Repatriation Ceremony for New Zealanders Who Died in Post-War Korea Held at Osan Airbase
|Here is an unusual ceremony that was recently held at Osan Airbase. It is good to see that the remains of these two New Zealanders were able to be returned to their home countries:
The remains of two New Zealand servicemembers who died in South Korea shortly after hostilities ended on the peninsula finally began their journey home Friday.
Army driver Herbert Hunn, 24, and navy telegraphist Peter Mollison, 19, were brought aboard a New Zealand Air Force jet after a repatriation ceremony at Osan Air Base’s passenger terminal. The pair were to be returned to family members Sunday at Royal New Zealand Air Base Auckland.
“These two men beside me were not killed in combat and in fact died after the armistice agreement,” New Zealand Ambassador to South Korea Philip Turner said during the ceremony. “They were part of New Zealand and the international community’s commitment to security here.”
Both Hunn, who died in a vehicle accident in 1955, and Mollison who succumbed to meningitis in 1957, had been interred at a United Nations cemetery in Busan. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
Good thing they were returned home before the North takes over, otherwise they might have been used as “barganing chips” for more free stuff.