RUMFORD — Selectmen gave veterans researcher Len Greaney of Rumford permission Thursday night to hold a Korean War Recognition event at Veterans Park next month.

It will be held July 27, the day in 1953 when Korean war combat operations ended with a cease fire and armistice.

“I think it would be an extremely positive thing for the town,” Greaney said.

Selectmen agreed, voting 3-0.

“This will be stunning, a real win,” Selectman Jeff Sterling, acting board chairman, said.

Greaney said he made 15 temporary black mock-up stone monuments from plywood that will bear the names of 555 Korean War veterans from Rumford.  They are 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

He will place 10 of them in a 75-foot oval on Hosmer Field at the town’s Fourth of July celebration, hoping to elicit residents’ observations and comments.

For background, Greaney said he submitted a request in February to state Sen. James Hamper, R-Oxford, to initiate emergency legislation to identify July 27 as an annual Maine day of recognition for its Korean War veterans.

The legislation, LD 255, passed through the hearing process, the House and Senate and was signed into law in April, he said.

According to Greaney’s statistics on a PowerPoint presentation, he said 1.8 million U.S. troops served in what’s become known as “The Forgotten War.” Of that number, there were 36,574 killed and 103,284 wounded, the presentation said.

There were 245 killed and 39 POW/MIA from Maine. From Oxford County, 1,632 served in the war and there were 23 casualties, Greaney’s presentation said. Of Rumford’s servicemen, five were killed, he said.

Greaney told selectmen that of Rumford’s 555 Korean War veterans, he thinks that 30 to 40 of them have already died. He said he is trying to find the rest of them.

He said an official in Washington, D.C. learned of  LD 255 and Greaney, and asked him to serve as an ambassador for the area to bring recognition to Korean War veterans.

“That’s the essence of why I’m doing what I’m doing,” Greaney said.

Ambassadors are expected to create events to recognize veterans and to submit names for U.S. Department of Defense certificates of appreciation for their service to our country.

On July 27, a significant Korean War 60th anniversary event will be held in Washington, D.C., Greaney said.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill identifying 2013 as “The Year of the Korean War Veterans,” he said.

“Their Federal program has recognized our efforts to recognize our local Korean War vets,” he said. “The event in the Rumford Veterans Park will be a significant step to remember our veterans from the ‘Forgotten War.'”

When asked by Selectman Jolene Lovejoy about donations for the memorial, Greaney said that while he’s never tried to collect money from anyone for the monuments, word has gotten out about his endeavor to honor Korean War veterans here.

Greaney said he’s had calls and emails from around the country and donations that he’s placed in a Bangor Savings Bank account he established for the project.

During the Rumford recognition July 27, Greaney said local access channel WVAC will play an historical overview video of the Korean War sent to him from Washington, D.C.

Greaney said he is using the Korean War memorial as a stepping stone toward preparing a new Rumford War Memorial.

On Veterans Day, he said he intends to display at Rumford’s Veterans Park the entire list of more than 4,200 Rumford veterans from the Revolutionary War through Afghanistan.

That project is expected to be completed next year, he said.

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