A Bermudian war veteran, who was blown up several times during his military career, had his lost war medals replaced on Sunday at a special ceremony in Dockyard to honour Bermuda?s war veterans.

Kenneth. Dunkley was born in 1925, and celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday.

He was just 16 years old when he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1941. Over the years, his war medals were lost.

At the ceremony, local military historian and author of Andrew Bermingham said that he met Mr. Dunkley by chance at a military graveyard in St. George?s.

Mr. Dunkley was tending the graves there. They started chatting, and Mr. Dunkley told Mr. Bermingham about his military career and that his war medals had gone missing over the years.

?He said he had lost his medals, and he would be proud to wear them again,? said Mr. Bermingham.

At the Commissioner?s House in Dockyard on Sunday, Mr. Dunkley?s three medals, the 1939 - 1945 War Medal, the 1935 - 1945 Star and the Atlantic Star for service in the Atlantic Ocean were reissued.

The new medals were made by Spink & Co. in England, medallist to the Queen.

They were a complete surprise, and Mr. Dunkley arrived late and almost missed receiving his new medals. He recovered from the surprise ? quickly.

He spoke easily with the audience of war veterans and their friends and family about his time in the Navy.

?I didn?t expect to meet Mr. Bermingham at the graveyard that day,? said Mr. Dunkley. ?I?m really taken back. I don?t know what to say. I enjoyed the Navy. I was proud to serve my country.?

Mr. Dunkley had brought along photographs of himself as a young sailor. He showed them to the audience saying, ?I have grown a bit since then and gotten older.?

In an interview with , Mr. Dunkley talked at length about his military career.

?I was quite young at that time,? he said. ?A friend of mine was in the Navy, and I just joined up.?

Mr. Dunkley was then working in landscaping, and although his family didn?t object to him joining the navy, his employer did.

?I worked for Hilda Aitken, who was in the House of Assembly, and her husband Robert D. Aitken,? he said. ?Mrs. Aitken said I was so young, and I didn?t have to go.

?Because of my age, I really didn?t understand the danger I was in for. I went into the Navy, because I always loved the water from a youngster.

?I was always messing around in boats, or fishing. At that time I had a small punt. We use to make them ourselves, just square punts and go fishing in them. When I came out of the navy I went back to my original work as a horticulturist.

?I have been out at Pointshares for over 50 years. Some people get in a job today and just stay in it for a few weeks, but I have been out there all these years.?

Mr. Dunkley loved his work so much, that when his ship was docked in Bermuda, and he was off duty he would go back to his employers, change his navy uniform to a landscaping one and go to work.

He first worked on the did examination duty in the Atlantic Ocean. ?As the ships would come up she would be there to put the pilot aboard,? said Mr. Dunkley. ?During that time we would go to sea and wait for ships to come up, maybe bringing in supplies to Bermuda.?

During this time, the and an American patrol boat were sent to sea because an enemy submarine was sinking allied boats.

?One morning the alarm went for me to come to my station at the depth chargers,? said Mr. Dunkley. ?We were torpedoed. We got back here safely, thank God without anything hurting. After that I had the opportunity to work on a Norwegian patrol boat. She was patrolling doing a similar work to the . During that time I got a chance to know some of the old pilots.?

Toward the end of the war, Mr. Dunkley went to work in Dockyard on the Malabar boat crews.

He worked his way up from ordinary seaman to captain of the liberty boats use to shuttle men between the big ships and the shore.

?One night, I was coming back to Dockyard bringing the liberty boats,? he said. ?I had many people aboard. When I got way off of Spanish Point someone sang out, ?man overboard?. I stopped the engines because I was afraid the propeller might cut him.

?We looked with a special lamp, like a search light trying to see what was happening.?

A large powerful searchlight was obtained to look for the lost man.

?They shined it all down below the water where we were,? he said. ?They shined it everywhere, but we never did find him.

?When I got back I had to go aboard the ship to be questioned by the officers. I never forgot that experience. Whenever I go to Dockyard, I know the exact spot where the Destroyer was.?

Mr. Dunkley said he has been blown up at least twice and has never received a scratch.

?Both incidents took place in Dockyard fuelling up on the North Arm,? he said. ?The first time happened when my engine man went down to start the boat. It blew my wheel up. We managed to save the engine man?s life. When we went to get him out, his skin was like a banana. I don?t know if he is still living. That was an awful thing.?

The second time also happened during refuelling. This time, in his panic, Mr. Dunkley jumped overboard and started swimming across the waters around Dockyard.

?At that time I was so excited, and I decided to swim across to the other side; I wouldn?t say fright, but at the time not thinking,? he said.

He was picked up before he reached the clock tower.

?I am thankful for the part I played in serving my country,? he said, ?and for the Lord for sparing my life. I am still working. I don?t feel any weight about it.?