Sight of the Dead

Heroes Remember

Sight of the Dead

Transcript

I remember we had two or three jeep ambulances in our section and I was on one with a Royal Canadian Army Service Corps driver and I was the medic with him, and I think we, our section first started to cover the Royal Canadian Regiment. One of the things that I remember so vividly were there were nine soldiers dead lying outside the Regimental Aid Post. And that was just south of Chorwon, which was quite a bit above the 38th Parallel. Interviewer: Do you remember your own reaction when you saw those dead soldiers? No, I don’t, I wasn’t, I was upset to some extent to see so many of, nine Canadians dead there. Quite a shock to see, but I was used to seeing people who were dead. It wasn’t unusual, but to see so many was quite a shock to me. It doesn’t take long to learn that you know, you’re in a war and that there are people going, there are people coming back who are severely wounded and some of them die before they get back to the Advanced Dressing Station, or some of them are flown back or taken back by truck back to wherever they were taking the dead. It doesn’t take long to learn that this is going on and that you’re in a war, so I was used to it but to see this number of people was a bit of a, bit of a shock to me. However, I just carried on and I didn’t have to deal with the dead themselves. I was dealing with the living while they were wounded, it was the living that I was dealing with.

Description

Mr. Pike describes his feelings when witnessing nine dead Canadian soldiers lying outside the Regimental Aid Post.

Leslie Pike

Mr. Pike was born January 8, 1933 in Carbonear, Newfoundland. An only child, Mr. Pike left school at age 15 and worked as a clerk at a local hardware store to help support his mother and grandmother. Mr. Pike had a great desire to leave Newfoundland and decided to join the army. On October 23, 1950, at age 17, Mr. Pike travelled to St. John’s recruiting station. He became a stretcher bearer with the Regular Force 25th Canadian Field Ambulance Regiment, and served during the Korean War. After the war, Mr. Pike stayed in the service for an additional six years before returning to civilian life.

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