FREELAND, Pa. — As we honor veterans this week, Newswatch 16 hopes to tell the stories of some veterans in our area.
One Luzerne County marine not only shared his stories with us but also wrote about them in a book.
Usually, when Newswatch 16 sits down with someone for an interview, we start with the same question, "can you say and spell your name."
With Lance Corporal Joseph Barna, it was our only question.
"I was born in this town Freeland. But I grew up in Korea. Took me 13 months, but I grew up."
We learned quickly. It doesn't take much for Barna to share his stories from that time as a marine.
"You learned friends in the war; you become a brotherhood. I've seen boys die for another boy. Then you hear the silence of the dead and the crying of the wounded. I seen a lot of that. We lost a lot of men over Korea that people don't realize. It seems that they never publish real, real stories about a war. They always try to hide little bit," said Barna.
In his book, 'God Makes Angels and Navy Corpsmen' that was published in July, Barna doesn't hide anything and shares stories from his time in Korea and about the book's namesake.
"A Navy corpsman saved my life. I wrote the book about him. It's in that book. The first story, his name was Jackie Kilmer. And I know him like I know a brother, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest medal we could have. Because the war, as far as the Marines go, we have no doctors with us, we have no nurses. We have corpsmen. There is his picture right there. He was six days short of 22 years old when he died. It was a shame. I mean, like I said, I took it pretty bad, but I had to accept and go on. I couldn't stop living it," recalls Barna.
The book is made up of a collection of articles and stories Barna has written for a local newspaper or writing competitions in order to preserve the memory of the people that matter to him most.
Remembering and coping with buried memories decades later, the Korean War combat veteran Joe Barna recounts his life, his events that will bring a tear in your eye or a smile on your face.
CLICK HERE if you would like to learn more about the book.