Korean War vets remember the impact on children

Don Mulholland, left, and Romeo Daley are both veterans of the Korean War. They attended the Tillsonburg Military History Club dinner with author Ted Barris talking about his book on the conflict. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

Two Korean War vets recalling their days overseas, both talked about the impact the conflict had on that country’s children.

Taking place from 1950 to 1953, the Korean War started when the North Korean forces invaded South Korea. The United Nations backed South Korea with a contingent of forces from Canada, the United States, and 21 other countries.

Local Korean War veteran Don Mulholland said the worst part of the conflict was seeing the small children trying to gather food and feed themselves.

“To see those kids, how rough it was for them, it was pathetic,” he said.

Fort Erie’s Romeo Daley described a similar experience, saying barbed wire had to be put around the area where soldiers ate because the children would take food. He said they gave the children whatever leftover food they had. Daley was in town for a presentation by Ted Barris on his book on the war on Oct. 16.

Noted Canadian author speaks on Korea

Canadian military author Ted Barris, author of Deadlock in Korea: Canadians at War 1950-53, spoke at the Tillsonburg Military History Club’s annual fall dinner, where Don Mulholland and Romeo Daley were guests.

He provided background on the conflict, describing some of the battles, including one where a Canadian destroyer, the HMCS Cayuga, rescued thousands of American fighters backed into a corner by the ocean.

Barris talked of some of the atrocities at the Prisoner of War camps, and that the camps weren’t identified as required under the Geneva Convention. As a result, the camps were sometimes bombed and strafed with bullets by their own planes.

Prisoners were also indoctrinated and questioned beyond what was allowed under the convention. Barris said returning POWs after the war were assessed by military intelligence, and even though some may have resisted torture to say anything, they were not given a passing grade for being patriotic. They also were never apologized to.

Barris touched on the 4077 MASH, which actually was a military facility in Korea and was the subject of the television show MASH.

“Although episodes were what military medicine looked like in the Korean War, it was satirical about the US involvement in Vietnam,” he said.

“At 19 years old, I’d never seen anybody so poor, so bad,” he said. “There were children with no clothing, no food, and only eight to 10 years olds, looking after their younger siblings because their parents were dead.”

He recounted one incident in which a child was repeatedly given a can of rations and kept coming back. He followed him and found he was taking it back and sharing with 10 others. After knocking the can open with a rock, it was passed around amongst the children, with each putting two fingers in, taking some food and then licking it off before moving it on.

His regiment, the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, started an orphanage in the country after the war.

Mulholland, who many may know for his time as the manager of the local LCBO outlet, grew up in Lynden, and joined the Royal Canadian Regiment in London in November 1950.

“I thought it would be exciting, and it was,” he said, explaining why he joined.

He was assigned to the Second Battalion RCR, and sent to Fort Lewis, WA, to train as reinforcements for the troops there. Mulholland was then sent to Wainright, AB, and was one of the members of the Second Battalion pulled out to form the Third Battalion, whose purpose was to train newly enlisted men in Petawawa.

Mulholland wanted to be where the action was, and be with the guys he trained with. He was told the quickest way there was with the Canadian Pay Corps, which pays the soldiers.

He was sent to Korea with the pay corps and traveled with the battalion to pay them, but he was never on the front lines. He then spent the second half of his time in Korea in the infantry and “rode shotgun” in a military vehicle.

“They told us to take this guy, drop him off somewhere up towards the line,” he said. “Then we do that again with someone else.”

Although his passengers were typically dropped off behind the front lines, some situations were still scary. He recalled one where they saw enemy vehicles approaching. They pulled over and hid behind bushes until it was safe to come out.

Daley grew up in northern Ontario, near Timmins, and was 18 when the Korean War started. He wanted to join the air force, but couldn’t because he was colour blind. His second choice was a paratrooper, and he was assigned to the Princess Patricia unit.

He was on patrol in Korea with the rank of lieutenant, and his sergeant was killed in action. After he returned, he was promoted to Bren gun operator and corporal.

He said women were often killed and raped during the conflict.

“Unless you’ve been there, you have no idea what it’s like, and the women and children suffer the worst,” he said.

After the war, Daley stayed in six years and took jump training. After the war, he heard of a job at Canada Customs and moved to Fort Erie.

In civilian life, Daley joined the movement to raise awareness of the war. Korea is often called the ‘Forgotten War’ as it is lost in the shadows of the First and Second World Wars. Some governments also resisted calling it a war because the soldiers were fighting for the UN. Daley believes it was because the US didn’t want to pay Korean veterans benefits, but it took until 1992 for Canada to call the conflict a war.

“It’s not Canada’s forgotten war, it’s forgotten victories,” he said. “Every battle we were in, we lost soldiers but never lost a battle.”