Illness Sends Him Home To Canada
Heroes Remember
Illness Sends Him Home To Canada
Transcript
Description
Sent home with pleurisy, Mr. Letendre spends several months at the Colonel Belcher Hospital in Calgary. The war in the Pacific is still in progress when he's released from hospital and he decides he should be there. The army, for health reasons, decides otherwise. Following his discharge, he went home to visit his parents.
Hugh Victor Letendre
Mr. Letendre was born on March 4, 1925 in the small hamlet of Lac Ste-Anne, Alberta. As a Métis, he grew up speaking Cree, French and English. He came from a large family with one brother and eight sisters. His father was a trapper and did a lot of commercial fishing. Mr. Letendre learned how to hunt and fish from his father.
When he was 11 years old he became the janitor for the one-room school that he also attended as a student. He would sweep the floors, make the fire in the morning, and haul water and coal. For all that, he was paid $4.00 a month which he gave back to his family because they had very little money at the time.
He enlisted at the age of 18 and served during the Second World War as a rifleman with the Calgary Highlanders. His overseas deployment included time serving in the Normandy Campaign after D-Day. After the war he became a leader of Canada's Aboriginal Veterans Association.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:03
- Person Interviewed:
- Hugh Victor Letendre
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Germany
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Calgary Highlanders
- Occupation:
- Rifleman
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