Nelson Wall
Nelson Wall: My Army Life
The Korean War broke out in June 1950. I turned 18 in August of that year. I wanted to be part of it. So I lied about my age and told them that I was born in 1936. I passed the tests with fairly good marks, then they re-checked my date of birth and I admitted that I was born in 1932. I was sent home. Then in October 1951 I joined choosing the artillery I was sent to Victoria BC with the 119th Anti-Aircraft. In about 10 months I was put on a court of radar. I didn’t like it and did not try very hard, then they tried me around the kitchen. I did very well and went to Camp Borden Ontario for a 4 month course. But would be going back to Victoria. I requested a transfer. I was sent to Petawawa only about 40 miles from my home but my unit was with the signal corp. They were part of 81st Field Artillery Regiment, we were going to Korea in 3 weeks, it was a long voyage 3 1/2 days by train to Seattle Washington then by a ship. “The General E. T. Collins” arriving in Yokohama Japan on April 13th 1953 stayed 24 hours in Kure, Japan then crossed the big island by train, getting on a small ship for our 24 hour voyage across the sea of Japan to Pusan, Korea. We got on a rather rough looking train, but stayed there for quite some time, waiting darkness to go North (for safety reasons). Many children gathered around the rail yard looking for (goodies). We gave them plenty doing without ourselves. Near darkness we left Pusan, somewhere farther north we got on trucks for the rest of our trip. 13 miles north of the Imjin River, about 2 months later we moved father north east while out on the compound speaking with our regimental – sergeant – majkor heavy shelling began coming in. Our camp site was between 2 mills so the shells was above our camp but the R.S.M said lay down. I think there was at least 20 or more rounds of ammo but we remained safe.
Not long after, peace talks began and we moved to a position just north of the Imjin River, however, still in North Korea, only July 27th the war ended but we remained in Korea as peace-keepers. It seemed like forever waiting for our time to to go back to Canada. We finally left and got home in late May 1954, I was a proud young man proud of my rank (corporal) and proud to be a Canadian.
