Thoughts on Survival

Heroes Remember

Thoughts on Survival

Transcript

We had crawl trenches so deep, some places this deep, depending on the bottom, you see. You'd try to lay down as low as possible but then this is why, you know, I had many times, I'd get up and I'd be soaking wet, sometimes in frosty ground, you know, but then as a young person and trained you're very anxious to get out there and be involved but being there and directly involved, and realizing that live ammunition being shot at you, and when you hear, “pshh, pshh, pshh”, you know that something's going by there, over your head, it's a different matter. You survive one, you don't care about what happened yesterday. If you were bombarded yesterday you try to forget that and you try to survive now what's going on, now, you see. But you're not, you're not a superman and you cannot, no one can tell me that you're never been scared in situations like that, no one can. You're not a human if you're not.

Description

Mr. Simon contrasts the difference between his original perception of what war would be like, to the reality of trying to survive in the trenches.

Stephen Simon

Stephen Simon, the sixth of ten children, was born in Big Cove, New Brunswick on February 19, 1932. After finishing grade eight on the reserve, he attended school off the reserve where he faced a lot of discrimination. He often fished with his father, who was a police officer at Big Cove. Mr. Simon enlisted at the age of eighteen, took his basic training in Camp Borden, and became a qualified paratrooper on December 22, 1950. After arriving in Korea, he trained as a radio operator, and served in that capacity until the end of his military service. In 1958, Mr. Simon’s skills were highlighted when he served in a top security communications centre.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:35
Person Interviewed:: Stephen Simon
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Royal Canadian Regiment
Rank:: Sergeant

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Thoughts on Survival

Heroes Remember