Korea Vet News

They’re off!

Veterans now in Korea on Veterans Affairs Canada 2008 Pilgrimage

Veterans not selected to participate in the Veterans Affairs Canada 2008 Pilgrimage to Korea may eat their hearts out, so to speak, when they review photos of the lucky delegates representing Canada’s Korean War Veterans.

Initially, a much smaller contingent of Veterans was to have participated but complaints from the PPCLI, RCR, R22eR and RCEME associations and others got the number back up to where it had been on the pilgrimages of 1998 and 2003.

Anyhow, here’s some photos of the happy Veterans on the outset of their adventure.

All photographs were kindly provided by Veterans Affairs Canada which approved their publication by Korea Vet News.

 

 

At the Vancouver Airport, from left to right: Leslie Kemp, representing the League of Merchant Mariner Veterans, his wife Mary Anne; Suzanne Tining, Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs Canada and John Friedt who served with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada and his son Mark.

  

 

Hubert “Hub” Lalonde, who served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 2nd and 1st Battalions in Korea and his wife Joan. Hub must be especially thrilled as he also was a delegate on the 1998 Pilgrimage to Korea led by then Minister Fred Mifflin. Hub, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, was a sniper in Korea.

  

 

Terry Wickens and his wife Alvenia (right) get ready for their first visit together to Korea. Terry is national president of the Korea Veterans Association of Canada. He has never been back to Korea since serving there with the Royal Signal Corps, attached to the Royal Australian Regiment. He said his feelings are ambivalent as he still has many unpleasant memories. With the Wickens are Liberal MP Brent St. Denis and his wife Martine Fabris.

 

Yea, breaker, breaker… the Tanks have come! Roy Jardine, who served in Korea with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) and his wife Inez at the Vancouver Airport.

 

The one who nearly wasn’t invited. Larry Culos who served with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and his wife Marilyn at the airport in Anchorage, Alaska. It’s a fuel stop for northern arc flights to Korea. Initially the RCEME Association had not been invited to participate but its national commandant and Dave Davidson, past national president of KVA Canada made a powerful and successful plea to get the RCEME back on the invitation list. Canada’s tanks, trucks and other vehicles could not have done the job in Korea without them.

 

 

Mrs. June Newton, representing the Nursing Sisters Association of Canada. 

 

 

Roger Goodin (right) is a delegate representing the National Métis Veterans Association. He is shown with his son and caregiver Daniel, after arriving at the Incheon International Airport. They both look remarkably fit and awake after the long flight. The Incheon International Airport is located on an island in the West Sea and connected to the mainland by superhighway causeway. It is about 30 kilometers from Seoul.

 

 

Korean War Veteran Nursing Sister Dorothy Doyle with her friend and caregiver, Carole Lepage. 

 

 

Duke Sherritt wanted to fly the Canadian Forces airbus from Anchorage to Incheon but the ship’s captain decided to handle the job himself. Duke was given the privilege of sitting in the cockpit while the plane landed at Anchorage. He served in Korea with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

 

Hurray for the R22eR! Veterans Affairs Deputy Minister Suzanne Tining chats Royal 22^e Régiment Veterans René Raymond, Renald Gaudreau and Marcel Bellavance.

 

 

The two youth delegates studying the Korean War, Olivier Roy from Tracadie-Sheila, New-Brunswick and Kathleen O’Brien from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Kathleen is the second student from Yellowknife selected to participate in a Pilgrimage. Her predecessor from Yellowknife on the 2003 Pilgrimage commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice was Jhillian Adams.