The Cold War brought two long and difficult wars in Asia, and Belleville, New Jersey, sent its sons to both. The losses of Korea and Vietnam are woven into the same honor-roll tradition that began with the Revolution.
The Korean War
Sometimes called "the Forgotten War," the conflict in Korea from 1950 to 1953 was anything but forgotten in the towns that lost men there. Belleville mourned several sons who fell on Korea's harsh ridgelines and frozen valleys. Their sacrifice, made only a few years after the great victory of World War II, reminded a war-weary nation that the price of freedom was still being paid.
A Medal of Honor in Korea
Belleville is the hometown of Private First Class Henry Svehla, a soldier of the U.S. Army who was recognized with the nation's highest award for valor for his actions in Korea. On June 12, 1952, as his platoon's attack faltered under heavy fire, Svehla leaped to his feet and charged the enemy positions, firing and throwing grenades as he advanced and inflicting heavy losses. When an enemy grenade landed among his comrades, he threw himself upon it to shield them, sacrificing his own life. Long listed as missing, he was formally awarded the Medal of Honor in 2011. His citation is preserved in the public records of the United States Army.
The Vietnam War
A decade later, a new generation of Belleville men went to Vietnam. Around a dozen did not come home, their names later joining the town's memorial alongside the fallen of earlier wars. The Vietnam era was a wrenching one for the whole country, and the way America ultimately came to honor its Vietnam veterans — most famously at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington — reshaped the national culture of remembrance. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund maintains a public record of those who served and died.
Recognition Sometimes Delayed
The award of the Medal of Honor to a Korean War soldier nearly six decades after his death is part of a broader effort to correct the historical record. In recent years, careful reviews of wartime files have identified acts of valor that went unrecognized at the time, sometimes because of lost paperwork and sometimes because of the biases of an earlier era. These belated honors remind us that remembrance is not a finished task but an ongoing responsibility — that the deeds of a hometown soldier can still be brought fully to light generations later.
The Cold War Generation
The men who served in Korea and Vietnam came home to a country deeply divided about both wars, and their welcome was often muted or, in the Vietnam era, openly fraught. Part of the modern culture of honoring veterans — the deliberate "welcome home," the emphasis on thanking those who served regardless of politics — grew directly out of that painful history. Belleville's inclusion of its Korea and Vietnam fallen alongside the heroes of earlier wars is a quiet insistence that their sacrifice ranks with any other.
A Continuing Tradition
The men lost in Korea and Vietnam are honored on the same Union Avenue memorial that carries the town's World War dead, and several have been recognized in recent years through Belleville's memorial street-sign program. Return to the era-by-era overview, or learn how any family can trace a veteran's service in our research guide.