| Vincent Courtenay and his wife Makye Courtenay salute at the grave of a comrade in the U.N. Cemetery in November 2017. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs did not invite veterans from the U.N. nations to participate in the 2018 ceremony at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan on Nov. 11. |
By Vincent Courtenay
I felt a little foolish this year when reporters and others present at the Turn Toward Busan ceremony at the UN Cemetery on Nov. 11 congratulated me for being prominently mentioned in the program. Some thought I was actually present, among the various dignitaries.
I wasn't there. Nor were any veterans invited from the various nations that sent soldiers to fight in Korea during the war years.
The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs excluded the aging veterans from participating this year. Instead, they gave more than 100 places usually reserved for veterans to family members of those who fell in the war.
While no veteran will object to giving up his place to a bonafide grieving family member of a comrade, it was a major error of the MPVA to exclude veterans.
Ironically, the ceremony gave the impression that veterans from the many nations were actually present. The huge video screens set up on each side of the altar displayed a sign in English that read, “Thanks, Veterans.” But they were not there.
Bereaved family members are much younger than the veterans. In most cases they will be on this Earth much longer. Presumably, they will continue to be invited to Korea long after the veterans revisit programs end in 2020.
In several cases the family members invited were very distant relatives of the fallen soldiers. They were not born until many years after the Korean War ended, and never met or actually grieved for the fallen soldiers.
While their presence does perpetuate the memory of those who fell, it also excluded participation by those who served alongside those soldiers ― those who fought in the war and were spared.
As one veteran from Scotland advised the MPVA, in many cases the veterans were closer to those who fell than the distant relatives of later generations who were invited in their places.
A sad fact, probably not considered by the MPVA, is that excluding 100 veterans from the November 11 program this year may well have excluded many of them from visiting Korea again. The veterans, including the youngest like myself who are in their mid-80s, are dying at an accelerating rate.
Many are in their late 80s and can only visit Korea in a structured program like the one the MPVA provides.
Some in the various nations have been waiting anxiously for an opportunity to be included in an MPVA revisit program. Without the personal security and care the MPVA teams provide for them, many can never visit Korea on their own.
Some who could have participated in the ceremony this year will not survive for another year.
The MPVA has treated veterans from foreign lands marvelously well since the veteran revisit programs began in 1975. Veterans and their family members and their governments throughout the world are enormously thankful for that remembrance and kindness.
But I would encourage the MPVA, or the local government in Busan, to re-examine what has happened this year. The Turn Toward Busan program was developed by veterans and is held by veterans in other nations around the world.
To exclude them from participating in the central ceremony in Busan tacitly implies that they are forgotten.
They should never be forgotten.
Vincent Courtenay is a Canadian Korean War Veteran. He developed the veterans' international Turn Toward Busan program in 2007. It was adopted by Korea's MPVA in 2008. He also designed and raised funds for the Monuments to Canadian Fallen. They stand in the UN Cemetery, and in Canada's capital of Ottawa. His was left with considerable disabilities from injuries and illness contracted during the Korean War. He is married to the former Makye Chong from Gunsan.