Training
Heroes Remember
Training
Transcript
The, the battalion was moving to Wainwright and that again was
another nice experience for us, young person like myself. It was
a troop train all the way from Ipperwash well right to
Wainwright, Alberta. It was about a 4 or 5 day, I remember on the
train it was nice. Oh we got there, it was a new camp. The camp
was brand new when we got there, they built a new part to that
camp. We were, we were really at home then, everybody liked it
so. We did we started out advanced training then.
Interviewer: What do you remember about the other young men that
were there with you? What were, what were they like?
Well basically, well they didn't know how old I was, but I was
their size. That's why they accepted me. I was pretty big
for my age and they, they were good guys, good buddies. 4 or 5
guys hang out together and go to the canteen for beer when we got
paid, basically stuff like that, but they were all pretty good
guys.
Interviewer: You're still 15 years old roughly at that time?
Yeah. Yeah. They didn't know, know, nothing happened. From
there on we went to my company went on to Jasper for mountain
training and you know then you could start you know feel the,
the what was going to go on. Some of them were selected for
advance party to, to the first battalion then we started
understanding what was happening. The first battalion
was in Korea, we were going to relieve them and we got, we did 2
weeks in Jasper came back. That's the way it was happening,
the battalion was doing 2 weeks, companies were doing 2 weeks
they'd come back and relieved by another company until it was
all done all ready to go. So then we start packing (inaudible).
Interviewer: By this time your parents were aware that you were
in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and you
were under age. What could they have done?
Well they, they you know my Mom told me she said I should get
you, get you out of here, get you out of that. Dad went through
it, that's enough and I said "no, no". So it went on like that
and I went on to Korea. Well not Korea we went to, from
Wainwright we went to troop training in Seattle then we
got on a boat from there.
Interviewer: What do you remember about the voyage across?
Well I, I enjoyed it actually. We were on there for quite a
while, about 14 days I presume and I remember the last, getting
out at Yokahama a lot of work in the kitchen downstairs. And I
knew what I, and I still know what I was doing. I was frying
bloody minute steaks, tubs of them. There was five thousand
men on that ship and I don't know how many grills we had and
all we had to do was singe them and then they'd, they'd put them
in a big pan and then they'd put sauce on them you know, bake
them. I remember that quite clearly because it's, it's really
deadly with the, with the you know the, when you want to singe
them, they really singe them fast.
Interviewer: Where did the boat, the boat eventually land?
In Yokahama in Japan and we didn't stay on the boat too
long. We were, we were anchored out we got in at night, early
morning and I, when I finished working in the kitchen, I went up
and I could see the lights eh at Yokahama and we were stopped.
We, we pulled in that morning and then we were out, were on the
troop train again to Hiro, Japan. That's the Japanese, used
to be a Japanese naval base. Actually that was suppose to be
where the bomb was suppose to be dropped in Second World War, but
they went on because of the wind eh. We did some more training
in, in Japan too. I recall, had a few bottles of beer. Yeah.
Description
Mr. Petit received six months' basic training in Ipperwash, Ontario then moved west.
Claude Petit
Claude Petit was born on October 31, 1935, in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. He had one brother and a sister who passed away shortly after her birth. Mr. Petit's family has a long history of military service; his father fought in the Second World War and many other members of his family participated in conflicts dating back to the Riel Rebellion. Mr. Petit enlisted in the Korean War at the age of 16 and served with the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 05:26
- Person Interviewed:
- Claude Petit
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Korean War
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI)
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