Monday, April 23, 2001

By Franklin Fisher, Taegu bureau chief

Jose A. Martinez / Special to Stripes From left, Lt. Cmdr. Eddie L. Seaton, Sr., liaison officer for the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission, Yongsan, South Korea; Army Spc. Matthew P. Dusunbury, Army MVP Battalion; and Army Staff Sgt. Kevin E. Talley, 4th Quartermaster Detachment, South Korea, pay their respects to fallen soldiers of the Korean War at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery at Pusan on Friday.

PUSAN, South Korea — On a windswept knoll above the graves of the Korean War dead, veterans, war widows, generals and ambassadors held a solemn memorial Friday at the United Nations Cemetery here. It was a day of dirges, old memories, and tears.

With a U.S. Army band playing "Faith of Our Fathers," delegates from more than 20 nations laid wreaths in tribute to all who served under the U.N. coalition that sent troops to Korea.

The morning ceremony was followed in the afternoon by a second wreath-laying devoted to troops from the British Commonwealth who served in the war. Britain’s Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, addressed the Commonwealth ceremony clad in naval uniform, and conveyed a message from Queen Elizabeth that their service in the war "is proudly honored today."

About 2,300 are buried at the 36-acre cemetery, most of them from Commonwealth nations — Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The war erupted in June 1950 when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea and ended in 1953 with an uneasy armistice.

In the hours between the two ceremonies and for some time after, some Koreans, a few Americans, but mostly scores from the Commonwealth countries roamed quietly among the green grass and gray headstones of the gently sloped burial area.

Enid Ramos-Mandell / Special to Stripes General Thomas A. Schwartz, commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, shakes hands  with a Korean War veteran Friday.

In one place, veterans talked about friends they’d lost in the war. In another spot, a lone figure stood in front of a headstone and looked off in the distance. Elsewhere were Korean widows in white traditional clothing.

Gen. Thomas A. Schwartz, commander in chief of the U.N. Command, hosted the morning ceremony, and introduced its main speaker, retired British General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley. Farrar-Hockley, 76, is the senior surviving British Army officer to have served in the Korean War. Farrar-Hockley escaped from the North Koreans and Chinese on six occasions.

Farrar-Hockley paid tribute to the courage of ordinary Koreans who supported the U.N. forces during the war.

"A modest, instinctive form of valor was manifest within the civil population during the war," he said. "One old couple gave me food and shelter when I was an escapee in North Korea, running for the west coast. I was recaptured. I fear they lost their lives, the penalty for their compassion. I remember them on such days."

Among veterans in the audience was Peter Wiren, 75, of Hamilton, New Zealand, who served as an artilleryman near Panmunjom. Now a retired real estate agent, Wiren was 25 when he arrived in Korea.

"We have soldiers buried here," he said. "Coming here is a commemoration, a pilgrimage."

He and others of his former unit were planning a series of visits to some places where they fought. Wiren echoed the comments of other veterans Friday who said they were struck by how far Korea has progressed from the war-devastated country they remembered.

"Pusan was an ammunition dump," said Wiren, looking out toward the horizon where high-rise apartment complexes stand. "And now it’s absolutely amazing to see the high-rises and all the progress they’ve made during the last 50 years."

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