27/07/2026
Korean Veterans Day
73 years ago, at 2200 hours on the 27th of July, the armastice effectively ending the Korean War came into effect.
For 3 years, a month and two days, the scourge of war had wreacked its havoc up and down the Korean peninsula. Millions of Koreans were dead, as were hundreds of thousands of Chinese volunteers supporting the North, and tens of thousands of UN troops supporting the South.
Tomorrow morning, all along the the main line of resistance, groups of UN troops will observe and even mingle with their Communist Chinese and North Korean counterparts in no mans land, a place where only a day before, any unknown movement was met with a barrage of mortar fire, or the burst of an emplaced machine gun.
In the coming days both sides will strip the frontlines of anything militarily valueable and move back two kilometers each, to form the 4 four kilometer wide and 250 kilometer long 'Demilitarised Zone'. Prisoners of War and war dead will be exchanged. Peace it seems, is finally in Korea.
Many people believe this is where the Australian story of involvement in Korea ends, but they are wrong. The Along elements of the RAAF and RAN - 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment still man the DMZ and remain in-country on rotation until as late as mid 1956, effectively our nations first peacekeepers.
To the over 17 000 Australians involved in the conflict, and the close to 2000 killed and seriously wounded, your sacrafice is not forgotten, and you will be remembered.
Attached Photograph - AWM MELJ0315
Funeral of 3484 Captain (Capt) Garth George Jarman, of A Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) at the United Nations (UN) Military Cemetery at Pusan, Korea. Capt Jarman died of illness on 27 July 1954 while serving with 3RAR in Korea. An Australian bugler plays the Last Post.
