Local Korean War vets came together to honour their fallen comrades during a sombre memorial service in Innisfail last week.
Eight veterans gathered at the cenotaph across from the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 104 on July 26 to mark Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.
The members of Korean War Veterans Unit 77: Doug Whorrall, Gil Allen, Mo Morrison, Smiley Douglas, Herman Thorsen, Maurice St. Aong, Alex Fraser and Abe Brown stood at attention and sang “O’Canada” at the start of the ceremony.
As a light drizzle began falling Whorrall and Allen placed a wreath beneath the cenotaph, stepped back and saluted their fallen brethren. They then marched a short distance to the south and presented another salute, this time facing towards Pusan, South Korea where the bodies of 378 Canadian soldiers lie in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery.
After observing a few minutes of silence, the assembled group sang “God Save the Queen” and were then dismissed.
Whorrall, Unit 77’s service officer, said that two of the unit’s 13 surviving members are in hospital and were unable to attend. Five live in Innisfail while the other members live in Red Deer and numerous communities to the south.
Last year, the Senate of Canada announced the creation of Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, a national day dedicated to veterans of the war. It falls on July 27, though Whorrall said the veterans hold their ceremony on July 26 because that was the date in Canada when the armistice was signed.
“We’ve been doing this every year for 20 years,” Whorrall said. “Our youngest person is 79. We really have to look after each other because there’s only a few of us left.”
Following the ceremony, the veterans and their wives proceeded to the Legion where Whorrall had a surprise up his sleeve. Rather than head to a restaurant for lunch, Whorrall had made arrangements with the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Edmonton Garrison to have ration packs delivered for the veterans to enjoy.
“I thought this would be something really special,” he said as the other veterans chose their lunch from a menu that included salmon fillets, cheese tortellini, beef stroganoff and meat lasagna. “This is something we’ve never done before.”
According to Veterans Affairs Canada, over 26,000 Canadians served in the Korean War, which began with North Korea’s invasion South Korea in 1950 and ended with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953. More than 500 Canadians never returned home - losing their lives in the conflict.
