Friends, relatives and former comrades of Joseph "Joey" Taormino, killed in North Korea on Nov. 5, 1951, were among those who gathered Monday for a Memorial Day ceremony in Canton Waterfront Park.
Taormino, a light-weapons infantryman, was just 22 when a grenade exploded in his bunker, killing the man recalled by friends and family as a shy Baltimore cabdriver.
Monday's ceremony marked the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Korean War Memorial, a low granite semicircle bearing Taormino's name, along with the names of 527 other Marylanders who were killed in combat in the Korean War. The memorial was commissioned in the late 1980s by the General Assembly and then-Gov. Harry Hughes. It was dedicated in May 1990.
Though it is in a beautiful spot, the memorial is easy to miss. It's not downtown near the city's other monuments, but tucked away inside Canton Waterfront Park.
Beneath the park trees Monday, rows of chairs were filled with elderly men in uniforms. Many had approached leaning on canes or the arms of family members. The color guard marched past, faces solemn and eyes straight ahead. Members of the Benfield Brass & Band performed the national anthem, "America the Beautiful" and, later, "Amazing Grace."
"How can the Korean War be considered 'America's forgotten war'?" asked Robert Jeffries, command master chief of the U.S. Coast Guard, his voice choking up a bit. "How can the loss of nearly 55,000 young men be overlooked?"
Jeffries said the conflict had an immense impact internationally that continues to be felt today. "Though the battlefields in the Korean War didn't span the globe," he said, "they shaped helped shape the geopolitical landscape for decades."
Gov. Larry Hogan said the ripples of the Korean War affected him personally.
"My wife grew up in South Korea," Hogan told the veterans, gesturing to first lady Yumi Hogan seated in the front row.
"She's the first Korean-American first lady of any state in this country, and she would not be here today if it were not for the dedication and sacrifice of those Americans who offered their lives in the Korean War."
Hogan joined Charles J. Reed Jr., commander of the Baltimore chapter of the Korean War veterans association, for a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial.
After the closing benediction, several veterans, including Taormino's older brother, began drifting toward the memorial wall.
Oscar Taormino found Joey's name and stood there for a few minutes with his son, Tim, and daughter, Victoria Sacco. Oscar told them how much their uncle had loved music. He laughed about the crush that Joey, the baby of the family, had had on Oscar's sweetheart.
Sacco rubbed the square of the granite clean, and then laid a sprig of pink flowers on Joey Taormino's name. Just then, 2-year-old Ronnie Taormino ran up wearing his navy blue sailor suit. Oscar Taormino scooped his grandson up in his arms in the sunshine, backed by the granite wall.