Description
Hugh Victor Letendre
Mr. Letendre was born on March 4, 1925 in the small hamlet of Lac Ste-Anne, Alberta. As a Métis, he grew up speaking Cree, French and English. He came from a large family with one brother and eight sisters. His father was a trapper and did a lot of commercial fishing. Mr. Letendre learned how to hunt and fish from his father. <br><br> When he was 11 years old he became the janitor for the one-room school that he also attended as a student. He would sweep the floors, make the fire in the morning, and haul water and coal. For all that, he was paid $4.00 a month which he gave back to his family because they had very little money at the time.<br><br> He enlisted at the age of 18 and served during the Second World War as a rifleman with the Calgary Highlanders. His overseas deployment included time serving in the Normandy Campaign after D-Day. After the war he became a leader of Canada's Aboriginal Veterans Association.
Transcript
Interviewer: Now you were no longer the naive young boy that you were when you went first.
No.
Interviewer: What was your attitude going back the second time Mr. Letendre?
Well it's quite a big difference. When I was in the first time, it seemed like I had no fear, it seemed like I was just doing the job that...I wasn't worried about death, nothing. I knew it was happening but it didn't seem to bother me. But when I went back second time, when the airburst start going over and shellfire started going over my head, I find myself hitting the ground when I didn't have to. I was nervous. Maybe because the reality now setting in, I don't know. But it took awhile again to, I never did get back to that feeling of no fear. And I always said to myself or other people. When you hit that stage, you become the best soldier you could ever be. Because you are just there to do what you have to and the fear of dying is not there. It's when you get scared, the fear of dying, you don't become as a good a soldier. That's what I found with me.
Interviewer: You rejoined the Calgary Highlanders?
Yeah, same company, same platoon, same corporal, he was still there. Yeah we had some boys there from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland in the Calgary Highlanders. They're from all over.