JESSICA BYRD watched her son Elijah Cade trace the letters with his fingers, following the lines of his father's name in the granite tiles of the Korean War Memorial. It didn't matter that he had fought in Iraq.
"Honestly, I didn't even know it would be down there, or that it would be unveiled," she said.
Byrd's name was one of 62 that Korean veterans recently had inscribed into granite tiles at the northeast corner of their memorial. The veterans of the "Forgotten War" wanted to make sure that the fallen from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not forgotten.
Byrd and her 4-year-old son, of Northeast Philadelphia, were among hundreds who attended the Memorial Day ceremony yesterday morning, at 2nd and Dock streets.
They came from all over the country, and represented every major war and military service since World War II.
Sam Day was in the 555th Airborne, a group of black paratroopers that first served in World War II. The little known group of smoke jumpers was trained to extinguish fires set by the Japanese who sent long range "balloon bombs" to torch forests in the Pacific Northwest.
Bill Fleming served in the Marines in the late 1950s, along with his brother and cousins. He remembered long nights guarding the memorial shortly after it was dedicated in 2002.
"I used to do guard duty when they first opened it," said Fleming, who protected it from teen vandals who skateboarded through it, broke lights, and defaced it with paint and chalk.
While some remembered wars from decades past, Byrd watched her son. "He asks when his dad is coming home, and asks in the same sentence if his dad's in heaven," she said.
While Marine Lance Cpl. John Thomas Byrd II was serving as a rifleman in Iraq, Jessica played a recording of Elijah Cade's heartbeat for him by phone.
But Byrd never saw his son. He, along with seven other GIs, were killed by a suicide bomber in Anbar Province on Oct. 30, 2004.
Jessica Byrd gave birth to their son four months later. They had already agreed on his name - Elijah, to reflect their Christian faith, and Cade, which means "warrior" in Gaelic.
"He had to give him a good strong name to keep him tough," she said.
Yesterday, under a hot spring sun, government officials, including state Rep. Bryan Lentz and Municipal Judge Patrick Dugan - both veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan - and Mayor Nutter came to honor area veterans.
The voices of Korean and Vietnam veterans urged the American public to appreciate the sacrifices of today's soldiers, they said.
"The nation should be out here with tears streaming down their faces," Dugan said. "We owe you a big thank-you."
"Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been welcomed with open arms - in part because you weren't."
"We talk about Korea in the context of the 'forgotten war,' " Nutter said. "You will never be forgotten."
He spoke to people like Edward Herr, 78, who comes from a military family. His father was gassed in World War I and his cousins served in WWII and Vietnam. Herr served in Korea, remembering frigid days, howitzer bombardments and a fierce enemy that was "indoctrinated."
"I'm lucky [to have survived]," he said. "I'll be glad when there are no more wars."
Herr said to memorialize current veterans is the right thing to do. "What other place do they have to go?" he asked.
Jessica Byrd, for one, was grateful. "These men from the Korean War Memorial organization have taken a piece of their memorial and let us have it," she said.
"I think it is wonderful of them, especially because they weren't recognized when they came back, and they gave a piece of what they worked so hard for."
It's a gift, she said, for Elijah Cade.
"I'm so excited that my son will be able to go there and see his father's name," she said.
"He knows he's part of something great." *
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