By SIMON COLLINS
It's taken 50 years, but the unveiling of a lump of Korean rock at Devonport next month will finally help to give New Zealand's Korean War veterans greater recognition within their own country.
About 6100 New Zealanders served in the war, which broke out when North Korea invaded the South on June 25, 1950. Thirty-nine Kiwis died and 81 were injured.
But unlike other war veterans, not to mention sporting heroes, most of those who served in Korea have never been welcomed home officially.
George Moffat, who was in the first contingent of NZ soldiers in 1950, came home with 25 others on a seaplane to Mechanics Bay in Auckland.
"A Navy officer met us there and said, 'The Government is proud of you,' got in his car and went. They gave us 10 pounds," Mr Moffat said. "We just felt deflated."
Wally Wyatt left Korea with an Australian battalion in 1954.
He marched through Brisbane with the Australians and the whole battalion was given the freedom of the city.
"From there we separated, some going by plane to New Zealand and others to Sydney and on to New Zealand, but we never got one thing [in New Zealand].
"It wouldn't have been hard to arrange something if they wanted."
Naval veteran Sandy Herlihy says Korea "has become the forgotten war because it happened so quickly after the Second World War."
And "Korea - the forgotten war" has now been inscribed on the plaque that Korean veterans, the Navy and North Shore City have placed next to a 225kg rock at the Queens Parade entrance to the Devonport naval base.
It's one of two rocks gifted to New Zealand from the city of Pusan, where New Zealand troops landed in 1950, and carried here without charge on a Korean fishing boat. The other rock has gone to Wellington.
The Devonport rock will be unveiled in a public ceremony at 9.30 am on Monday, July 3, 50 years to the day after the vessels Pukaki and Tutira left for Korea.
Salute for Korean War vets from lump of rock
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