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A District of Columbia wall listing the veterans who lost their lives during the Korean War is riddled with over 1,000 spelling errors and omits the names of 500 additional servicemen.
That’s according to Hal and Edward “Ted” Barker, two brothers based in Dallas who run the meticulously curated Korean War Project, a website operating since 1995.
“If you’re killed or died in a war, people need to know what your name was so they can find you and memorialize you properly,” Ted Barker told WRC-TV in D.C. “A name is everything that we have.”
The Wall of Remembrance, as the black, granite addition to the Korean War Memorial is called, first gained traction among veteran groups in 2010. It received congressional approval in 2016, despite pushback from the National Park Service, and was paid for with $22 million in donated funds.
The Department of Defense was tasked with providing the approved list of names for the wall.
The Barker brothers tried to consult the Pentagon about the names being commemorated throughout the process, according to The New York Times, but were brushed off. And when they saw the final list the DOD released in 2021, they again tried to get in touch with the Pentagon, but to no avail.
That’s why veterans such as Frederick Bald Eagle Bear, a member of the Lakota tribe, are listed as Eagle B F Bald on the memorial wall that opened last summer, per The Times. John Koelsch, a helicopter pilot who was shot down during a rescue mission and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, has his name misspelled on the wall as well.
In addition to the spelling mistakes and omissions, the brothers said it lists nearly 250 names of veterans who died in circumstances unrelated to the war effort.
In a statement, the DOD said it’s ”aware that some names are on the Wall of Remembrance which were not included on the Department’s final list of Korean War casualties” and that it’s working with the Department of Interior to fix it.
“They need to take the slabs … have them refaced and start over. … All these men and women who died for a war effort to save South Korea, it’s important that everybody gets remembered,” Ted Barker told WTOP News.
Over 36,000 Americans lost their lives during the Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953. The war ended in an armistice that ultimately divided North and South Korea.
