By Christopher Miskimon
Waller King, Joe Albritton and Homer Ainsworth grew up in the same neighborhood in Clinton, Mississippi. They knew each other at school, in church and everyday life. Eventually, they all joined the same Marine Corps reserve unit in nearby Jackson. Soon after North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, these three young men were called to active duty and shipped to Camp Pendleton for training before being sent to Korea to enter the war. One of them died within two months of arriving on the Korean peninsula. The other two survived the war, though one died in a car accident soon after returning. Their stories reveal the experiences of Marines and soldiers fighting in the Korean War.
This book is mainly a biography of three young men from small-town America who served their country, but also a general history of the war. This gives the reader a good overview of why these three men went to war and the larger cause they fought for. The book is quite readable with an easy narrative that engages the reader and clearly explains the wider events and complications of the conflict.
Fallen Comrade: A Story of the Korean War (Walter Howell, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MI, 2024, 260 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, $28, HC)
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