The armistice that brought an end to fighting in the Korean War and that since has prevented serious warfare and deaths in the region was signed amid mistrust and worry from U.S. troops, according to those who were there. “We weren’t sure if the armistice would hold. We just didn’t trust the armistice. Even after the time came,” said Clifford O’Brien, a Bangor resident and retired Air Force technical sergeant who was in Seoul, South Korea, at the time the armistice took effect.

The armistice has held, however, and this Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the agreement that effectively ended three years of fighting in the war-torn region.

O’Brien is one of the many Maine veterans who will remember the day and take part in this weekend’s ceremonies commemorating the war, which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and claimed the lives of 36,750 American servicemen and women, about 3 million Koreans and Chinese, and wounded 103,284 Americans.

Ceremonies will center on the Korean War Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Called by many the “Forgotten War” in part because it was a United Nations police action that never involved the United States’ formally declaring war, the conflict was fought to prevent the spread of communism from North to South Korea.

The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, by the opposing leaders in the interest of “stopping the great toll of suffering and bloodshed on both sides,” according to reports at the time. The signing was followed by 12 hours of continued conflict before the agreement took effect, a time when troops could only wait for what the next day had in store for them.

“We didn’t know if the communists were going to pick up their weapons after we put ours away,” O’Brien said. “We didn’t know if they would stand up to their words.”

O’Brien spent one year in Korea as part of the 6154th Army Installation Squadron and, for a time, was “on loan” as a heavy-equipment operator for the 8th Army Aviation Engineering Battalion. O’Brien remained in Korea until October 1953, after the armistice took hold, continuing the job of rebuilding the crumbling city of Seoul.

“Everything just kept going after the armistice. We had to keep the convoys moving to bring supplies to the troops,” he said.

When he finally left Korea, O’Brien brought home mementos from his time there, including an original copy of the Stars and Stripes newspaper that announced the armistice with the bold headline “Truce Signed.” O’Brien said he has been told that his is the only original copy in Maine.

“It was on my cot when I got back from work that day,” O’Brien said. “For whatever reason I kept my copy. Most guys threw theirs in the trash cans.”

O’Brien also has an old, frayed photo album from Korea containing tattered newspaper clippings and fading black-and-white photographs. O’Brien pulled out one photo of rubble-covered streets and imposing, skeletal structures where buildings once had stood.

“This is how I remember Seoul,” O’Brien said.

Looking at his photographs and newspaper clips and recalling his experiences reminded O’Brien of his feeling that Korean War veterans have been all but forgotten by many people. He said he hopes this anniversary will bring those veterans more attention and appreciation.

“We didn’t get the recognition like the boys in World War II. There were no parades or bands when we got home,” O’Brien said.

“I want to give recognition to the guys who really had it rough,” he said, recalling two famous battle sites. “The guys on Hamburger Hill and Pork Chop Hill, they really took a beating.”

O’Brien’s military career began as many other young men’s did from his generation. He was 19 years old and working at a local auto shop when he and a friend decided to volunteer for the Air Force. It was 1951, and the war in Korea already was in full swing.

“If you didn’t join the service you were a town wimp,” said O’Brien, who grew up in the small town of Wamego, Kan., population 2,000.

Soon after volunteering, O’Brien was rebuilding roads and bridges in the heavily bombed region around Korea’s capital city.

“I joined the Air Force because I didn’t want to carry a rifle. I didn’t want to be in the infantry.” O’Brien said.

Working with bulldozers instead of guns kept O’Brien off the front lines, but not out of harm’s way. He once had to hide in the back of a dump truck to escape shrapnel that was pounding against the steel sides of the vehicle.

Another memory that haunts him is the time he was using a bulldozer to level a riverbank so a bridge could be built. As he worked he noticed blankets and rags being swept up in the dirt.

“The villagers came running out and surrounded my bulldozer,” O’Brien said. “Of course they couldn’t speak English, but they were waving their arms and trying to tell me something.”

A man from the village who spoke English finally told O’Brien that he had been digging up a temporary burial ground for Koreans who had died in the attacks on Seoul.

“I’ll never forget that. I can still see it in my mind,” he said.

When O’Brien left Korea in October 1953 with these memories fresh in his mind, the armistice agreement was still new and untested. Now, 50 years later, the agreement has held, but recent animosity may threaten its continued existence as tensions mount between the nations. More than 30,000 U.S. troops remain stationed in South Korea.

“Well, we’ll see. We are not out of there yet. It might explode at any time,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien served in the military for 20 years, seeing combat in both Korea and Vietnam, and spending a third deployment in Turkey. The technical sergeant eventually won the Bronze Star for meritorious service in 1969 before retiring in 1971.

“It was my biggest achievement. I felt I had finally accomplished something after almost 20 years,” he said.

O’Brien both enjoyed and hated his time in the Air Force, but also is fiercely proud of the sacrifices he made to wear the uniform.

“Many of those guys in the military now thought it would be a smooth ride. They just joined to get to go to school, but that’s not how it turned out,” O’Brien said. “That’s what they are in there for, to fight, and in this case you have to go. I wish it wasn’t that way, but it is.”