[일반] UN Cemetery staff work hard to make sure our fallen comrades are remembered
- Writer관리자
- Date2007-10-01 17:01:21
- Count12311
Korea Vet News
Published by the Korean War
Commemoration Council of Canada
Painting “A Nation Reborn”
by Canadian Artist Ted Zuber
Dedicated to the sacrifice and indomitable spirit of Veterans
of the Korean War
September 22, 2007
Left click on the UNMCK insignia
To call up the official website
Veterans who think our Fallen Comrades rest unappreciated and forgotten in the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea should know that the dedicated small staff of the UNMCK works tirelessly to make sure they are remembered and honoured.
Throughout the year the UNMCK and its supporting volunteers, are immersed in programs to keep alive the memory of the UN service people who came to South Korea ’s aid in the war years.
Korean school children place flowers on graves of South Korean servicemen buried within the UN Cemetery on June 6 Remembrance Day.
A number of commemoration activities occur regularly at the Cemetery, including ceremonies and tribute on Memorial Day every June 6, on United Nations Day on October 24, on the Korean War Remembrance Day of June 25 and the Korean War Armistice Day on July 27.
This year, for the first time ever, a tribute ceremony will be held at the UNMCK on November 11. It will pay tribute to those who served, from all over the world.
UN Cemetery Assistant Custodian Kim Soon-bong and public relations director Miss E. J. Park inspect the French Memorial recently placed within the UN Cemetery. Miss Park is the manager of the program to install photographs on the grave marker plinths of the 378 Canadians buried in the cemetery. (Yonhap News is the name of the Korean newswire service that took the photograph).
Just a few days ago Veterans of the French Battalion - Bataillon Francais de l’ O.N.U. - dedicated a memorial to their Fallen Comrades and to all from France who served in Korea .
This was done despite the fact that a majority of the French servicemen once buried in the UNMCK were repatriated to their homeland even before the war had ended.
Of the 287 French servicemen who died in the war, just 44 remain buried in the UNMCK.
However, those 44 – and all others - are surely remembered.
Their comrades and the Government of France sited a Monument to their memory within the UN Cemetery on September 16, 2007.
Markers for Canadians with no known graves
It is also significant that Canadian Veterans are considering the placement of grave markers within the UN Cemetery dedicated to the memory of 21 Canadians who have no known graves.
Those Fallen Comrades include seven from The Royal Canadian Regiment, four from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, five from the Royal 22e Regiment and five from the Royal Canadian Navy who were lost at sea.
It is noteworthy that while the soldiers are commemorated on the Commonwealth Memorial to Those With No Known Graves, the five Royal Canadian Navy personnel who were lost at sea are not named on the memorial’s bronze plates.
The Custodian of the UN Cemetery, His Excellency Ambassador Lee Suk-jo has approved the Canadian initiative in principle.
There are costs involved, as the UN does not fund the cemetery. All of the improvement costs are absorbed by South Korea , except for a modest upkeep charge made to each of 11 nations with servicemen interred in Busan.
There is precedent for such a program.
Several years ago the Netherlands installed grave markers to commemorate their soldiers who fell in battle and have no known graves.
And a few weeks ago the Government of New Zealand installed a grave marker to an Able Seaman who had been lost at sea.
New Zealand has just installed this grave marker in the New Zealand portion of the UN Cemetery where 34 New Zealand servicemen are buried. It commemorates Able Seaman R. F. Marchioni, 19, of the Royal New Zealand Navy who was lost at sea in August, 1951. The two recesses in the front of the granite plinth are for inserting a flag and floral tribute. All of the new granite plinths, paid for entirely by the People of South Korea , have this feature. (Canadian grave markers will have a 4x3” photograph installed where “Yonhapnews” is indicated, if we can successfully get the UN Cemetery Commission to grant an abatement from its recent ban on affixing photographs to grave markers within the cemetery).
On November 11 Veterans from around world will turn toward UN Cemetery to pay tribute to their Fallen Comrades
This November 11, for the first time ever, a ceremony will be held at the UN Cemetery commemorating all of the world’s war Veterans, but particularly those who served in Korea during the Korean War and on peacekeeping and UNC service for the past half century.
On November 11, Veterans groups all over the world are encouraged to turn toward Busan and pay a few moments of special tribute to their countrymen who are buried in the UN Cemetery, and all those who fought in the Korean War and have since passed on.
In the UN Cemetery, Korean service personnel will turn along plot lines to all of the nations that participated in the Korean War with the United Nations Command.
It is a simple gesture, but one all Veterans will understand.
It is surely something that all Koreans will understand.
Just this year the UN Cemetery completed refurbishment and re-dedication the United Nations Forces Monument , which had fallen into disrepair. The monument was paid for by the Korean Government when it was dedicated in 1978.
A tribute written by General Park Chung-hee, long-serving Korean president, is engraved on one of the walls.
Interred within the monument is a list of more than 40,000 UN servicemen who lost their lives in Korean War service. The list represents the souls of those servicemen, and tribute is paid to them the year around.
The United Nations Forces Monument as it appeared before the refurbishment.
A very big tribute was paid to all UN Forces servicemen who fell during the Korean War when, in October, 2006, the United Nations Memorial Wall was dedicated in the UN Cemetery.
Designed and built at a cost of more than $2 million, the memorial wall was paid for entirely by the Korean Government.
Engraved on the marble panels are the names of 40,895 UN Forces servicemen who fell in the Korean War.
Following the dedication of the Memorial Wall in October, the United Nations Memorial Cemetery was visited by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in November, 2006, following his October election to that high post.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (left) discusses names of Fallen engraved on the granite Memorial Wall with His Excellency Lee Suk-jo, Custodian of the United Nations Memorial Cemetery , Korea . The position of Custodian has ambassadorial rank and traditionally is given to distinguished diplomats who have served Korea as ambassadors.
Korean couple visits the Memorial Wall last October and are approaching the panels that identify Canada ’s Fallen. On the first panel you can make out some of the names. Starting at the top and going right we can identify Macmillan Murdoch, 28, RCR; Maddison William Bruce, 21, RCCS; Maisonneuve Jean-Pierre, 21, R22R; Manley Robert William, 19, RCA; Marshall Walter, 22, PPCLI; Mathieu Olier, 32, R22R, Maurer Derrick Peter, 26, RCR; McHugh John, 25, RCR; McInnes Gerald, 28, PPCLI; McIntyre Earl Alva, 20, PPCLI; McKinnon Hugh Ian, 23, RCR; McNeil Alexander, 49, RCE; McPhail Walter Charles, 26, PPCLI; McPhee Roy, 22, PPCLI; Mehan John Carlisle, 27, RCR; Mercier Jean, 23, R22R; Meynell Gerard Balfour, 24, RCR; Michaud Marc Henri, 29, R22R; Michaud Rene, 26, PPCLI; Milmore Walter, 21, RCA.
Published by the Korean War
Commemoration Council of canada
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