The Not Forgotten event today through Monday at Woodward Park includes a memorial to those that served in the Korean War.

Instead of just strolling by the replicas of the statues of soldiers that form the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., take a minute and give them a thorough once over. Everyone tells a story from a paratrooper to a medic that served in a bloody war that most have long forgotten about or — more precisely in many cases — know nothing about it.

Take a look at the hands.

They are the hands that helped secure our freedoms.

They are the hands that carried rifles into combat.

They are the hands that pulled a wounded buddy to safety.

They are the hands that cradled those that died on battlefields 5,600 miles away.

The hands are from molds of actual American soldiers — now in their 80s and 90s — that served in a war that cost the lives of 54,246 Americans.

Jeannie Ignash — the daughter of Army Staff Sgt. John Ignash who served America for more than 34 years and  was in both the Korean and Vietnam wars — sought out the men who served for the replica she created of the Korean War Memorial.

Ignash wanted their hands — the hands that secured the freedoms we too often take for granted — to attach to the life-sized figurines of soldiers.

She carefully created molds of the hands of those that served in the bloody conflict that many who view the memorial  say they were never aware happened.

It’s those hands that Ignash hopes people will connect with.

It took — and takes — real humans — to secure and keep freedoms.

In the annals of civilization freedoms of speech, worship, public assembly and even property ownership are a mere flickering of a candle in the wind tunnel of history. They are rare throughout the Ages and ever rarer to enjoy them on the concentrated level we take for granted today.

The war those hands served in back in the 1950s seems light years ago.

But they are the part of the reason we — and others across the world — as well as children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,  great-great grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren are free and alive today.

Ignash’s father always made it a point to correct those who say “freedom isn’t free.”

He’d remind them that is isn’t true.

Freedom is free for those that never have served thanks to those that have or are serving.

The soldiers are the ones that paid the price. Some died on the battlefield. Some suffered severe injuries. And others, who may not have been in a war zone or served in times of relative piece, dedicated years to  serving.

They are the ones on alert at posts around the world at you read these words. They are the ones confined to beds in the Veterans Administration hospital in Livermore. They are the ones buried at East Union Cemetery.

They are the 15 that died in Kabul from a terrorist attack while helping evacuees leave Afghanistan last  summer while we were in the comfort of our air conditioned homes.

They are among those the 7,000 white crosses at Woodward Park represent that fell in the Global War on Terror after the 9-11-2011 attack on America.

They are also among the crowd at Woodward Park. Veterans — and active duty military — who have and who are serving.

Shake the hands of those men and women.

Feel the touch of the hands that secured wealth that is greater than all the gold and Bitcoin in the world — freedom.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com