HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-11-02, Page 3Trip to Kor•a
Armistice Day this year
will hold special significance
for 17 -year-old John Nesbit,
RR 1 Hensel!.
The SHDHS student was
one of five young Canadians
chosen by the department of
verterans affairs through the
Terry Fox Canadian Youth
Centre to accompany a group
of Korean war veterans oe a
pilgrimage to battlefields in
an undeclared war that took
over 21,000 Canadian soldiers
to a little country half way
around the world and before
the three-year UN "peace ac-
tion" ended 30 years ago,
i
ellease
giutnOmt
1 would like to thank all my
customers and friends for their
support' over the past 26 years
while 1 was the manager at
McKerlie-Millen, Exeter.
Snncerr y
Ward Jura/alb
Kelps youth understand Remembrance Day
1,549 Canadians had been
wounded oc killed.
The group's main purpose
was visiting the cemeteries
containing the graves of more
than 500 Canadians who never
left Korea.
The trip was especially
meaningful for John. The on-
ly one of the five teenagers
with any close military con-
nection, he walked on ground
where his father . ad fought
three decades ago as a pla-
toon commander with the
Royal 22 Regiment, the
famous Van Doos.
The 70 -member delegation
headed by deputy minister of
veterans affairs W.B. Brittain
included two chaplains with
the rank of Brigadier
General, and 55 men who had
fought in Korea.
All left Vancouver on Oc-
tober 12 and spent three days
in Tokyo, before arriving in
Seoul on Sunday, October 16.
After a hectic, eventfilled
five days the group flew back
to Tokyo on Friday, and left
for Vancouver and home the
following day.
The Nesbits were still living
in Edmonton when John was
informed he had been chosen
for the commemorative trip.
The department of veterans
affairs had asked the Terry
Fox Canadian Youth Centre
in Ottawa for a list of names,
and John's was among those
submitted. The outgoing , ar-
ticulate teenager had already
made his mark at the residen-
tial centre where 136 students
per week between the ages of
16 and 18 participate in the bil-
ingual educational and
cultural program offered at
the Centre.
A project of the Council for
Canadian Unity, the Youth
Centre is a tribute to Terry
Fox, whose courage and
determination have inspired
Canadians across the entire
nation. its primary aim is to
offer young Canadians from
all parts of the country an ex-
ceptional opportunity to
become acquainted with the
views and ideas of other
Canadians of the same age,
and thus help build Canada's
future on a solid basis of
mutual respect and
confidence.
The Royal Canadian
Legion's wedding gift to
Prince Charles and his bride
was a 1250,000 cheque which
was used to furnish the Cen-
tre. The Prince and Princess
of Wales dropped in to the
Terry FOx Centre while tour-
ing Canada in June, and John
Nesbit was one of two TFCYC
graduates chosen to make
brief explanatory speeches
as part of the program for the
royal couple.
(The Nesbits moved to their
new home north of Exeter in
June, after Jim Nesbit ac-
cepted the position of general
manager at Agri -Press in
Hensall. )
John is still sorting and sif-
ting the myriad kaleidoscopic
impressions gathered in Oc-
tober during the ,most
memorable 10 -day period of
his life.
The highlight of the
pilgrimage came for John at
thehalf-way point, at a recep-
tion and dinner hosted by
retired General Chong-Hwan
Kim, president of the Korean
Veterans Association. John
stood proudly shoulder to
shoulder with the former
soldiers to be presented with
a medal of membership in the
Korean Veterans Association
for his father. (He wanted to
surprise his dad, but the Lon-
don Free Press carried a
story about the presentation a
day before John got home.)
Another vignette is very
vivid in John's mind. he ac -
Morley Obre
McKee -lie -Millen would like to an-
ndunce as of Nov. 1, 1983 Morley due -
will be the new manager. Morley has
been Ward's Assistant for the past eight
years.
We hope you will continue to support
McKerlie-Millen and its new manager.
SPECIAL MEDAL Jim Nesbit and son John admire
the Korean War Veterans medal John received on a
pilgrimage to Korea and brought home to his father.
piper K. Fraser of
on a search among
the markers In the UN
Memorial Caney at
Pusan. John says he will
never forget the look on the
veteran's face as Fraser gaz-
ed mutely down at the grave
of his former buddy. He con-
cedes his own eyes filled with
unbidden tears.
Performing a quick mental
calculation, John figured out
the young man had been 18
when he died. John will be 18
in two weeks.
Identical rituals took place
at the UN and the Korean Na-
tional Cemetery in Seoul.
Amazing Grace was played
on the bagpipes, followed by
a short ceremony, prayers,
the trumpeting of The Last
Post, silence, reveille, the lay-
ing of wreaths, a piped la-
ment, and a final blessing.
The Canadians were taken
to the Military Armistice
Commission building (MAC)
at Panmunjom where the
cease-fire was signed in 1955,
ending the physical fighting.
The psychological warfare
has never stopped.
John noted that the North
Korean flag was taller, and its
opposite number wider.
The room is divided in two,
A step over the centre line
takes one into North Korea,
under the steely eye of a ful-
ly armed North Korean
soldier. All American soldiers
representing the other side
must be at least six feet tall
and weigh no less than 170
pounds.
Outside, John could see
across the boundary to the
North Korean guns and
cameras trained on the
visitors. The group was
escorted to the place in the
demilitarized zone where
American soldiers pruning a
tree on their side of the line
were attacked and beaten to
death by North Koreans.
Asked if he remembered
his reaction at the time John
replied, "It made me feel
grown up. I was in the real
world - this was not a TV show
•41 1 4
Bank
Continued from front page
more convenient for the
Bank," he said, "the arrange-
ment we have developed pro-
vides for far greater conve-
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customer, allowing him to re-
tain, as it were, the best of
both worlds.
Introduction of the new
CBU's and the setting up of
existing branches, as
specialized "retail" banking
centres began in Ontario ear-
ly this year and will be com-
pleted across Canada by the
fall of 1984.
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According to John, Seoul is
a , city of contrasts. Shiny
hotels and stores front dirty
laneways. An air of
militarism permeates the at-
mosphere. Soldiers
everywhere, armed guards
on every bridge, false tank
traps and other ac-
coutrements of military train-
ing are common sights.
The Republic of Korea has
good reason for constant
vigilance, their attitude
justifiably reinforced by the
recent downing of one of their
airliners, and the bomb blast
that killed 16 high-ranking
ROK officials in Burma just
before the Canadians' arrival.
The Canadians were also
shown one of the tunnels
revealed by a North Korean
defector in 1974 large enough
to allow an army of fully
equipped solders to march
secretly three abreast from
the north into the south. The
South Koreans have found
three of these tunnels. A
reputed seven more are as yet
undetected.
John's adventures reopen-
ed a long -closed chapter in his
father's life. Jim Nesbit
recalled this same tactic be-
ing used 30 years ago, and the
difficulty of pinpointing
enemy positions in the hills
when guns were wheeled out
of a tunnel, fired for a few
minutes and then withdrawn
Exeter PUC
Continued from front page
A water main break beside
the hospital last week spoiled
the commission's, perfect
record for the year.
The Commission approved
a motion to invest some of the
working capital funds in
Canada Savings Bonds at 91/4
percent interest. They also
approved expenditures of
$3,890 for service work on one
of the trucks. Davis said the
vehicle, purchased in 1978,
should last another 10 or 15
years if looked after properly.
Davis has ascertained that
only one welding unit would
be available this winter to
thaw frozen pipes, and it is
situated in Woodham. He
reminded the commission the
Exeter PUC could build its
own from a transformer for a
cost of $3,000. The matter will
be discussed further at the
next meeting on November
28.
again behind a camouflaged
entrance.
"Korea is an experience I'll
never forget", Jim reminisc-
ed. "1 wouldn't want to repeat
It, but one grew up very
quickly. Now 1 remember the
good times, and don't
elaborate on the bad. To think
that 30 years later my son
visited the places where my
brigade fought makes me
very nostalgic."
For John Nesbit, the
Korean trip fulfilled the Terry
Fox Centre's goal of
establishing rapport among
youthful Canadians. An add-
ed bonus was the deeper in-
sight John obtained into what
had helped to shape his
father's generation He realiz-
ed too that no man is an
island, that events taking
,place in one corner of this
planet can have an impact
thousands of miles away.
Lest we forget.
November 2,
Page 3
On location of Studio
Bart DeV ries
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