Fighting For and Losing Friends
Heroes Remember - Korean War
Fighting For and Losing Friends
Transcript
Interviewer: Now, I've often been told that when you're on the
line, in fire, under fire and shooting back, what you're
fighting for is your buddies. You're not fighting for any kind
of great big cause. It's for your buddies.
Yeah, that's what you do. You protect them.
Interviewer: Could you explain that to me?
You're protecting your buddies. They're . . . at that moment,
they're the best friends that you have, okay. It don't matter
family, others. They're the best friends that you have. They do
the same for you, as you do for them. They're protecting you
along with you protecting them, so . . . That's, that's my way
of looking at it, anyway. And, if you know that your buddy's
under, under tremendous fire, you're gonna be there,
trying to help ‘em out, so . . .
Interviewer: Now, did you lose good buddies during that?
A couple. Couple, yeah. It's memories you don't wanna have. It's
hard to describe something like that, to see somebody, to see
somebody shot, is not a nice thing. To hear somebody holler, you
know how bad they were hurt. If it's a sudden thing, it's not so
bad. But when they get wounded and lay there for a while and
then all of a sudden, they die, it's a different story again.
So, I've seen both, and it's something I tried to forget.
Description
Mr. Gowing describes how the largest motivation on the front line was to protect your friends and comrades, who were doing the same for you. He then describes how hard it was to see friends die.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:08
- Person Interviewed:
- Gerald Edward Gowing
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Korean War
- Location/Theatre:
- Asia
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
- Rank:
- Private
- Occupation:
- Bren Gunner
- Date modified: