1953 3 RCR Leo Joseph.

[Mike Blais CD]

I went over to Korea when I was eighteen years old. I got there when I was nineteen years old. I was with the Baker Company, 3rd Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, and we stayed there for one year. We left Seattle on the 1st of March and we got to Yokohama, Japan, around the 21st of March. We had a twenty-four hour pass in Yokohama, Japan, to get cleaned up, and then the next morning we left on small ships to go over to Korea. From there we mounted the trains as far as we could north with the rail heads, and then from there we mounted our vehicles and went up near where the front lines were, into our company position.



I remained there with the 3rd Battalion until they had the ceasefire on the 27th of July 1953, and then we became peacekeepers after that. What we did mostly from then on, we were just in the defensive positions and did patrolling at night. After the ceasefire we built what they call the 'demarcation line'. We put up constantine's of wire. I worked on the one that was called the Kansas Line. After the demarcation lines were built up between us and the enemy lines they mounted outposts, and we used to go and man the outposts at night, and stay there all night long for observation. After the ceasefire we lived in tents for the remainder of the time. We did mostly training to keep us occupied until the time we came home, which was in the end of March or the 1st of April 1954.




When we came home there was nobody to greet us at all. We got off the ship, they put us on a train, gave us our passes and sixty days' leave, and that was the end of that. As it was, nowadays you see somebody come home from somewhere and everyone is there to greet them – the Governor General, the Prime Minister. When we came home from Korea there was nobody there to greet us at all. I guess that's why they call in The Forgotten War, but now they're starting to give us recognition. When I came back from Korea we had two medals: the United Nations and the Korean Medal. After that we got the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, we got the Peacekeeping Medal, and that took us some twenty years to get after the Korean War. But they're beginning to recognize us veterans more and more as time goes by.


http://www.thememoryproject.com/digital-archive/profile.cfm?collectionid=381&cnf=kw

[rong]

Thanks much to Mike , and Leo for putting this up.. its so dang important that you Vets get your words heard..this is a great chance.. Yes , Canadas Forgotten War.. i think myself, it became forgotteb right from the beginning, and stems in part for not long after the Second Great War, or WW2, and people just did not want to think, or know that it was happening again.. most back then kept it hush hus back in Canada, and that is the only reason i can figure why... as a result a lot of Canadian Heros became forgotten along with the war.. now , as you say Leo, people are realizing that it happened, it was a terrible war , and a lot of good Canadian boys gave their all in it, to preserve peace and  help a people being deprived of their basic rights...it is no longer the Forgotten War, but we all need you vets , who were there to get your recollections told and kept for all time.. rong

[eileen]

Mr. Joseph, you must have known my father, Eric Barton Howard, he was in the 3rd battalion RCR in Korea. He was injured on hill 187 on may 29th 1953, got his index finger blown off, do you know anything about that day, they keep saying the battle on 187 was may 2 and 3rd but nothing about May 29th. WEre you with him that day? and can you tell me anything about what happened to him.  My mom says he was never the same man again after korea.