On July 26 1985 in Washington DC the USPS honored the American Veterans of the Korean War. The Korean U.N. "police action" began in June 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953. It was never officially a declared war. Approximately 50,000 Americans lost their lives, more than 10,000 were wounded and more than 5.000 were captured or listed as missing in action. David Duncans 1950 photo, on which the stamps was finally based, showed several dead soldiers along the battlefields roadside, though they were later removed from the stamp design.