Fifty years ago, this month, I was finishing my first year in Denver. I had recently purchased a Wheat Ridge duplex and received a promotion as budget manager for Mountain Bell when I was startled by a notification from the U. S. Navy requesting me to report for an assignment in response to the Yom Kippur War. Though I technically continued to serve in the active reserve following my 1970 release, it came as a rude awakening to discover I would be dispatched to yet another nasty conflict. Instructed to report to a personnel office at Buckley, I was advised I had two weeks to settle any personal or employment issues before receiving deployment orders.

None of this came as welcome news. It would result in a nearly 50% reduction in salary while I was supporting a 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Fortunately, as a part of AT&T, Mountain Bell had a large and capable human resources department handling my departure and the guarantee of a comparable position whenever I returned. Navigating the interim months or years appeared grim. I hadn’t saved my uniforms, although I recall I looked rather dapper in summer whites (check out Richard Gere in “An Officer and a Gentleman”). I also had sold my dress sword to a chief petty officer when he was promoted to warrant officer. I was assured the Navy was prepared to issue me new togs.

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I recount this history with a certain detachment today because the Yom Kippur war was resolved swiftly, and my re-enlistment was cancelled. I can’t help feeling sympathy, however, for the 5,000 sailors and their officers serving in the strike group led by the nuclear carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower who were settling in for a winter in Norfolk, Virginia. They looked forward to time with their families and well-deserved rest and relaxation. Now they are underway to the Mediterranean where they will join up with the Coral Sea task force, which has already arrived there. I suspect the newly dispatched crews will not be returning stateside anytime soon. President Joe Biden, as commander-in-chief, hopes they will serve as a cork in the bottle of growing violence across the Middle East. This seems a long shot.

For those without family members in the military, it’s easy to overlook the sacrifices made by those who are serving. Obviously, wars are the ultimate disruptors. I wear three dogtags, each carrying the same name: my grandfather, who was gassed in the trenches during the First World War who returned with tuberculosis requiring three years treatment at Fort Bliss in El Paso, my father who spent 18 months clearing American mines from shipping channels in the Philippines after V-J Day, returning to suffer life-long bouts with malaria and a decade of night terrors that were surely PTSD. I am the lucky one. Shipboard, no one fired a shot at me I was aware of, although we provided artillery support to troops ashore in Vietnam. My price has been hearing aids to compensate for all those gunnery blasts.

Last week, I had an opportunity to attend a 70th Year Commemorative Concert at Bethany Lutheran Church recognizing the Korean War Armistice. This may be the “forgotten” war for many Americans, but clearly not for Korean Americans. Several hundred skipped Sunday afternoon NFL games to listen to the Colorado Korean Chorus, supported by the Air Force Academy’s Stellar Brass Ensemble. If my stepson weren’t a trumpet player with the ensemble, I might have missed the celebration. That would have been a mistake. Tenor solo Dr. Min Jin and Soprano Solo Jimin Lee are world-caliber opera stars who partnered with the University of Northern Colorado’s music program. Mayor Mike Coffman of Aurora and a half-dozen Korean War veterans, all in their early 90s, were recognized.

The television comedy “MASH” presented a Korean War that seemed more like a lark than the grim reality it was. For the curious, I recommend David Halberstam’s “The Coldest Winter.” As one speaker noted, the preservation of South Korean democracy by United Nation forces nurtured a nation which plays a significant global leadership role in technology, film and, of course, pop-rock bands. Several members of the BTS boy-band are currently serving in the South Korean Army, where a military draft recognizes the ever-present threat from a belligerent North Korea. Tens of thousands of American troops also remain stationed along the DMZ separating the Koreas. The peninsula remains a dangerous place.

Joe Mauldin, the Stars and Stripes cartoonist, who made heroes out of his ordinary G.I.’s, “Willy & Joe,” during the Second World War mined humor from their grumbling complaints about a chain-of-command clueless concerning conditions on the battlefield. Former President Donald Trump recently called American Generals “some of the dumbest people” he’s ever met. Military training and military discipline incorporate a 2,000-year history tracing back to the Roman legions. Our fighting units are trained to form teams capable of winning battles. In my experience, the military does a superior job of identifying its smartest, if not always wisest, leaders. Declarations of war are left to our politicians. Sailors and soldiers must fight those wars.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.