Holding back the Chinese

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Holding back the Chinese

Story by Sharon Adams

For two days in the spring of 1951, the 700 men of the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry helped stop the advance of 5,000 Chinese forces during the Battle of Kapyong in Korea.

The battle was a turning point in the Korean War.

The Chinese had retreated past the 38th parallel, luring the South Korean and United Nations forces into a vulnerable position.

On April 22, 1951, the South Koreans faced a major attack and were nearly overrun and forced to retreat. UN forces had to protect that withdrawal through the Kapyong River valley, in central Korea about 20 kilometres south of the 38th parallel.

Diving into healing waters

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Retired Marine gunnery sergeant and combat diver Dan Griego spent two years combing the eastern seaboard from Florida northward searching for an area rich in shipwrecks so he could give his brothers-in-arms some meaningful, healing work.

He ended up with Dan MacKinnon, a third-generation treasure hunter, in Nova Scotia, home to more than 10,000 recorded shipwrecks dating back almost four centuries.

Griego had found the Holy Grail of North American wreck diving, and for two years the highly decorated Marine veteran with nine deployments over two decades mined site after site with an eye to producing a reality television series.