ST. PAUL – It is a curious aspect that humanity demands names or faces to make a story complete. But sometimes, there's something equally intriguing about how the absence of these elements can tell a compelling tale.
In St. Paul, housed is a set of medals that tells the tale and legacy of an unknown soldier.
Peter Bednarchuk, a veteran and a member of the St. Paul Royal Canadian Legion (RCL), revealed a set of medals. He recalled that it was in 2006 at a Value Village in Edmonton when the set of medals came to the attention of a man originally from Sri Lanka.
Bednarchuk said the man bought the set of medals for mere $6. “He’d seen that people of his own nation wore medals. He understood that there was some significance to them."
Years passed, and the medals remained in the possession of the man until he joined the St. Paul RCL branch last year. Surrounded by medals adorning the walls, he decided to entrust the medals to Bednarchuk and the Legion.
Asked if the St. Paul RCL have any idea of who originally owned the emblems, Bednarchuk shook his head. But the medals themselves tell of the soldier’s legacy.
Examining the set of medals, Bednarchuk said one of them is a Canadian Defence (CD) medal, indicating service for 12 years. Notably, a bar on the medal indicates the soldier also served a further 12, for a minimum of 24 years.
“His name is engraved on the CD. It says Corporal ‘DH Binns’ and we don’t know who this man is,” said Bednarchuk.
The next medal was an Article 5 medal, indicating service in former Yugoslavia, which Bednarchuk explained was a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) medal.
Beside the Article 5 medal, another NATO medal was displayed. "On the back, it says 'In the service of peace,' indicating that these are peacekeeping force medals. This individual received this medal four times," Bednarchuk remarked, pointing to the bars on the medal.
“Then he was awarded this one,” he said, pointing to the medal with green, red, white, and blue stripes, “Which is the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal awarded by the Government of Canada for all Canadian peacekeepers,” whether they were in NATO or the United Nations.
“This one dates back to the 1980s.”
The last medal is also another NATO medal. Bednarchuk believes the medal indicates that the owner must have served in Germany for a period of time. “So, definitely, this person served our country overseas.”
Bednarchuk doesn’t know how the set of medals found itself into a thrift store in Edmonton back in 2006. But he surmised the medal must have been important to its owner. “He had it actually put on a backing device so it would be worn properly over his left breast."
“We don’t know his circumstances, but they’ve been left to us for safekeeping,” said Bednarchuk. “We will keep them safe, and if we can return them,” to the original owner or their family, “[then] we will. And if we can’t, we will honour them here.”
