Stepping back on South Korean soil decades after the Korean War, retired Staff Sergeant Benjamin Quiros, 97, remains hopeful North Korea and South Korea will reunite.

“That’s always a prayer,” Quiros told DAILY TRIBUNE in an interview at the War Memorial of Korea, where he, along with veterans from 15 other nations, were honored by the South Korean government for their service during the Korean War.

Quiros, leader of the 20th Infantry Battalion, was only 22 years old when he was sent to Korea in 1950.

“Maybe they [my family] were worried. You know, when your son goes to war and there’s shooting there, you don’t know if he will live or die. When I arrived there, they said, ‘try to stay alive.’ I couldn’t be sure, you could get hit by a bullet or they might suddenly attack,” he said.

He remembered patrolling with his platoon mates, searching for any sign of the enemy.

“When I left Korea, that’s when I got nervous. What did I do? I was brave. We were a group, kidding around. We would joke, ‘Quiapo, Quiapo, Quiapo!’ recreating the life in Manila,” he recalled.

Quiros now resides in the United States with his family. His daughter, Maria, accompanied him on this special trip handled by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs as part of its Revisit Korea Program. He was the oldest veteran on the program, having fought in the Battle of Maryang San and Triangle Hill from July 1950 to February 1951.

The Philippines was the first country in Asia to heed the United Nations’ call and contributed the fifth largest troop contingent to help South Korea during the war.

Then President Elpidio Quirino sent five Battalion Combat Teams known as the PEFTOK. According to the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, a total of 7,420 Filipino officers and men served in Korea. Of these, 116 were killed in action, 313 were wounded and 57 went missing (41 were repatriated during PoW exchanges). The last of the Philippine troops left Korea on 13 May 1955.

UN member states whose troops also saw combat were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Denmark, India, Norway, and Sweden provided medical and humanitarian aid. Italy, although not a UN member then, donated a hospital.

The Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953. A final peace settlement was supposed to happen but it has yet to occur.