Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 11/05) - It is often referred to by historians as the war that was never declared and never won.

Member of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Marcel Lacerte served in the Korean War in 1951. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

Yet what began on June 6, 1950 when North Korean troops crossed the provisional dividing line established at the end of the Second World War to separate the American-controlled South Korea and the Soviet-controlled North, exploded into a three-year conflict that provided the first real test of the United Nations' authority and claimed more than two million lives.

To this day, a tenuous cease-fire exists between North and South Korea with 37,000 American troops still stationed along what is known as the DMZ.

More than 26,000 Canadians served in Korea and Inuvik resident Marcel Lacerte was one of them, completing a tour of duty there in 1951 with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI).

"I wanted to see what it was like to go to war, to experience combat," said the 73-year-old over coffee at the McInnes Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Inuvik.

"As soon as they started to assemble a special force to go over there I was in like a dirty shirt." Sworn into service with the PPCLI in 1950, Lacerte was forced to wait a year until he turned 18.

During that time, Lacerte continued his training with the unit's first battalion, which in October 1951 would set sail to Korea via Seattle and Yokohama to relieve the second battalion.

"First we were fighting North Koreans and after a while the Communist Chinese," Lacerte recalled. "We were over there to fight and tried like hell not to get killed and shot at anything that wasnOt ours."

By the time Lacerte's battalion got into the war, much had already happened. North Korean forces - backed by the Soviet Union and much of its force comprised of Chinese Red Army troops - captured Seoul and nearly drove American troops stationed there along with South Korean forces into the sea.

In September 1950, General Douglas MacArthur led a landing at Inchon, recaptured Seoul and battled back, urging then U.S. President Harry Truman to take the war to China as well. MacArthur was eventually relieved of command.

Besides Canada and the U.S., forces from Britain, Australia, Turkey, Netherlands, Thailand, France, Greece, Philippines, New Zealand, Columbia, Belgium, Ethiopia, South Africa and Luxembourg.

"By the time we got here (the UN forces) had finished pushing," Lacerte remembered. "Now we were in a static position, settled in and doing hit-and-run fighting."

For a year, Lacerte and fellow Canadians held the line and definitely got a taste of combat, repelling wave upon wave of attacks by Chinese soldiers trying to break the line.

"We had some pretty good battles, and mostly at night. The scariest thing was being shelled," he went on. "And there's nothing you can do when that happens, just hope you donOt get hit."

While the Cold War ended for Europe, it is still very much alive today at the 38th parallel, where the Korean War started. Lacerte and his fellow soldiers held firm for a year until they were replaced by other Canadians until the fighting drew to a close with a ceasefire signed July 27, 1953.

By the time the war ended, 516 Canadians has lost their lives in Korea.

"What makes you feel good inside is when you run into another veteran that you were there with, something like that doesn't happen very often though," said Lacerte who brushes aside Queen and Country as his motivation for joining the army, insisting it was the sense of adventure that put him there and the camaraderie that would take him back if he had the chance.

"If I were old enough, I'd sign up again."

Regardless of Lacerte's reasons for going to war, its the selfless act itself that must give us all pause for thought this Remembrance Day.