I developed a clothing concept called D-Day Wear® and over the last 10 years while selling D-Day Wear® I have met numerous Veterans from many of those conflicts. I have heard war stories that I never thought I would hear and after hearing some of those stores, I wish I never did. Here is one of them.
I met a man at a show, who was a Korean War Veteran. He told me at the time, in the Canadian Military you had to be 19 years old to go to combat. He was in the reserves and at 18 he was shipped out. He turned 19 on a boat on the way to Japan where he was deployed to Korea. His baptism of fire (A soldier's first experience of actual combat conditions) was Kapyong.
The Battle of Kapyong took place on April 24-25, 1951 and saw some of the heaviest fighting for Canadian soldiers in the entire Korean War all for a little piece of real estate called Hill 677. Members of the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were ordered to halt the Chinese advance. He told me that he was positioned on a Bren gun.
He told me at one point during the battle horns and sirens went and the Chinese soldiers started running at the Canadians position. They ran right through the minefields, with the first man getting obliterated just to clear a path for the men running behind him. This continued until they got to the barbed wire. Once again the first Chinese soldier there threw their bodies on top of the wire only to be trampled to death by the onslaught of soldiers still running behind him.
Canadian soldiers from 2 PPCLI began to come under heavy attack at Kapyong. They faced wave after wave of enemy attack, but managed to hold their positions. At one point, they were surrounded by the enemy on all sides and, running low on ammunition and food, they had to be replenished by having supplies parachuted in. He told me of how he kept firing his weapon as fast as he could and how he had to change the barrel of his Bren gun three times because it got white hot and started to literally melt. He said he saw more Chinese people on that one day than you will ever see in your entire life.
The
relentless waves of Chinese soldiers almost overran the position of D Company. Desperate
and overrun, With his men securely entrenched below ground, company commander
Captain J. G. W. Mills, called for an artillery strike on the position of his
own 10 Platoon. A battery of New Zealander guns obliged, firing 2,300 rounds of
shells in less than an hour. Canada lost 10
soldiers killed (out of allied losses of 47) and 23 wounded at this battle, but
miraculously not one Canadian soldier was killed during that intense shelling. He
told me after the shelling and the all clear sign was given he was able to look
around the carnage of dead Chinese soldiers was horrific. You have to remember,
yes he was a soldier, but he was still just a kid.
He survived the battle of Kapyong and the entire
Korean War without any physical injury. He came home, got a job, eventually got
married and had a few children, but it wasn’t until years after the war his
unseen wounds caught up to him and almost killed him.
You see he told me how he self medicated with
alcohol and not really knowing why, his whole world started falling apart. He just couldn’t get those ghastly images out
of his head, reliving that battle over and over again. His wife left him and
took the kids, he was a mess. He was still able to keep his job which to the
day we spoke he had no idea how.
He eventually remarried to a very special lady that
put up with his tirades just for so long. She was watching the man she loved
falling apart and one day said enough is enough, and took him to get some help. He still thanks God he went, he learned how
to control his demons and get his life back on track.
Today,
thanks to the treatment for
P.T.S.D. he is able to deal with the trauma from his past, but better yet, he
helps others who can’t deal with theirs.
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