BIOS Dennis'
wife says he does not read. He studies. He is a
Silver Spring boy and Maryland grad who wound up
in California due to a failed critical works
deferment from military service. After
discharge, he was back, this time at Cal. Though
there for a second Civil Engineering degree, he
rarely left Wurster Hall urban design studios.
He eventually made his stand in '72 with his
wife Lynne and three children in Mill Valley
California deep in a redwood forest with the
Marin Headlands above and a utopic village
below, just 18 minutes from San Francisco. After
a 15-year career on the front lines of city and
regional planning, Klein flipped to geographic
information tech services to support the design
process and still looks back, using mapping to
guide urban policy. Unremembered
Victory was started 20 years ago as a 6,000-word
memoir rejected by all the magazines, 2020 and
60 Minutes. Everywhere they loved the story, but
it seemed to be red lined as on a
never-to-be-told list. As the years went by,
Klein discovered to his delight, the book was
emerging as a perfect vehicle for sharing the
ideas that come him while running the redwoods
and meadows of the drop-dead-gorgeous 2000-foot
ridge above his house. Klein did
16 months facing the fire on the Korean DMZ. He
remembers many times gladly going north of the
Fence at the height of the hostilities because
IT HAD TO BE DONE. Ditto, Unremembered Victory.
For Klein, the story must be told how 4,000
ordinary guys on the Line in '68 will forever be
IRRIFUTABLE evidence that people, just the way
we are, have what it takes for us to be America.
Because of his time on the Line, Klein believes
that nothing can stop him from believing in the
whole thing, everything in it, nothing let out,
no exceptions, all the time. Unremembered
Victory is intended to get you feeling the same.
Wade
Thompson served in the Army from 1966 through
1969. He was assigned to the Second Infantry
Division 1st/9th Infantry Regiment in April
1967. In very early December of 1967 the unit
was relocated to Camp Young north of the Imjin
River just south of the boundary of the DMZ. In
January of 1968 the North Koreans infiltrated
the western corridor sector with the intent of
assassinating the President of South
Korea…, they almost succeeded making their
way to Seoul the capitol of South Korea. Most
were killed or captured. Just shortly afterward
the North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo and
all men on board, with only one fatality.
All units
on or near the DMZ were put on highest alert
anticipating that the North Koreans would make
an all-out assault. Thompson's
unit was in the eye of the storm and the fear
and stress associated with the results of such
an attack was horrifying. Despite that, the
soldiers braced and bonded into a formidable
deterrent to the enemy, determined not to give
up one foot of ground. Thompson
explains "We were just ordinary guys, but after
the Pueblo, became close cohesive fighting unit,
each GI giving all that they had to what had to
be done. Fire fights were a nightly occurrence
with many were Killed in Action and others
Wounded in Action. We held firm. We saw not one
of our fellow soldiers as heroes, but
many…, no most were. We are all proud to
have served and done our part in keeping the
world from ending in a nuclear exchange."
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