Arnie Perras, VFW post commander, is the last of the nine-member committee that initiated the monument in 2002. He says it's up to the younger veterans to continue the memorial. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — VFW Post 448 Cmdr. Arnie Perras led the 71st Korean War memorial ceremony Saturday morning. 

He is the only living member of the committee that led the effort on Pittsfield's 2002 monument remembering those lost in the "Forgotten War."

"Sadly, from nine on the (Korean War Monument Committee,) it appears I am the last man standing," he said to a small crowd in front of City Hall. "We really need our younger veterans to help us out by joining us soon to carry the torch forward."

Without the membership of younger veterans, these types of ceremonies will not happen in the future, he said.

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea after border conflicts and insurrections in the south. Hostile action ended unofficially on July 27, 1953, in a truce.

Perras asserted that the armistice did not actually end the war in 1953, but scaled it down and made it become somewhat of a hidden war. The truce was a cease-fire agreement and a peace agreement has never been signed.

"Also, I feel obligated to remind people of just a few actions that occurred during the cease-fire, at times referred to as the DMZ Wars especially active in the 1960s, where many U.S. and Korean soldiers were killed in ambushes, firefights, and minefields," he said, detailing events occurring as late as 2010 when North Korea torpedoed a South Korean Corvette submarine, killing 46 people.

The United States lost 36,516 service members during the Korean War, with more than 92,000 wounded, more than 7,400 missing in action, and more than 7,000 taken as prisoners of war.

Perras served in Korea with the 8th Army, 7th Infantry Division, 10th Cavalry, 2nd Recon in areas around Unchuni and the Korean DMZ.