Reintegration in Canada was Tough

Heroes Remember

Reintegration in Canada was Tough

Transcript

If you, you know you talk, you hear about these trappers up in the North that live all by themselves and they become bushed, well, I know what that's all about. It took me about a month, two months before I'd even want to talk to people when I got home. I didn't know how to talk to people. I didn't want people around me. You become like a hermit. When I was waiting in the CNR station in Winnipeg, othe whole regiment was getting off the train and I saw her and her folks and my mother coming down the platform and I panicked. I could not, I had to turn away. I didn't know how to deal with these people. How do I talk to them? And I ended up going home with my parents. It was two weeks, I lived in a little town called Gladstone and she lived 23 miles away in Neepawa, Manitoba and it took me two weeks to go and see her. I just couldn't do it. And then shortly after that I had to take her to her Grade 12 graduation and that was tough. That was one of the toughest things I've ever done. I just couldn't handle all these people and they're all teenagers and they're all giggling and I guess I grew up in the last year and I didn't find them, I wasn't comfortable being around them. So that took some time. They talk about post traumatic stress now. Certainly a lot of fellows came back from Korea had that and didn't know they had it and then just worked through it. I think I worked through it.

Description

Mr. McKinney describes how anti-social he had become during the war. He discusses how socially inept he felt after his arrival home, and how he felt he'd outgrown his friends.

James McKinney

James McKinney was born on August 17, 1932 in Winnipegosis, Manitoba. Eventually his family settled in Gladstone, where he finished high school. Along with a brother and two friends, he enlisted in the army at Winnipeg. Mr. McKinney joined the artillery, took a jumper's course, and transferred to the airborne artillery. He also studied logarithms at night school during his basic training, and went to Korea as a Tech Able with the 1st Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Heavy Artillery. In this capacity, he ranged guns on enemy positions and acted as an observer in the observation post trench.

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