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The 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee is asking governments and veterans organizations in the nations that sent armed forces and non-military medical units to Korea, to help with a special project.

The President of Korea wants to extend the Nation’s thanks in a letter of tribute and appreciation to all of the World’s surviving Korean War Veterans.

The burden of compiling a Veterans data bade falls primarily on the organized Korean War Veterans associations in the 21 countries that constituted the United Nations Korean War Allies.

There is no cohesive roster of all of the Korean War Veterans names in any of the countries. Locating the veterans and their mail and contact details is very challenging.

The various Korean War Veterans associations around the world represent only a percentage of the surviving veterans. Further, many countries have more than one such organization.

So countrywide coordination of effort is required. The central coordinator in most cases probably is the Korea Veterans Association that is a member of the International Federation of Korean War Veterans Associations.

The Veterans data base the Commemoration Committee wants each nation to develop will include names of the veterans, ages, if possible, and some brief details of service if that is available.

The national president of KVA Canada, Terry Wickens, his national vice president Paul Rochon, and membership director Rosamund Rouxel, have been developing a Canadian data base for several months.

From the outset they went beyond their own KVA Canada membership rosters. They are polling and seeking cooperation from all other veteran organizations, as well as regimental associations, naval and air force associations and other groups.

The team also is running advertisements in the Esprit de Corp military interest magazine and in The Legion, the national publication of the Royal Canadian Legion.

There is also an expedient that one Canadian veteran has used in his home city that may have an excellent effect in locating veterans who are not visible in the main stream veteran organizations.

Ed Nicholson, a Korean War Veteran from North Bay, Ontario, made an appeal to a columnist in his local newspaper, the North Bay Nugget.

The results are encouraging. Ed recommends that in every city and town in the 21 nations that sent troops and other service aid to Korea during the war, veterans should follow his lead.

It is not difficult to approach news media. Often a phone call will suffice, although face-to-face meeting is sometimes more beneficial.

Here is the result of Ed’s initiative, a mention in a popular, much-read column with Ed’s contact information. It is noted that the column appears not just in the North Bay newspaper but also on the Internet:

Ed Nicholson has asked me to help spread the word and locate living veterans not already on the association database. Next year is the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and the Korea Veterans Association of Canada wants to include all who answered the call in the remembrance celebration.

A major service is planned overseas, as well as at the Korea Veterans National Wall of Remembrance in Brampton, Ont., July 27, the day and month the armistice was signed in 1953.

Call Ed at 472-3072 or e-mail him at nichandpris@bell.net if you know anyone who might like to be included in the national database.

This resulted in contact with veterans in Ed’s region. It includes a large swath of Northern Ontario, where there are Korean War Veterans secluded in some of the remote resort and trapping, hunting, foresting and mining communities.

Of course, Ed sends everything he uncovers to the national president or the national membership chairman of KVA Canada, which is handling the project on a national basis.

It is essential that all information is channelled directly to the central source that is compiling the comprehensive data base.

The same approach will work just as effectively with newspapers all over the world. No reporter or editor is going to oppose helping veterans in their 70’s or 80’s receive a letter of appreciation from the president of the country they helped to save.

So, like Ed, we are recommending that local veterans units all over the world make contact with the newspaper that serves their region, and ask for a little assistance in getting the word spread to all veterans.

An illustration is that in the small Ontario community of Dutton – population then less than 1,000 – there were five young men, all serving in the same regiment in Korea.

With such a swath of youngsters seen on leaves and such in uniform, they were the talk of the town in the war years.

One was so badly wounded that he was medically discharged while still in recovery in a veterans hospital in Canada.

Two of the other four had served in Korea not once, but twice – two full tours of duty; two years.

The group scattered. Some died. The locals lost all trace of most of them. When asked, one of the younger residents of Dutton said to another, “Maybe old John is one of them. They say he was some kind of veteran.”

Well, an item in the local newspaper that serves Dutton would no doubt track down “old John” and get his name on the data base and get him the Presidential letter that he assuredly deserves. It would also tell the people of Dutton something about this Canadian who is "some kind of veteran."

Maybe “old John” could also help identify some of the others from the group of five that had proudly enlisted together and sacrificed and served in Korea. The oldest had been 19, the youngest 17.

The letter from President Lee Myung-bak will be most meaningful, and veterans who served and sacrificed in Korea will no doubt cherish it. It will be among their precious souvenirs of lives well spent… and in the future it will be cherished by heirs who succeed them.

Veterans associations in other nations will be using their own innovative ways to develop their own database lists that the Korean Government needs to get President Lee’s letter to as many Veterans as possible.

However, it does not hurt to consult with other countries. In the case of KVA Canada, they are targeting a databank of between 5,000 and 7,000 names and addresses – out of only an estimated 8,000 veterans still surviving out of the 35,000 who served in Korea on land, sea and air.

For information on how Terry Wickens’ KVA Canada team is working with other veterans associations and government agencies – they have already located names and addresses for well over half of all of Canada’s surviving Korean War Veterans – Terry can be reached at terrywickens@sympatico.ca

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