The Graybeards - Korean War Veterans Association

A Corpsman,
a Brother,
a Hero
✯✯✯✯✯
Joe Keenan,
U.S. Navy
After receiving the message below and
prior messages, I wanted to go to the ceremony
and also write the story when and
if the medal was awarded. Like most
things today they get put aside to be done
later. Sometimes later has a price. My cost
is to apologize to the family and hope they
and others who are waiting on my actions
will accept the apologies and understand.–Ed.
Dear Mr. Krepps:
With pride, the Keenan Family is
pleased to announce that our brother,
HM3, Joseph F. Keenan, USN, will be
posthumously awarded the “NAVY
CROSS”, May 14th, 1999. The award will
be presented by the Commandant of The
Marine Corps at ceremonies in
Washington. Joseph was killed in action,
March 26-27, 1953 while serving with
Fox 2/5 during the battle for Reno Hill,
Korea. A six month investigation by
Historian’s HMCS(FMF) Mark T. Hacala
and Dr. David R. Klubes of the Bureau Of
Naval Medicine determined that Joe was
wounded on at least four occasions over a
period of three to four hours, each time
returning to his charges.
Michael P. Keenan, Sr.
Prior to this message I was given many
documents by Michael showing his and
other efforts to correct this oversight. I
cannot print all but what I print, you will
see how revered Joe was to those who
The Navy Cross was the next highest medal so Michael
accepted it for Joe last May in a garden ceremony at the
Marine barracks in Washington. The President’s Own
band played and for an afternoon Joe Keenan was bright
again before his brother’s eyes.
knew him.
For decades, Michael Keenan lobbied
for a medal or a monument to his brother,
Joe, who died in Korea saving wounded
Marines in March 1953. Veterans from
Joe’s unit swore that he had been nominated
for the Congressional Medal of
Honor, but no records could be found.
Then, in June 1998, a Navy Chief from
the Medical Corps got into a hotel elevator
with some Korean War veterans and
struck up a conversation. The Medical
Corps was 100 years old, the chief told the
vets, that the brass wanted to play up its
heroic past. Why just that day the chief
had been talking about a navy corpsman
named Joseph Keenan who’d been killed
in Korea under extraordinary conditions.
“Joe Keenan!” cried one of the vets.
“Why, his brother Michael is staying in
this hotel.”
A new investigation by navy historian
Mark Hacala showed that Joe had been
nominated for the Medal of Honor, but the
paperwork was lost and impossible to
recreate. The Navy Cross was the next
highest medal so Michael accepted it for
Joe last May in a garden ceremony at the
Hospital Corpsman Third Class Joseph F. Keenan,
U.S. Navy.
Marine barracks in Washington. The
President’s Own band played and for an
afternoon Joe Keenan was bright again
before his brother’s eyes.
Transcription of letter dated Feb 25,
1953 from Joseph F. Keenan
Dear Mother and Dad,
Sorry I haven’t written and I am asking
you to forgive me for my last letter, it was in
anger and I didn’t mean the harsh words I
said. We arrived in Korea Friday the 13th,
and it’s a good thing I’m not superstitious.
I went to confession and communion the
night we left for the front. We were lucky and
stayed here at Batt. Aid Station 2000 yards
behind the main line of resistance for a week
or more. Fox Company puffed a daylight raid
on a Goonie hill, it was a slaughter, compared
to what results were expected. Sixty
wounded and six killed, some may die from
wounds later on but that’s what our log
reads this morning. Many boys will awake
tomorrow with either both arms or legs
missing. And one will never see again. I saw
some pretty awful sights today and expect to
see many more, I hope not, but there’s no
getting away from it, this is a real war here
and not just a police action. It is terrible over
here and it’s going to take a lot of doing and
much praying to end the spilling of blood
here.
Everything that happens here usually
happens at night and it’s rough on the
nerves. Once every two weeks they pull a
daylight raid to get “Luke the Gook” worried.
The hill had one thousand rounds of bombs
and heavy artillery shells and mortar and
rockets dropped on it for eight minutes
before zero hour, yet when the Marines got
close to the top, Goonies were all over the
place, some just stayed in their holes and
just threw grenade after grenade over the top
without hardly showing themselves at all.
They asked for a volunteer Corpsman to
go up to evac. some patients, I said I’d go
but didn’t realize what I said till after I was in
Page 58
The Graybeards