S.F. Veterans Day Parade salutes Korean War heroes

Benny Evangelista

Updated 10:06 pm, Sunday, November 10, 2013

A band plays at San Francisco's Veterans Day Parade as spectators honor those who served in the armed forces. Photo: Raphael Kluzniok, The Chronicle

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For Korean War veteran Wallace Levin, this year's Veterans Day Parade in San Francisco was a little more special - it's been 60 years since the end of what has been a "forgotten" war.

"The reason this is important is that most of us won't make it to the 70th (anniversary) because we're getting on," Levin, 83, said as he watched the parade in front of City Hall.

This year's annual parade started at Market and Second streets and had the usual assortment of politicians riding in vintage cars, marching bands and high school junior ROTC drill teams and color guards.

But it also comes at the end of a three-year commemoration of the 60 years since the Korean War. It started in June 1950 and ended in July 1953.

Levin was a 23-year-old college graduate when, knowing he was going to get drafted, enlisted in the U.S. Army Security Agency, where he served as a radio intercept officer.

"World War II had such public support and the country was united, but after four years (of battle), it was kind of tired of war," Levin said. "Then five short years later, there was the Korean War."