Hardest to Survive - Could Die Anytime

Heroes Remember

Hardest to Survive - Could Die Anytime

Transcript

Interviewer: What is the hardest part of war? I guess the hardest part of war is getting killed. That's the hardest part of it, you are trained to try and protect yourself, to look after yourself and that's, that's a job and a half on it's own. To try and stay alive is a big, is a big thing. You don't wanna come home and be buried over there or you don't want to come home in a box. You wanna, you wanna survive irregardless of what it is. Interviewer: What would be the moment where you are most scared during the Korean? Oh, that's a hard question. You're scared all the time, you're scared all the time, but I guess the, the accident that happened there, we, like on a rotation troop here, we, we relieved the one RCHA (Royal Canadian Horse Artillery) and they left a couple of boys because they didn't have their full twelve months in action. So they had to remain behind and we had this one guy here, his, his nickname, and he ended up on number one gun and he only had one night to go, one night to go, and he was bragging and telling "Oh, you poor suckers, I only got one night to go". And we were only there about a month, I think, and we still had 11 months to go. "Poor sucker, you have a long time, I only have one" You know, that bastard never made it. He killed himself that night. He breached one of those damn artillery shells. It got to a point there these guys used to be so good, instead of, you had to ram that artillery shell up the spout. It got to a point there that some guys were so good at it, they would just heave it up in the spout, without ramming it. That's what he did. Picked up a shell, went out projectile, he was going to throw it up, he br..., hit the breach, it just exploded and that was his one night to go. That's a sad situation when you just have one night to go and your going to be going home the next day and they start picking you, pick your flesh from on top the hill all over, the way it just splattered his body right out. I wasn't on that gun crew, it was gun number one, yeah. Then you start thinking, then you start getting scared. When things like that happen, when accidents like that happen or something else happens, that's when you really start thinking, will I be able to get outta here.

Description

Mr. Cote explains how survival is the hardest element of war, and recounts the story of a comrade who died the day before he was to go home.

Antoine (Tony) Cote

Mr. Antoine Cote was born on the Cote First Nation Reservation, just outside of Kamsack, Saskatchewan. During his youth, Mr. Cote endured 7 long years of detention at St. Phillips Residential School. In 1952, Mr. Cote, age 17, enlisted in the Armed Forces, and was assigned to the 81st Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. After training, Mr. Cote and the 81st Regiment were shipped to Korea in March 1953. Mr. Cote returned to Canada after serving in Korea for 14 months, and re-enlisted for another 3 years before retiring from the service in 1958.

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