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Vet
wrote on Forgotten War Hamilton
Spectator File Photo Hamilton
Spectator File Photo
Book
honours Canadians who served there - TOM SOMERS 1926-2008 Mark
McNeil
Tom
Somers was a fighter. He
fought the Nazis in the Second World War. He battled the communists in the
Korean War. And
over the past year, he took on cancer with every breath he could manage,
pulling himself from his bed to take part in a bayside veterans' ceremony
at HMCS Haida last November. Somers
died March 28 at 82. He
will best be remembered for his efforts to preserve the memory of
Canadians who served in the Korean War. Somers
co-wrote a book -- published in English and Korean -- called Canadians Our
Heroes, that has been distributed to high schools, libraries and veterans. He
was past president of the Korea Veterans Association of Canada, Unit 26,
Hamilton Region. Of
all the military campaigns that Canadians have taken part in, Korea is
known as the Forgotten War. Yet nearly 27,000 served, with more than 300
from Hamilton. A total of 516 died, 10 of them from this city. Hoojung
Jones, who co-wrote Canadians Our Heroes, said she was amazed at how
little Canadians knew about the Korean War after she moved to this country
from Korea in 1987. One
day, she took a tour of the Hamilton Military Museum to find there was no
reference to Canadian involvement in the Korean War. She
set out to spread the word through her involvement with the Hamilton Folk
Arts Heritage Council and other local organizations and eventually hooked
up with Somers. "Not
only was Tom a hero in terms of being a veteran, but he was personal
mentor. I've never known anyone who had so much courage." Wesley
Beetham, president of the Korea Veterans Association's Hamilton chapter,
believes the book has done much to spread the story of Canadian veterans
in Korea. "As
far as I am concerned, the book was his greatest effort. They both worked
night and day to get that book out." It's
a story that needed to be told before it was too late. Korean War vets are
aging. Most are in their 70s or 80s. Beetham notes that membership at the
Korea Veterans Association in Hamilton has declined to 39 from a high
point of 135 several years ago. For
his part, Somers used to say that Korea was the more horrible of the two
wars in which he fought. "It
was like stepping back in time. It was trench warfare. We never moved ...
we lived in bunkers, holes in the ground and fought from the
trenches," he once told a Spectator reporter. 905-526-4687
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