Trip Over to Korea

We, we went from Shilo, Manitoba to Seattle, Washington and boarded an American troop ship. There were 4,000 troops on that ship plus, I’m not sure the figure, I think 2,000 crew probably and we boarded and we were 19 days on board. We landed at Yokohama yeah it was Yokohama, and then loaded some supplies and American troops. We were there a day and then we sailed from there to Korea. So it was 21 days on board the ship. I was sick for a big part of it, seasick, with that many people on board you know you may feel alright until you see someone else. It wasn’t a pleasant trip but, you know, we had lots of recreation on the ship, movies and things to do. I guess the one thing that stands out is that after the morning get up for breakfast and you weren’t allowed back in your quarters. You had to stay on deck for the rest of the day like. You’re out there in the wind and rain sometimes, it was miserable Well, the evenings they had movies for us and the meals weren’t too bad, considering. It was great memories you know, met a lot of nice people. I guess what stands out too on that trip there were a lot of Americans that were conscripted. And they were there against their will on their way to Korea and a lot of them just out of university with a few weeks training and they didn’t want to go. Whereas Canadian troops had already volunteered more or less and we were trained soldiers. On this big ship we couldn’t go into Inchon. We landed in Inchon so we had to board landing barges. We went down the side of a ship on nets into landing barges and went ashore to Inchon and the thing about that I landed there on May the 3rd, my 21st birthday. Twenty-one years old on May the 3rd. The day we landed I haven’t forgotten that part. We had a short time on land, in Inchon then we went by truck up to the..., I don’t know where in Korea but south of Seoul anyway and we got our units and our area to stay. We moved about five times in Korea.

Mr. Carney describes his voyage overseas and his reaction when landing in Yokohama, Japan.

Cy Carney

Mr. Cy Carney was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He grew up in a coal mining town where his father worked in the coal mine. Coal mining not being a career Mr. Carney would settle for, he decided to join the Army. In 1950, Mr. Carney joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals as a signalman. Mr. Carney’s initial thought was to join for three years, but his military career spanned 29 years. After the Korean War, Mr. Carney served in other missions with the Canadian Forces to include two years in Yukon, three years in Europe under NATO as a machinist, and in 1969 he was posted to Cyprus under the Black Watch as an electrician for a six month tour. After retiring from the military, Mr. Carney was employed at the Owen Plant in Grand Lake for 17 years. Mr. Carney married and had five children.