Motivation to Do Well

Heroes Remember - Korean War

Motivation to Do Well

Transcript

The three of us used to chum around together and heard about the Korean War. Now we never knew where Korea was or whatever, we said “Heck, let’s join, let’s go and see.” And our intention was to go for three years, go, go to Korea, come back after three years, get out of the military and go back to school and go to university. We went on to Vancouver and we joined the service. My father wasn’t very happy with me with that because he said I was taking a lazy way out. Because you know in those days working on the trains he saw how the soldiers acted, you know drinking and carousing and having a good time and that was his way and, of course, in the early days blacks weren’t supposed to join the military, you know it was a white man’s war kind of stuff. So he was a little against me joining the army so that’s one thing I had to prove to him, that I could join, that I could do well for myself.

Description

Having enlisted for the Korean War, Mr. Patrick remembers the displeasure from his father about his decision and how this gave him motivation to do well.

Errol Patrick

Mr. Errol Patrick was born in Montreal in 1930. After his parents separated, Mr. Patrick was sent to Trinidad to live with his grandfather. His grandfather held the position of school master until his death in 1942. In 1945, Mr. Patrick returned to Canada to live with his father. He then made the decision to enlist for the Korean War, joining with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Regiment as an artillery soldier. After his service in Korea, Mr. Patrick continued his military career, travelling to Germany in 1957 and that same year he married. He carried on as an instructor for eight years with the Battery Command post of the No. 1 RCHA. In 1966, Mr. Patrick returned to Germany and was promoted to staff sergeant taking on the duty of commanding the troops. After returning to Canada he was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer at Petawawa, Ontario and at the end of his career held rank of Chief Warrant Officer of Artillery while stationed in Gagetown, New Brunswick. In 1985 Mr. Patrick retired from the military with 35 year service. He and his wife raised three children all of whom became very successful.

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