WEDGEPORT, N.S. — Glen Gavel’s voice stood out as he sang along to "O Canada".
He was quick to offer his thoughts when asked what a ceremony happening at the Wedgeport Legion in Yarmouth County meant to him.
But when asked what he had reflected on during two minutes of silence when the "Last Post" was played, the Korean War veteran found it difficult to find his voice.
“You just... ,” he started to speak but his voice trailed off, unable to continue.
The emotion of that moment was too much for him to put into words.
Five Korean War veterans from the Wedgeport, Yarmouth, and Weymouth legions were present for a ceremony held at the Wedgeport Royal Canadian Legion Branch 155 in advance of the July 27, 67-year anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
Family members — including some of the local Korean veterans who have died — were also present for the ceremony that took on an entirely new look and feel because of COVID-19.
Everyone wore face masks. Speakers only removed their masks momentarily when they took the podium. The veterans removed their masks only for a few moments during the wreath-laying ceremony outdoors. Physical distancing was observed during the event, hand sanitizer greeted people at the door instead of handshakes, and names and contact telephone numbers were recorded for all who attended.
The ceremony’s emcee Andre Boudreau spoke about how the Korean War — which started on June 25, 1950 when the communist-backed North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea — is often called the Forgotten War.
A United Nations force consisting of 16 countries fought in the war. That included 26,791 Canadian personnel who served during the combat phase and as peacekeepers afterward, said Boudreau.
The last Canadian soldiers, Boudreau said, left in 1957. The war claimed the lives of 516 Canadians and wounded more than 1,200.
The combat phase went on from its June 1950 start until an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, to end Korean War hostilities in a conflict that neither side really won and continues on in the present day. South Korea did not sign the agreement, The 1953 armistice was never replaced with a peace treaty.
Gavel said he was pleased to see the Wedgeport Legion hold a ceremony to recognize local veterans who fought during the war.
“It’s a remembrance. A lot of us are too old to go to the legions so this is great,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to see all of these people here.”
Veteran Leslie Muise agreed, saying he was very happy to be present. When Gavel became too emotional to share his thoughts during the moment of silence, Muise finished the sentence for him. “You think of your friends that you served with,” Muise said.
Muise visited South Korea again in 2018 as part of a veterans’ trip. “We visited every cemetery,” he said, saying he also had the honour of laying a white rose at a memorial to remember all of the fallen.
Nelson Deveau spent part of the July 24 ceremony remembering his time in the Korean War.
“It wasn’t very good. I was with the 38 Canadian Mobile Ambulance Company at the forward field dressing station. That’s where the wounded would come out to us,” he said. “We took care of them and moved them out to a bigger field hospital. It wasn’t fun.”
The other two Korean War veterans to take part in the ceremony were Weldon A. Francis and Kenneth R. Jeffery.
A wreath laid outside of the Wedgeport Legion will later be laid at a Korean War memorial located in the town of Yarmouth.
Thanks were extended to the veterans in the form of a gift and letter from the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in Montreal.
“When you risked your life in a strange land filled with gunfire, the strangers you saved were our grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, and mothers,” read the letter. “Many things have changed over those long years. You were young and great and now are generous grandfathers or grandmothers, while the Republic of Korea, once nothing left but ashes of war, is now a great country. However, what has never changed is that we are grateful and remember you warmly.”
Gavel shared a memory about when he and others came back home from the war: “You had slept in the daytime and you were on guard all night. When you came back home it took a long time to get all over that. It was a different life completely.”
