Twenty-three counties around the world fought during the Korean War. Now 70 years later, less than 800,000 veterans are still alive to tell their story.

“Korean War veterans are underrepresented unfortunately but thankfully there’s still a few around and while they’re still around we want to recognize them,” said John Ra, a member of the Korean community in Rochester and chair of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs of Rochester.

Which is why the Monroe County Veterans Memorial Council dedicated 23 flags to those 23 countries on Sunday, to honor veterans like Roger Hill, who is the president of the Monroe County Korean War Veterans Chapter 58.

“I was in Korea, 1951 to 1953, I served there two years,” said Hill.

“I was in and out of the mountains quite a bit. Korea’s known for the cold mountains, I had my hands and feet frost bitten when I was serving in the first year.”

Over 30,000 American Soldiers were killed during the Korean War, but today it is often known as the "forgotten war” because Congress never declared war on North Korea.

“It's forgotten by the world, but it's not forgotten to the Koreans, the Korean Americans like myself,” said Ra.

This makes it important to keep its memory alive.

“If we didn't do what we did, Korea wouldn’t have the economy and the place in the world that they have now,” Hill said.

“Without them, first of all I would not be standing here," Ra said. "I might be a communist standing in North Korea, but because of our Korean War Veterans, United States to United Kingdom… because of them Korea is very prosperous."

They dedicated 23 flags to serve as that reminder, and keep the memory of the Korean War alive.

“We try to do our best to let people know about the Korean War and this is one way that we have decided that we could do this by donating these flags to the Rochester War Memorial,” said Hill.

“Their lives live on in our hearts and without them we would not be here,” Ra said.