You could help the military search for Quebec soldiers who went missing during the Korean War

The Canadian Armed Forces are searching for the relatives of Canadian soldiers — three of them from Quebec — believed to have been killed during the Korean War but whose bodies were never recovered. 

There are more than 27,000 Canadian war dead whose remains have never been identified. Most of them served in the First and Second World Wars. 

Sarah Lockyer, a forensic anthropologist who leads the casualty identification program with the Forces, said that identifying Canadian war dead from both World Wars usually starts with remains that have been found. Her team then has to identify those remains and track down relatives. 

But 516 Canadians also died during the Korean War, which saw South Korea and its United Nations allies fight against North Korea and its allies from 1950 to 1953. The bodies of 16 of them were never recovered. 

For the Korean War dead, the CAF team is reversing its normal process. They are trying to find the families of the missing soldiers so they have DNA on hand in the event that, someday, Korean casualty identification teams find one of them.

"Hopefully [families] will be willing to give a DNA sample," Lockyer said in an interview. "And then we can have that DNA sent to the laboratory in Korea where the Koreans can just constantly test against everything that they find in the hopes that one of them, one of the discoveries, or more than one, ends up being one of the 16 missing Canadians."

Lockyer said 10 families have already offered up DNA samples. 

Among them was the Ladouceur family. Alban Ladouceur 83, a retired firefighter who also served in the army, told CBC in an interview on Friday that he recalls seeing his older brother Joseph leave for the Korean War. 

He never returned. 

The family received a telegram informing them that Joseph was missing in action, believed wounded. He's still missing to this day — one of the 16 missing Canadians.

But last year, Ladouceur provided a DNA sample to the casualty identification program in the hope that, if remains are located, they may be matched to his brother and lead to his return. 

"It affected us for many years. We did a funeral without a body. We always had doubts, we never had a body," he said.

"I did it because if my DNA helps and they find bones and we can be certain that my brother is dead, we'll know where he is."

Lockyer says her team lacks a DNA match for six of the 16 soldiers, three of whom are from Quebec: Sgt. Gordon William Morrison Walker, from Montreal, Pte. Joseph Edward Kilpatrick, also from Montreal and Pte. Robert Gendron, from Donnaconna, Que.

They are also seeking a family connection for Pte. Donald Frederick Bradshaw from Bracebridge, Ont., Cpl. Donald Perkins Hastings, from North Vancouver, B.C., and Pvt. John Paul Keating, from Toronto. 

These soldiers would have fought — and gone missing, likely killed — during action on a stretch of land between a hill known as Hill 355 and a part of the front line known as the Hook, where Commonwealth forces were stationed at the time.

William Johnston, a historian with the directorate of history and heritage at the Department of National Defence who has written a book about the Canadian Army's operations during the Korean War, said the fighting in the area would not have been as harsh as some of the combat that soldiers encountered during the First and Second World Wars. 

"But it would still become quite intense if the Chinese are raiding your company position," he said. 

Many Canadian soldiers were killed there in artillery barrages or while on night patrols. But most of the dead were returned home. The bodies of the missing Canadian soldiers are believed to be in the DMZ which, unlike parts of Europe where people come across remains relatively often, is uninhabited. Search efforts there are limited. 

"We know who they are and where they roughly went missing," Johnston said. "But there are no bodies largely 'cause it's in a demilitarized zone. So it's not in South Korea and it's not in North Korea. No one's looking for them."

But Lockyer said she and her team are, in fact, looking, or at least, trying to be ready should remains be located.

"We do everything that we possibly can to properly identify the newly discovered remains of possible Canadian soldiers so that they can be buried with their name by the regiment and in the presence of their family," she said.

"What I have found in the families [of the soldiers missing in Korea] that we have been able to locate and communicate with, they are just incredibly grateful that we're still trying to find the remains of their loved ones and then hopefully be able to identify them so that they can be properly buried."

Lockyer said anyone who thinks they may have a family connection to any of the men should contact the casualty identification program staff through their website.