves fire a rocket launcher.

The high quality of the photos and the captions and their provenance suggest they were issued by the government to newspapers around the country in the early stages of the conflict, when daily casualties were high.

The photos were given to the Monroe County chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association by a Rochester woman who found them among the possession of her late father, who was a military veteran. The woman, Brenda Clattenburg, said he amassed the collection during a career at the Batavia Daily News.

The chapter turned them over to Perkins-Carpenter, an active member of the organization, with the intent of tracking down the photo subjects and offering them copies.

Arthur Sharp, editor of The Graybeards, the official magazine of the Korean War Veterans Association, which published some of the photographs in 2012, along with a list of names in the captions, said it was rare to come across government-issued photos of the era.

"It's special because, relatively speaking, actual photos taken and released by the Department of Defense are scarce," Sharp said.

One of the photographs shows a 22-year-old Harry Quehl, then of Ft. Thomas, Kentucky, helping load a 100-pound bomb onto a B-29. Now 86 and retired in Weeki Wachee, Florida, learning of the photo from a reporter brought Quehl back to the six months he spent flying some 40 bombing missions over Korea.

"I'd love to see that photo," Quehl said. "Being a young guy, you don't understand what's going on or why you're there. It seemed like we were bombing an airfield every three days and there was nothing on it."

Kendrick Holle, 85, a retired lieutenant colonel who lives in Virginia, had no recollection of being photographed with his twin, Bradford Holle, and two other sets of twins at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, in July 1950.

"I don't recall there being other twins there," Holle said. "I'd appreciate that photo."

Previous publicity of the photo collection has led four people to recognize themselves or family members, Perkins-Carpenter said.

One of them was Tiana Stephens of Rochester, who now works in the communications department at City Hall.

When a local television news station broadcast a story about the photographs two years ago, Stephens thought she recognized her grandfather in a fleeting screen shot of the soldiers indulging in soft drinks on the front lines.

She contacted Perkins-Carpenter and eventually compared photos of her grandfather, Crawford Flynn, from the era. He hailed from McDowell County, North Carolina, and would have been only 16 years old when a government photographer captured him serving bottles of soda pop to fellow soldiers.

"I immediately knew it was him, there was no denying it," said Stephens, who has since helped Perkins-Carpenter coordinate a wider publicity campaign, including reaching out to Kodak Alaris and the Democrat and Chronicle. "It was an amazing feeling, like I had found a lost treasure, really."

Flynn eventually settled in a suburb of Denver, where Stephens was raised, and ran a television repair shop. He died in 2005.

Perkins-Carpenter said she hopes the photos will rekindle memories of what has come to be known as "The Forgotten War."

"Most of the men don't talk about it after the war," Perkins-Carpenter said. "Hopefully it will bring families together and let them know more about that person that they never knew before."

DANDREATTA@Gannett.com

Twitter.com/david_andreatta

Special project:Snapshots from the Korean War

Click on a photo for more details and how you can inquire about the image at koreanwar.DemocratandChronicle.com. Expect to complete a form and answer a few questions to claim a photo.