Fear sets in

Heroes Remember

Fear sets in

But that, that little incident, it probably lasted 10 minutes, it could have been even less. How long did it take the man to die in my arms. That affected me quite a bit. We marched up and we got to the area, to our jumping off area, and we moved into a building, part of the roof was gone and this incident that took place still bothered me, so I wanted to be alone. So I crawled, I went up the stairway and I could see stars anyway and I don't know what was there but it was nice and soft so I layed down and I'm thinking that one moment, one incident, one instance that I felt to myself, "Gee, you know I shouldn't be here", I was scared deathly afraid. Laying there and thinking about it and I thought well we have to move off in the morning to go meet the enemy and I thought to myself, and I felt, "I think I've gone far enough there's something going to happen to me", when I heard my name being called and I recognized the voice, it was a Corporal, Blanchfield, and I can't remember his first name today. So I said, "I'm up here" and he came up and he said, "Can I sit with ya, he says I wanna talk to ya?" I said, "Sure go ahead, what do you want, what's the problem?" He said, "You know", he says, "I'm scared." I says, "Aren't we all." "No, no," he says, "I'm scared". He says, "I, I have a feeling that this is the night." He says, "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna be hurt." "Well", I said, " "let's hope it's not too bad."

Mr. Parker talks about how a man's death haunted him as they moved into position on their start line. He then talks about a corporal who came to him for reassurance.

Richard Allen Parker

Richard Allen Parker was born in Vernon, BC on May 27, 1917 to a First Nations family. He talks about his early years, the prejudice that he faced, and the meaning of being First Nations. He left home at an early age to work in the mines. He talks about joining the PPCLI in 1942, fighting the SS and Hitler Youth and his time in Algiers and Italy.