Mihiteria King and her son Scott Douglas hold a picture of Hemi Kingi. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
As a gun fired seven anniversary shots at Linton Military Camp near Palmerston North, Mihiteria King held a special framed black and white photograph.
The young man in his crisp, pressed army uniform is her father Hemi Kingi, and he'd just landed in Japan, on his way to fight the Korean War with the 16th Field Regiment.
On Thursday, that regiment marked its 75th anniversary.
Set up to join international forces in that Cold War battle, it's since served around the world, and veterans from many of modern history's turbulent times, and their families, marked its birthday at Linton.
Kingi fought the Korean War from 1952 to 1954, a period King and her son Scott Douglas are delving into.
King said she was born in 1960 and was adopted out, reconnecting with her birth whānau three decades later.
"[Kingi] passed in 1963, so a lot of that knowledge disappeared when he disappeared and a lot of the whānau started to pass away quite a wee while ago, so all of the people who would have known more couldn't tell us the information," King's son Scott Douglas said.
"It's kind of like this journey of finding out more information as we go along to the different reunions and services."
The Auckland pair have travelled to South Korea - Douglas recently returned - and that's led to some emotional conversations, such as one King had on a train.
"This gentleman stopped and turned around and said, 'I heard you talking and I believe your fathers or grandfathers were fighting in the war.'
"He said, 'I just want to thank you.' He said, 'I'm a professor here at the University of Seoul and I wouldn't be able to have done that without your father's contribution'."
Patrick Nolan and Allan Cameron met almost 60 years ago when they were in 16th Field Regiment. They remain close mates Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
None of the regiment's Korean veterans were well enough to attend today, but some who served in Vietnam made it, including Patrick Nolan, from Feilding, and his mate Allan Cameron, from Waihi.
The pair met in training at Papakura and were then together in Vietnam, forming a decades-long friendship.
"The weather was good. The beer was cheap - 15 cents a can," Nolan recalled.
Nolan - who also later served as a bodyguard to Queen Elizabeth II - joked he was looking forward to a free lunch and day away from his wife, while Cameron wanted to take a look at what the regiment was up to.
Thursday, the regiment finished running a gun 75km around the military camp to mark its birthday - a marathon 24-hour effort.
16th Field Regiment on its 75 kilometre gun run. Photo: Supplied / NZDF
Regiment commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Brent Morris said it had a proud history, including deployments to Afghanistan, Bosnia and East Timor.
"Most recently we deployed offshore to support the Papua New Guinea defence force to reinvigorate their mortar capability.
"We also have a number of people deployed overseas in various missions, in places such as South Sudan; Syria, with the United Nations; and the Sinai Peninsula."
But Korea is where it all started - the regiment created just a month earlier first fired its guns in the conflict on 29 January 1951.
Lieutenant Colonel Brent Morris says the 16th Field Regiment has a proud history of overseas deployments. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
"The regiment served proudly, with 4700 New Zealanders serving in the conflict, with 44 killed," Morris said.
"The regiment fired 750,000 round during that conflict, the most of any Commonwealth regiment."
Second Lieutenant Pearson Williams recounted its beginning at the ceremony.
"Twenty-four guns of the 16th Field Regiment we in position on the ice-encrusted paddy fields. The gunners stood by, stamping their feet and slapping their arms to keep warm against the freezing wind which blew, as it seemed, from the very heart of the Arctic Circle," he said.
"Fire orders echoed out of the tannoy system and the gunners leapt into action."
Veteran Roger Newth, 86, was briefly posted with the regiment during his long military career.
As well as being its birthday, 4 December had further resonance for the regiment's patron saint, he said.
"Today is St Barbara's Day, who is the patron saint of workers with explosives, miners, gunners and ladies of the night."
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