Ed Korean War Veteran Elaine

[On the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps in Korea] Once we got over there, they chose 125 of us and created what they called the 1st Brigade Ammunition. There was 125 guys and we took shifts, shift that they had 40 trucks, big trucks and jeeps and so on, and we just transported supplies to the guys up front, supplies, ammunition, ammunition mostly. And also like food and so on. And when we weren’t doing that, we were setting up field hospitals and first aid posts, field kitchens and working with REME [RCEME, The Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineering] quite a lot because […] if we had anything to repair or anything that needed like engineering done, these fellows were right there to help us, to do all that stuff. We had to, Intelligence Corps, we had to be in touch with them all the time, so we got maps from them and giving routes to take, certain routes for certain hills, wherever the guys were. And sometimes they, for some reason or other or just coincidence, they happened to spot us and they start firing mortars at us. And we never got too many heavy shells but mostly mortars. But if one of those mortars ever hit the right place in one of those trucks, all there’d be is just a hole in the road. So anyway, we managed to get by okay. We did okay, none of us ever got hit so I got some shrapnel in my stomach because before they formed the 1st Ammunition Brigade, there was seven of us that went out on a patrol one day and they wanted us to try and capture a couple of North Koreans, bring them back for forensic interrogation. But the Intelligence Corps gave us a map and there were a bunch of North Koreans there. But they didn’t tell us that the area was mined. And I don’t think they knew either. But see, what the North Koreans used to do is mine that at night, so nobody knew it was being mined. And so anyway, I was the third man, we was walking single file, about 20 feet, 25 feet apart and I was the third man back from the front, there was two in front of me. The first guy, he went on, the guy in front of me, he stopped for some reason, turned around to speak to me I guess and just then I heard two clicks, click click. And he had stepped on a mine. And of course, it’s okay if you stay there but as soon as you take your foot off, it blew. Well, unfortunately, I was close enough to him, I got some shrapnel in my stomach and it’s okay, there was no damage, it didn’t go far enough in to do any damage. And the fellow that stepped on the mine, I mean, well, we picked him up in four pieces, so he was in a body bag. It was unfortunate but that’s the way things go. And things like that. And what used to break me up too sometimes is we’d get to a certain area where they had been maybe the day before or that night, see, they used to attack at night a lot, the North Koreans, and there’d be quite a few guys killed, like our guys. And they had them laid out, had the guys laid out, so had to get those guys in the body bag and bring them. And on our way back, we were coming back to headquarters anyway, so we brought back those fellows that had been killed the day before or the night before. And thing that, this used to really get me. I honestly believe that the [Royal Canadian] Army Service Corps was sort of, I always said that, right from the beginning, even when I was in the militia, and that the Army Service Corps and I had, I talked to a lot of Second World War guys that were in the Second World War, that were in the Service Corps, and they said that the Service Corps was never, there was never any publicity sort of thing about that, they were always admiring and then talking about and then writing about the … Don’t get me wrong now, because every one of those units were great units, every one of them. And they were great, great fighters, all of them, like the VanDoos and the Royal 22nd [Royal 22e Régiment, also nicknamed Vandoos] and the Patricias [Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry], and all these guys, they were great great infantrymen, they were great great fighters. But the Service Corps, for some reason, we always seemed to be in the background. [Mr. Elaine reading a letter sent to him by the Republic of South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak] Dear Edward J. Elaine, this year, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of outbreak of the Korean War. We honour your selfless sacrifice in fighting tyranny and aggression. We salute your courage, enduring the unimaginable horrors of war. We pay tribute to your commitment in protecting liberty and freedom. We Koreans made a promise to build a strong and prosperous country that upholds peace and freedom, so that the sacrifice that you made would not be made in vain. We have faithfully kept that promise. Korea today is a vibrant, democracy with a robust economy and we are actively promoting peace and stability around the world. Korea transformed itself from a country of receive aid to one that provides aid to others. We are proud of what we have managed to accomplish and we wish to dedicate this achievement to you. The Korean government has been in inviting Korean War veterans every year as part of its Revisit Korea program since 1975. This year, we will be inviting 2,400 Korean War veterans and their families. We Koreans and myself in particular look forward to welcoming you. We hope that you will see what you made possible and hope that the families will feel renewed pride in what you did for us many years ago. Please accept once again our warmest gratitude and deepest respect. You will always remain our true heroes and we assure you that we will continue to do our best to make you proud. On behalf of the Korean people, I would like to say thank you. Sincerely yours, Lee Myung-bak, President, Republic of Korea.