Dear Korea veterans, Families and Supporters,
June 25 this year marks the 71st Anniversary of the 1950 Korean War Outbreak.
Korean Society of Gold Coast, Association of QLD Korea Veterans and The Surfers Paradise RSL sub branch are getting together again as in 2019 for the July 27 Korea Veterans Day Service and Peace Celebration Lunch at the Cascade Gardens.
I hope all Korean War veterans are well and looking forward to the event which is on a Tuesday. Students will be in School but we would like to see young children and young adults accompanying you and your carer.
Kindest regards,
Yang Kim
Secretary, AQKV (Association of QLD Korea Veterans)
[email protected]
The Korean War is known as a Forgotten War. But it has never been forgotten by the Korean elders and the Korea Veterans nor by US President Biden.
Last Friday President Joe Biden presented a Korean War Veteran Col. Puckett with America’s highest military award, the Medal of Honour.
Biden said that 94 year old veteran’s initial reaction to receiving the Medal of Honor was to ask, “Why all the fuss? Can’t they just mail it to me?”
“Col. Puckett, after 70 years rather than mail it to you I would have walked it to you,” Biden said.
Eventually the old Korean War Veteran attended the ceremony room at the White House in a wheelchair with a walker nearby.
The retired Army Colonel pushed his walker aside, stood at full attention as the president was awarding the medal for the first time of his presidency.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in was at the ceremony to watch.
English Korean news reported:
Biden’s decision to honour him in person, in front of the South Korean president, was viewed as demonstrating the importance of the Alliance born seven decades ago.
Biden said the Alliance sprang from the courage, determination and sacrifice of Korean troops fighting shoulder to shoulder with Americans.
“Having you here today is an important recognition of all that our nation has achieved together, both of them,” he told Moon at the outset of the ceremony held just ahead of their summit talks.
Moon replied he was honoured to become the first foreign leader to attend the US government’s ceremony of its kind to award the highest military decoration.
Without the sacrifice of Puckett and other Korean War veterans, he said, South Korea couldn’t have risen from the ashes of the war to have freedom and democracy.
Korean people saw the “great spirit of America” marching toward peace and freedom through the American soldiers and “their act of gallantry, sacrifice and friendship will forever be remembered,” he said.
Ending the ceremony, Moon and Biden took a commemorate photo with Puckett and his family. The leaders knelt next to the veteran, who was sitting on a chair, in an apparent show of respect for him.
