The Sault’s Laurene Neal was in attendance at Friday evening’s annual Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 Korean War remembrance ceremony.
“I always come (to Korean War ceremonies). I’ve had both my (COVID-19) shots,” she said, speaking to SooToday.
Neal’s husband, Don Neal, who died in 2018, served in the war.
The couple met when Neal, who served in the Canadian Army for 19 years, was stationed for a period in the Sault area in the mid-1950s.
They married in 1954, Laurene following Don to numerous postings, including several within Canada and one in Germany.
He finished his military career in the Sault with the rank of Sergeant, the couple settling in this community where Don worked at Algoma Steel for 25 years before retiring.
“He was in Korea for 13 months. He had been out on patrol and his jeep had hit a landmine. He was in an American hospital for a while. His back was damaged, his left shoulder, his left leg and his left foot,” Laurene said.
Laurene comes from a military family, her father wounded at Passchendaele in the First World War.
Her brother served in the Second World War, her husband in Korea, her son and grandson in Afghanistan.
However, she stated facing the danger and experiencing those wounds were not in vain.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today if it hadn't been for those men,” she stated.
Traditionally, the local Korean War remembrance ceremony is held annually at a cairn located at the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site, but in observation of COVID-19 restrictions, a small number of Branch 25 officials gathered to mark the occasion Friday outside the branch at 96 Great Northern Road.
“It is our duty, our mission, our mandate to never, ever forget the service and sacrifice of our fallen members who were willing to pay the ultimate price,” said Pierre Breckenridge, Branch 25 1st vice president.
“Their sacrifice will ever inspire us to labour on to the end, that those who have survived and need our aid may be assured of assistance, and that the country in which we live and for which they died may ever be worthy of the sacrifice they made.”
Canada was the third largest contributor to the multinational force in The Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953.
26,791 Canadian army, navy and air force personnel served in The Korean War during its combat phase and subsequent peacekeeping phase.
Next to the First and Second World Wars, The Korean War remains Canada’s third bloodiest overseas war, claiming the lives of 516 Canadians and wounding more than 1,200.
The war began when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in June, 1950.
A U.S.-led coalition of nations, including Canada, came to South Korea’s military aid under the banner of the newly-formed United Nations.
China entered the war to assist North Korea and a bloody struggle followed until a ceasefire was signed in July, 1953.
No formal peace treaty was ever signed, and to this day, Korea remains divided, North and South Korea eyeing each other suspiciously as the Western powers fret over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
However, the UN war effort has ensured lasting freedom and prosperity for South Korea.