Korean War Vets: Warm in Quilts of Valor

“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”   -Douglas MacArthur

The Forgotten War involved 5.7 million veterans who dubbed themselves, The Frozen Chosen. Even today, Korean War vets suffer from disabilities related to exposure to the cold, such as arthritis, stiff toes, and cold sensitization. Maybe that is why Vincent Courtenay scrunched into the one-of-a-kind quilt pressed around his back and shoulders and sighed with a big grin. “I wish I had one of these 64 years ago in Korea.”

Quilts of Valor

Quilts of Valor have given out thousands of quilts to military veterans across the United States. Diane Paquin Provost, who is chairwoman of Quilt Guild by the Sea, has presented these patriotic artworks during emotional ceremonies in which the vets are wrapped in the quilt, thanked for their service, and honored with a list of their military duties and accomplishments. She explains: “These men protected our country and it’s now an opportunity to honor them for their bravery and service. Whenever one of our volunteers sits down to stitch one of these comforting custom blankets, something amazing happens. For the quilter, it represents deep gratitude for their service. We are so pleased to honor these deserving veterans with quilts to bring warmth and comfort.” The red, white and blue pieces of textile art that the guild created are a testament of a grateful nation to its military.

Pinterest photo

The founder of Quilts of Valor is Catherine Roberts. After her son’s deployment to Iraq, she dreamt that a young man hunched over in despair, and then appeared hopeful after being wrapped in a quilt. The haunting image inspired her to mobilize stitchers across the United States to cocoon American vets in personally stylized comforters. The first Quilt of Valor was presented in 2003 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to a young soldier from Minnesota who had lost a leg in Iraq.  Robert’s mission is to “cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.” The quilts are awarded by chaplains in military hospitals, to entire service units returning from deployment, or at veteran’s homes.

Volunteers Bind Quilts and Emotions

Each group of volunteer sewers across the country has a unique story. The Alabama branch of the movement began with a group of quilters in the Enterprise Quilt Guild, which has connections to soldiers at Fort Rucker. Elizabeth Mathews volunteered to represent Quilts of Valor at quilt shows, state fairs, or anywhere quilters gathered to enlist them into creating a quilt for a soldier. Matthew’s father, Major William Flynn, was a WWII and Korean veteran and represents the Greatest Generation to her. “All the quilts I make, I make in the memory of my father.”

Those who handcraft quilts from traditional patterns like the Ohio Star, Fence Rail, Churn Dash or Log Cabin, take their projects seriously. A fabric artist, Jane Bynum, has created several Quilts of Valor. “I put my brother’s initials in the quilting on each quilt. My brother, Billy Bolton, was killed in Vietnam in 1968 and his initials are BCB. I do this to honor him.” In one comforter, she stitched the words, “In valor there is hope”, a saying she heard in an old war movie. “When I heard those words, they sent chills in me. I knew I had to add them.” The individual thought that each quilter puts in their work of art is touching.

Lynn Hale designs quilts with care and deliberation. Her original creations also involve a part of herself. “When I am making the quilt, I pray over all of the sewing and the choosing of the fabric. I pray that the veteran who gets it would really like it.” From the responses she has gotten, it is “mission accomplished”.

A Common Thread from Vets to Community

Quilts of Valor desire to make connections between veterans and civilian quilters. “Anything from outside the military where a civilian wants to recognize what veterans have gone through and they recognize the selfless service, that’s just wonderful. It’s making those connections, building those bridges when the quilter can meet the veteran she has made the quilt for. For that reason, I try to make sure my quilters are present when we wrap a veteran with the quilt they made.”

The wrapping of the quilt around a vet signifies the wrapping of a nation’s arms around his shoulders. It snuggles a vet in the love and respect of others. It brings closure and peace to the hearts of those who had lived in the shadows.

The carefully stitched textile art that caresses Korean War vets represents history that should never be forgotten. As Pete Remdenok, who served in the Korean War states, “It’s never too late to be recognized.” Especially with something that will warm the bones and the heart at the same time.

“These are comforting quilts to thank you for your service. Any day is Veterans Day to us. You are not forgotten. You are always remembered for signing a blank check to willingly sacrifice your life for our freedoms. Our goal is to get you covered with a quilt, a tangible sign of our gratitude for your service.”

                                    -Elizabeth Matthews, head of Alabama’s Quilts of Valor


Much of the novel, Miss Bee and the Do Bees, revolves around Joe, who is a veteran of Afghanistan suffering from PTSD as he works as an EMT. Scenes in the book include his group therapy sessions at Heinz Veteran’s Hospital in Chicago as well as in the recovery room at the medical complex. Can a vet find happiness with one of Chicago Public School’s finest special education teacher?

Main photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/korean-war-memorial-washington-usa-580838/

Veteran wrapped in quilt: https://www.army.mil/e2/c/images/2014/11/10/371419/size0.jpg

http://time.com/photography/life/

http://unit8jong11.wikispaces.com/+Korean+War

10 Comments:

  1. What a lovely tribute . . .

  2. I am a member of the Friendship Quilt Guild in Perryton, Texas. Our members began making Quilts of Valor several years ago for wounded coming home from Iraq. Four years ago we began making & wrapping them around our local veterans. We present these quilts in October each year. This past October we presented & wrapped 28 Veterans with Quilts of Valor. My son was one of the Veterans & his quilt was made by his Aunt, my sister. Two years ago she made a quilt for my husband, a Vietnam Vet. It is a blessing to all of us to be part of the Quilt of Valor.
    Loved your articles! Thank you for sharing.

    • Dear Carol,
      What a purposeful act it is to quilt for the Quilts of Valor. Thank you for the work that you and so many women do to honor our troops. I hold you quilters in high esteem.

  3. Mrs. Carl Mason Smith (Lois )

    My husband is an 86 year old Korean vet. We go to the V.A. Hospital in Houston and Conroe.He kept a journal of each time he crossed the ocean on the carrier he was on. This is the first I heard of your work. How wonderful. May God bless each one.

  4. Being a part of QOV is an honor. I am new at quilting, but I have pieced three so far and working on #4. I love all the ways we can make the quilts and honor our veterans

  5. Could I borrow your phone, please? drugstore rx But when a flight attendant saw fire outside the plane, the call to exit was made, 90 seconds after the crash, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman at a San Francisco press conference. The first emergency response vehicles arrived 30 seconds later.

  6. I’d like to speak to someone about a mortgage healthyhomebuilders.com An Ineos spokesman said the firm was trying to minimise theimpact of the strike: “We are doing all we possibly can tomaintain supplies at current levels. There are relatively highstocks of fuel, and we are looking to import additional fuels.”

  7. What do you like doing in your spare time? what are the side effects of viagra yahoo answers (Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl, Yeganeh Torbati, Justyna Pawlak and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Marcus George in Dubai, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Giles Elgood)

  8. I’m not sure is xanogen legal Mexico’s airlines have been recovering from the tough times of the 2009 global recession and the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu virus, and they were buoyed when national carrier Mexicana stopped flying in 2010, buried under a pile of debt.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.