Haven't You Ever Seen A Man Die Before?
Heroes Remember - Korean War
Haven't You Ever Seen A Man Die Before?
Transcript
Interviewer: So can you explain to me what it's like to be in
combat, in the mountains of Korea?
There is no explanations for that.
Interviewer: Is there a specific time that comes to mind about
some action, can you share that with us.
Well we, that time I was telling you, we were, we had finished
with these nuns and this, these children, if you will, and we're
going up the hill and there was some trees, I remember, they were
very few and far between ‘cause they'd get blown away you know,
they used them for hiding and stuff. And we came up this hill
and this friend of mine, he was from Nepal, Manitoba, and he
says, and of course he swore like a sailor you know, and he
says "Look at that guy" and I didn't, I hadn't even seen him
and he was sitting up against the tree and he was Canadian and I
think he came from a place called Pictou, Nova Scotia. And he'd
been what we called it stitched, and they, the Chinese they had a
machine gun, and he was just stitched across here. And he was
trying to fill these holes so that the blood and everything
wouldn't come out with grass and dirt. And I looked at him and
this native kid looked at him and he says "You okay?" And then he
started to swear, and he says "You never see a guy die
before?" and I said "No." But somebody had been there ahead of
us, you know he had, he had a blood cross on his head so
somebody had given him morphine and....
Interviewer: Did he survive?
Oh no, no he died before we got off that hill. That's where they
picked him up at.
Interviewer: So putting the mud in the wounds, was trying to
stop the bleeding?
Yeah, and there wasn't as much blood from him, but there was a
lot of plasma, white, clear stuff you know. It was coming right
through his shirt and he didn't have a jacket on, just a shirt.
His rifle was sitting on the ground upside down with the
bayonet stuck in the ground. I guess that's supposed to tell you
that he's on the way out, I don't know.
Interviewer: So he knew.
He wasn't the only one we saw, but I remember him better then
anybody else, but when he said "Didn't you ever seen
anybody die before?" and no I didn't. But after that we seen
lots of people, lots of guys get it, you know.
Description
Mr. Reitsma recalls coming upon a dying soldier who had been 'stitched' with bullets.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:52
- Person Interviewed:
- Stuart Reitsma
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Korean War
- Location/Theatre:
- Korea
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
- Occupation:
- Machine Gunner
- Date modified: