38th Parallel
Located south of the Matfield Green service area is mile marker 88, which is 38 degrees North latitude. This latitude became better known as the 38th Parallel at the beginning of the Korean Conflict. Korea was temporarily divided along the 38th Parallel in 1945 after the Japanese occupation during World War II.
Because of political differences and mutual distrust between the United States, who supported South Korea, and the Soviet Union, who supported North Korea, the two halves were never united. On June 25, 1950 North Korea, a Communist industrial region, crossed the 38th Parallel and launched a military attack on South Korea, an agricultural region dependent on aid from the United States. The United Nations intervened with military force and the war that followed resulted in more than 3 million Koreans dead, millions of refugees homeless, about 1 million Chinese dead and 54,246 American casualties. The war ended July 27, 1953 with an armistice that established the 38th Parallel as the permanent border between the separate countries of North and South Korea.
During the Korean Conflict, 415 Kansans died or were listed as missing. Four Kansas Army National Guard united mobilized during the Conflict. These were the 130th Field Artillery Group, the 174th Military Police Battalion, the 195th Field Artillery Battalion and the 127th Fighter Squadron.
Marker is on Interstate 35 at milepost 96, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
