December 18, 2009

Korea Veterans Associations need more names

for President Lee Myung-bak's 2010 mailing list

Korea’s President to send Appreciation Letters to 100,000 Korea War Veterans

President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak seen with Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a news conference held in Korea’s Blue House (President’s official offices and residence). Prime Minister Harper was in Korea on December 7 and held meetings with President Lee aimed at strengthening Canada-Korea relations. Prime Minister Harper was taken to the Demilitarized Zone by Colonel Stephen LaPlante, Canadian Defence Attache in Korea. Colonel LaPlante is heavily involved with the Korean Government's commemoration programs for 2010 and is acting as an intermediary with the Korea Veterans Association of Canada and with relevant Canadian Government ministries and agencies.

Next year Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak will send letters of appreciation to an estimated 100,000 Korean War Veterans in 21 nations, according to a report made by Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs on Monday.

The letter is part of a plan by the Ministry and the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee to hold more than 40 events in Korea and to visit Veterans in their home countries. The President’s letter feature was included in the Ministry’s policy report to the President.

Additionally, President Lee will send letters to 240,000 Korean War Veterans who served with the Republic of Korea armed forces.

The Commemoration Committee, through briefings to ambassadors, embassy consular officers and defence attaches, has requested that Veterans associations in all 21 countries work with government agencies to develop extensive lists of veterans and their addresses.

Minister Kim Yang heads Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, which has a major role in planning, budgeting and administrating the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War commemoration programs. The 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee is the official organization for handling most aspects of the programs, with MPVA staff exclusively handling the Veterans revisit program, which has been increased more than three-fold for 2010. Some MPVA officials have been assigned fulltime to the Committee and some hold simultaneous posts in both organizations. The Commemoration Committee is chaired by Prime Minister Chung Un-chan and co-chaired by former Prime Minister Lee Hong-gu. The lists are to extend beyond present members of organized Korean War Veterans groups to include as many Veterans as possible; those that belong to KVAs and those that for various reasons do not have such affiliations. One KVA activist who has taken the Committee request to heart is Terry Wickens, national president of the Korea Veterans Association of Canada.

As soon as Terry learned of the Committee request he established a team to identify by name and address as many veterans as he could locate in Canada.

Terry's daughter, Rosamund Rouxel, is the KVA Canada national membership chairman. She is heavily involved, polling KVA units, and other veteran organizations like the Royal Canadian Legion, Army Navy Air Force Veterans (ANAVETS), Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping, and others.

While there are less than 3,000 members on the KVA Canada roster, Terry’s team is well on the way to identifying more than 5,000 Korean War Veterans who served with Canada’s armed forces in Korea.

They are appealing to all Veterans to search within their own communities and locate comrades who might not be known to veterans organizations.

Mr. and Mrs. Terry Wickens plan a cruise over the Christmas holidays, but Terry is taking his Veterans database work with him. He plans to review and edit the list of thousands of Canada’s Korean War Veterans in quiet, undisturbed surrounds. We encourage him to let all of that go until he returns. Terry not only is the national president of KVA Canada, he is a life member of the British Korean Veterans Association and a member of the Korea Veterans Association of Australia.

“The number of non-members on the list continues to grow,” Terry reports. “There are still many who have not been located and we seek everyone’s cooperation in bringing them to our attention.”

It has been estimated by several organizations that there are 10,000 Korean War Veterans still living in Canada, out of the more than 30,000 who served in Korea on land, sea or air.

Terry now questions that, based upon his work in compiling the veterans database.

“There were a lot more deaths on our struck-off strength list (former members of KVA Canada whose memberships had lapsed) than we anticipated,” Terry noted.

“From the number of unreported deaths I feel that the number of living veterans is a lot lower than was originally estimated. I am aiming to get between 5,000 and 7,000 names. It’s ambitious, but worth the challenge.”

Terry is personally going through the list that has been compiled. In many instances, if he questions the name or mailing address, he makes telephone calls to set the matter right.

One resource he is using is the Royal Canadian Legion Last Post database, which lists details of the deaths of Canadian Forces Veterans. It is an ongoing list that is continuously updated.

To assist Terry in this work, information about surviving Canadian Veterans who served in Korea should be e-Mailed to Terry Wickens at terrywickens@sympatico.ca

Links to Veterans Association websites

Above article provided courtesy of the Korean War Veteran, koreavetnews@aol.com