They still maintained military discipline

Heroes Remember

They still maintained military discipline

Transcript

Actually the fighting carried up, right up until the moment they signed the, sometimes a little bit after the truce, before the people were informed of it, you see. Actually, I got involved before the truce was signed, while the truce talks were going on. I was delegated to go up to a village called Moonsoni, which was very close to Panmunjom. And we had a number of tents set up there, which were called Freedom Village. This was for the first exchange of prisoners. These were the wounded prisoners. And I was the Canadian doctor delegate to that exchange. And what we did was, wounded troops came in, some of them were walking, some had recovered enough that they were walking, some of them came in by sketcher, either by helicopters, larger helicopters would bring in a bunch or sometimes by box ambulances on the ground. But some came in walking, quite capable of walking So what we did, is we did a quick check to see whether they were sufficiently well, to travel by whatever means onward. And check them off against our missing prisoner of war list. And then passed them on down the line. While I was there, I actually got in, to see the troop's building at Panmonjon, which I've since seen just this past year, when I went back to Korea. And so it was a rather interesting time. I could tell you a story that's quite interesting too. While we were receiving prisoners, I received one man, who wasn't on our list. He was not among the POW list and he was not missing in action list either, actually he had, he was a Mandu too. And he had been injured, he had been shot in the head. And he was so critically injured that his troops believed he was either dead or dying. And they left him and he was picked up by the Chinese, who brought him back to health. And he actually walked in. He was limping a bit but he was talking normally and walking on his own, on his own steam and so it was a rather, rather interesting time. And of course, I was seeing the British Commonwealth troops and in general, they were in pretty good shape. They still maintained military discipline. They came back in the Chinese prisoner of war costumes, but they were soldierly about the way they came back. They saluted their officers and what not. They were a pretty well behaved bunch, you know. I don't think that was true of all of the troops, you know. I think the Americans had a, had it pretty rough. They weren't respected as troops by the Chinese and North Koreans. And they were treated rather badly at times, you know and didn't, didn't do well in the prisoner of war camps, according to the things I heard, you know. And when they came back, they were not a very soldierly looking bunch, you know. They slouched and didn't look like soldiers at all, no.

Description

Dr. Vanner talks about POWs returning to the exchange area, as well as a unique Canadian survival skill.

Dr. George Vanner

Dr. Vanner was born in Toronto, June 14, 1927. After completing his public schooling in Belleville and Trenton, he entered the University of Ottawa Medical school. He had been a member of his local militia, and when war broke out in Korea, he joined the regular force as an army Lieutenant. Upon graduation in the summer of 1942, Dr. Vanner was sent to South Korea. He was a field surgeon until a truce was declared. After that, Dr. Vanner spent some time in the hospitals around Hiroshima. Once in Canada, Dr. Vanner established a solo medical practice which allowed him to utilise the diverse skills he had acquired in Korea. He is now retired and has recently joined the Korean Veterans Association.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:09
Person Interviewed:: Dr. George Vanner
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Location/Theatre:: Asia
Battle/Campaign:: Korea
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: British Commonwealth Division
Rank:: Captain
Occupation:: Surgeon

Language selection

They still maintained military discipline

Heroes Remember