By CASEY NEILL
KOREAN War veteran Les Hughes said commemorative services are an important chance to reflect and remember.
“The main thing is remembering the people that you were involved with back in those days,” he said.
The Noble Park RSL will host a Naval Association of Australia Dandenong sub-section service from 10.30am on Sunday 3 November.
It will mark 60 years since the Korean War came to an end in July 1953 and coincide with Navy Week.
“I was pleased to see the end of the Korean War,” Mr Hughes said.
“I can remember it. I wasn’t actually in Korea at that time.”
The 81-year-old patrolled the Korean coast on HMAS Warramunga during 1951 and ’52, aged 20, “bombarding railway lines, trains, troop concentrations that we could reach from out at sea”.
“The main thing I remembered was the cold,” he said.
“Every morning the whole ship would be iced up.”
The crew endured minus-20 degree temperatures and constant fear.
The Hallam veteran said lookouts would see mines floating in the seas during the day, but at night they had to rely on anti-sub detection gear.
There were a few life rafts on hand for if the worst did happen, but if the crew had to abandon ship in the freezing cold… “you’d only live a few minutes,” he said.
Mr Hughes returned to the region for 12 months on the HMAS Arunta in 1954 to carry out a policing role after the ceasefire.
“Looking back you realise the danger you were in,” he said.
Noble Park RSL is at 1128 Heatherton Road, Noble Park.
