SHOW OF RESPECT
Korean War vet at peace knowing future services will be held at Truro memorial
Veteran Curtis Faulkner says a huge weight was lifted o his shoulders after learning the Truro legion will be holding Armistice Day services at the Korean War memorial.
TRURO, N.S. – Curtis Faulkner listens intently as his visitor speaks. Then he breaks into a wide-faced smile.
“Oh my God, I’m glad to hear that,” the 88-year-old veteran says. “That made my week, made my year.”
Sitting in a wheelchair in his nursing home room, Faulkner’s face displays the emotions running through his mind after hearing the news he has waited on for so long.
“That takes such a weight off of me,” he says, with watering eyes.
A few days earlier Faulkner had contacted a reporter to complain that another Remembrance Day had come and gone and, yet again, no respect was paid to the Korean War memorial at the entrance to Victoria Park.
Faulkner had sat on the sidelines for too long and watched as the efforts of Korean War veterans such as himself appeared to be forgotten or overshadowed by the deeds of veterans from other wars.
For years, Faulkner and fellow veteran Jim Matheson, who has since died, campaigned to have Korean War vets recognized by having their names added to the Truro cenotaph.
Eventually the Town of Truro agreed to pay for a monument honouring the Korean War vets and on July 27, 2015, a memorial stone bearing the names of local soldiers killed during the campaign was unveiled. That date coincides with Korean War Veterans Day.
Faulkner served in Korea between 1951 and 1952 with the Royal Canadian Engineers 23rd Field Squadron. He made it through physically unscathed, unlike his his boyhood friend and fellow Truro eastender, Leslie Fielding, who died during the battle of Kapyong in 1951.
He said his buddy was actually killed by friendly fire when they sent out a command to have artillery aimed at their location to take out the oncoming Chinese enemy.
“These boys decided among themselves to bring that artillery in. They called it in on themselves,” Faulkner said. “Their officer had a major decision to make … to make the decision, ‘I am going to die.’”
His long fight to have the Korean War soldiers recognized was in large part so that Fielding and the others who paid the ultimate sacrifice would not be forgotten.
“I don’t forget him. I played with him, I swam with him I did everything with him,” Faulkner said.
Though pleased when the memorial was unveiled, Faulkner became incensed when he recently visited the site and discovered it had not been included in the Remembrance Day ceremonies; further, it did not have even a single wreath laid at its base.
“They have never acknowledged my stone since the first time,” Faulkner said. “It bothers me like hell to see them ignore that memorial.”
The news that so brightened his day on a reporter’s latest visit to his room, however, is that the memorial will not be neglected in future years, according to Truro legion president Grant O’laney.
“From now on, we are going to do a full turnout,” he said. “We are doing a full ceremony on that anniversary.”
O’laney said when it was brought to the legion’s attention the day after the Remembrance Day ceremonies that the Korean War memorial had been neglected, a number of the members went to the site and placed poppies there. As well, a wreath in memory of the soldiers who died in Korea had been placed at the Truro cenotaph on Remembrance Day.
“Before it was a dead situation, nobody remembered,” Faulkner said. “Now, it’s going to be remembered. Those boys did not die for nothing.”