Veteran revisits ghosts of old mates

During the Battle of Kapyong the New Zealand troops fired 10,000 rounds at targets just a few hundred metres away. File Picture

Korean War veteran Don Gorn has returned to Korea for the first time in more than 50 years to fulfil a promise he made in the name of two good friends left behind.

Mr Gorn, 74, and his wife, Joy, who live in Ashburton, are among a group of 30 New Zealanders, including veterans and their families, who have travelled to Korea for the 55th anniversary of the Battle of Kapyong.

On Saturday they held ceremonies at three major sites, together with Korean, British, US, Canadian and Australian comrades with whom they fought side by side, and representatives of all their Governments, including Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright.

Mr Gorn said that for many years he "couldn't even talk about what happened that day" - when two of his friends were killed within hours of each other - let alone think about coming back.

This trip is the first time he has set foot on the Korean Peninsula since he finished his two-year tour of duty .

"Yesterday I saw Hill 210 where these two mates of mine were killed on one day," he said.

"I was there with them when they died, and I made a promise that I would come back one day and say 'Gidday'."

Signaller John McCray was just 23 when he was killed. Signal Sergeant Reg Reid, 27, had been due to go home in 48 hours.

Twice in recent years Mr Gorn put his name down for a trip with the RSA, but both times he was forced to withdraw because of illness. However, after open heart surgery 15 months ago, he decided there was no point in putting it off. "I figured better late than never."

He was a raw 21-year-old with three months' training when he arrived in Korea in January 1951.

"We landed in Japan at 7am, arrived in Seoul at 7pm that night, and by 7am the next day I was at the front line."

He remembered Seoul as "an absolute mess - the only solid building standing was an American PX store. The rest had been levelled. People were scrounging around for cardboard boxes or anything else they could use for shelter."

He said returning to the old battlefields on Friday during a trip to the "demilitarised zone" (the border between South Korea and the totalitarian communist regime of North Korea), was an eerie but intense experience.

The hills around Busan were full of memories for him.

"It was so strange - I knew those hills so well, every gully ... I don't mind telling you, I got quite choked up."


Battle key to war's outcome

The Battle of Kapyong (April 22-25, 1951) was one of the decisive fights of the Korean War.

The 16th New Zealand field regiment provided support to the units of the 27th Commonwealth Brigade and six Republic of South Korea divisions.

Near where the New Zealand and Australian memorials now stand, the New Zealanders fired 10,000 rounds at targets just a few hundred metres away.

If Kapyong had been lost, it would have been a short march to Seoul for the Chinese and North Korean forces.

At the memorial sites yesterday, Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright paid tribute to the veterans and the Korean people, who embodied courage, responsibility, duty to the country and "dogged determination to do the very best one can through the most testing and frightening of trials".

"The precious gifts of freedom and democracy for which you fought are flourishing as never before in this land," she said. "We must also recognise the unfinished business of the Korean War - reaching new and lasting accommodations with North Korea, which will bring stability ... and open the way for the North to develop its society and economy."

Despite a 1953 armistice, the war is not officially over.

- NZPA