Hakkı Özgülbaş still remembers the day he volunteered for the Korean War and the stormy voyage that took him halfway across the world.
Born in 1930 in Yüreğir in southern Türkiye's Adana, Özgülbaş lost his father at a young age. After finishing primary and middle school, he worked as a technician in several factories. In 1952, at 22, he went to Çankırı to fulfill his military service.
After basic training, he volunteered to serve in Korea. Accepted alongside his friends, he trained for three months in Izmir's Seferihisar before being deployed to South Korea, where he served for 13 months.
“I remember the day the commander called us,” Özgülbaş told Anadolu Agency (AA) in an interview on Wednesday. “The captain asked if I had any injuries. I told him I’d broken my foot as a child but it wasn’t a problem and asked to be registered as a volunteer. He said, ‘Well done.’”
The journey to Korea was harrowing. Özgülbaş said the ship carrying Turkish soldiers hit a severe storm in the Arabian Sea. “Water was filling the ship, and we were bailing it out. The storm lasted three days. An American on board told us, ‘Don’t worry, disasters like this happen sometimes.’ Twenty-five days later, we arrived in Seoul,” he recalled.
Özgülbaş said the experiences he witnessed in Korea left a deep impression. “We stayed on the front lines for six months after the armistice. I miss Korea. They invited me to return, but I couldn’t leave my late wife behind. If I could go again, I would go gladly.”
He remembers the gratitude of the Korean people. “They brought us gifts and said they loved Türkiye. ‘We live because of them,’ they told us,” he said.
Now 95, Özgülbaş keeps the veteran’s medal awarded to him after the war, a symbol of pride and sacrifice that spans generations.
