South Korean president’s letter expresses ‘warmest gratitude and deepest respect
On June 1, 2010, the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of war in Korea, the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, sent personal letters to Canadian veterans who served in his country.
The letter expresses the “warmest gratitude and deepest respect” of the Korean people. It was the first time such a letter has been sent to the veterans.
One Ramara veteran who received the letter is my husband, Major General (Retired) Douglas R. Baker CMM CD.
Born in Toronto, Baker has deep roots in the Sebright area. His family returned to Sebright and then to Orillia in the mid-1940s. He first put on a military uniform as an Army Cadet at Orillia Central school in 1944. He continued his keen interest in the Army Cadets throughout high school at Orillia Collegiate and was appointed commanding officer of the corps in his Grade 12 year.
During those years, Baker enlisted as a gunner in the local reserve battery of the 45th Anti-Tank Regiment (Grey and Simcoe Foresters). In the summer of 1950, he was sent to Camp Shilo for officer training with a view to attending the Royal Military College that fall. That was the road not taken.
Instead, when the Korean War broke out, the young officer cadets were given the opportunity to volunteer for active service and receive a reserve commission. Some of the cadets chose to do so and their training intensified until November. They became members of the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and were sent by troop train on their way to the West Coast for embarkation.
Their baptism of fire came early on the morning of Nov. 2, when their troop train collided head on with an oncoming passenger train in an isolated area near the Canoe River in B.C.
In an instant, the young men were faced with the task of putting into practice all the leadership training and skills they had just acquired. In the chaos of escaping steam, shifting wreckage and the ever-present risk of fire, the rescue efforts, finding survivors and caring for the injured, fell to those who were there, some of whom had never seen a dead person.
Seventeen soldiers and four train crew lost their lives in that incident.
After just a few days in Alberta to regroup, the troops boarded another train to continue the journey west for further training in Washington State and eventually to the port in Seattle. There they embarked on a troop ship for a rather nasty non-stop crossing of a very stormy Pacific, straight to Busan, South Korea, and then into the war zone.
The tour lasted one year, after which Baker returned to Canada to be trained as an artillery observation pilot. He pursued his career as an artillery officer, moving often with his family back and forth across Canada and several times to Europe. His career involved command postings at every level interspersed with military studies and administrative positions.
He achieved the rank of major general and, in 1981, was awarded the CMM (Commander of the Order of Military Merit) which is the military counterpart of the Order of Canada. His final posting was to Rome. Italy, as deputy commandant of the NATO Defence College. He retired to Ramara in 1988.
Old soldiers are reluctant to speak of their wartime experiences. They saw their duty and they did it, no thanks expected.
However, a word of appreciation is an unexpected pleasure. Over the recent past, there have been a few of these unexpected moments. The first was when a young woman representing Veterans Affairs Canada came to the Baker home to explain about the new benefits and plans for veterans. She began her remarks with an expression of “sincere thanks for your service to the country.”
Soon after that, a new family moved in down the street. One day, when the general was out walking, the young man approached and said, ”I understand that you are a veteran.”
“Yes, that’s correct,” was the reply. The young fellow snapped a smart salute and said, “I’d like to say thank you for all that you veterans have done for the rest of us.”
An even more touching event happened when granddaughter Becky went to Korea to visit a friend she had met at university. The girl took Becky to meet her grandmother, who had lost her husband in the war. The old lady made an impassioned speech asking Becky to be sure to tell her grandfather how much it meant to the Korean people that the Canadians had come to help them in their troubles.
Now, the Korean President has made it his business to obtain the current addresses of surviving Korea veterans in order to pay tribute to the Canadian veterans for their courage and commitment.
He refers to them as “our true heroes.”
He refers to them as “our true heroes.”
Every year in November, the poppies remind the rest of us, “Lest we forget.”
The veterans can never forget.
This article was originally published in the November/December 2010 issue of the Ramara Chronicle.
