Description
Ray Nickerson
Mr. Nickerson's father was a farmer and Veteran of the First World War. Mr. Nickerson was the second youngest of 10 children. Three of his older brothers served in the Second World War. He left school at the age of 16 and enlisted in the army with the PPCLI. His parents were not happy with this. After enlisting, Mr. Nickerson went to Curry Barracks in Calgary for basic training. He did his advanced training in Curry and in Wainwright, Alberta. In November 1950, his battalion was told they were going to Korea to serve with the U.N. force. Mr. Nickerson saw action near Pusan, Seoul and at Kapyong. While in Korea, Mr. Nickerson was wounded by a land mine. He was hospitalized for nine weeks. After his recovery, he returned to the front . Mr. Nickerson's tour of duty ended late in 1951 and he returned to Canada. He remained in the Canadian Army until his retirement in 1968.
Transcript
Interviewer: What do you remember about the other young men that were with you in basic training?
Well, there was a pretty a, we were a pretty mixed lot. A lot of them were younger fellows. A lot of them were Second World War Veterans, and they could, they had joined up for Korea and they were older. Some of them got in during the end of the Second World War and that, so they just had to pretty well take a refresher and that, they weren't really recruits, per se and that, they were a good bunch of guys.