Korean War Veteran Gets Forgotten Medals

When the Pentagon gave out medals to veterans of the Korean War, somebody overlooked Howard Lunt.  

Lunt put his sergeant's stripes away after he returned to Connecticut and got down to business, running Lunt's Market in Andover and Columbia.

"I was in the Korean War and they call that the forgotten war," Lunt said. 

He doesn't need five medals to remember the forgotten war.  He can point to pictures in his scrapbook of men who died young in Korea, and of himself when he was drafted into the army at age 20. 

Now 82, Lunt learned recently he was still entitled to the decorations.

"At first I said no and then I said, what the hell, I've been waiting 60 years, I might as well have someone give them to me," Lunt said.

So Rep. Joe Courtney awarded Howard Lunt his medals, mounted and framed – decorations that should have been awarded still can be awarded, even if the veterans are no longer living.

"You know this is something that, with a little bit of effort, we can get the paperwork lined up," Courtney said. "Not only Mr. Lunt, but his family now will have this."

Lunt and his wife Ann have five children and 11 grandchildren.

"I didn't meet him til after the war, but I hope that no one ever has to go to war, because today he lives with it like it was yesterday," said Ann Lunt. "I just wish there were never wars, because it destroys them for their whole lives. You never get over those things. At least he never did."

Lunt served in the Army from 1952 to 1953 and was assigned to George Company, 3rd Batallion, 3rd Division, according to a release from Courtney's office.

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