BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Starke resident Amos DeSue received a gift from a veterans organization, commemorating four years of service in the Marines, which included being a Korean War participant.
DeSue, 90, was presented with a framed display of his unit patches by Bruce Williams, a resident of The Villages who owns Starke’s Bradford Village Apartments. The display was a gift provided by the Band of Brothers of The Villages, a group of veterans that performs a lot of charity work.
Williams was responsible for getting DeSue involved in the Honor Flight Network four years ago. Honor Flight Network transports veterans to Washington, D.C., so they can visit the memorials that are specific to the wars they were a part of.
Having done that, Williams said he was curious in learning more about DeSue’s service, which he doesn’t like to talk about. In the process of that, Williams gave DeSue’s basic service information to Jim Hill, a neighbor of Williams’ who started the Band of Brothers of The Villages.
Williams said he wasn’t expecting Hill to create the framed display of Marine patches, but he wsa more than happy to accept it and present it to DeSue, which he did on July 29.
“He’s earned it,” Williams said of DeSue. “He was a loyal Marine.”
DeSue joined the Marines in 1952. In January 1953, as a private first class, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Main Force Pacific. He was later assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Provisional Marine Air-Ground Task Force in Pearl Harbor.
In 1954, DeSue, having attained the rank of lance corporal, was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. He was then assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California in 1955
DeSue was honorably discharged as a corporal in October 1957.
The Marine veteran, who was born Oct. 31, 1931, was never one to make much fuss over his service. In fact, he never wanted to talk about his experience in Korea. As part of an interview for a March 29, 2018, Telegraph-Times-Monitor story, he deflected a question about that time of his life, saying, “Oh, Lord, no. Let’s not mention Korea.”
He added that he always preferred to look ahead as opposed to looking back.
“I try to forget, you know, and live for the future,” DeSue said. “I try to figure out tomorrow and the next day.”
When DeSue talked about being a part of Honor Flight for that same Telegraph-Times-Monitor story, he said he was looking forward to the trip. However, he didn’t believe he had done anything that warranted him being honored in any way.
“I figured it was my duty,” DeSue said of his time in the service. “That should be all our duty, to serve the country.”
DeSue’s Honor Flight trip occurred in April 2018. He was one of 42 World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans who made the trip to D.C.
In all, 21,241 veterans took part in Honor Flight trips in 2018, with 7,456 of those, like DeSue, serving in Korea.
Since 2005 and through 2021, Honor Flight has taken a total of 251,743 veterans to Washington, D.C.
If you’d like to know more about Honor Flight Network, please visit honorflight.org.
