Walter Conrad
The following is from Intergenerational Integrities 2021 Anthology. Intergenerational Integrities involves 18 like-minded, passionate secondary students of British Columbia and Alberta who share a common love for writing, history and learning. Their purpose is to connect youth and seniors, especially during the Covid-19 global pandemic, where many have been physically and socially isolated. For this initiative, each student has been paired with a veteran of the Korean War.
Walt Conrad is a Veteran of the Korean War and Canadian Armed Forces, and a tireless volunteer. He is the 2nd Vice-President of the Korea Veterans Association (KVA), Unit 7, in Ottawa. For 22 years, Walt has been a volunteer at the Canadian War Museum, guiding tours three days per week. He is also a member of the Capital City Chorus. In 2013, Walt organized a chorus of Veterans to sing at a gala at the Canadian War Museum, in recognition of the Year of the Korean War Veteran. He participates in Poppy services at funerals for his Korean War comrades.
Tiana Wong lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is interested in art, writing, journaling, swimming, sudokus, piano, dragon boating, and volunteering. She would describe herself as passionate, friendly, and easy-going. She is a Chinese Canadian, has a younger brother, and wonderful parents. She always follows her heart and trusts her intuition. She loves being outside, dogs, drinking soup, travelling, or just spending some time listening to music.
Walter Conrad
By Tiana Wong
Born in 1929, growing up in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, Walter Conrad was the only boy in his family. In his family, his father, who had begun serving in World War II when Walt was around nine, had dropped his rank to major. During the time his father had served in the war, Walt felt the need to take on more of a male figure role in his family, starting to drive his family around when he was 16. Although he later served in the Korean War, he would describe himself as a regular boy, attending school in the winters and working on a farm in the summer. Specifically, he went to Princeton, Wales before attending the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC).
When he was in school, he wanted to become an engineer; however, he was not the strongest in Calculus. Because of this, he transferred into pre-med, yet soon realized that he would have a better time in history. Throughout his schooling, Walt was quite active in physical sports, such as hockey and football, whereas his sister took more of an interest in ballet.
A year after WWII had ended, with fellow veteran Claude, he remembers playing as a defenseman in hockey teams of regiments, the RCR against the Van Doos. Along with playing hockey, he also played piano, since he was rather musical. During the summer holidays, he worked on a farmhouse at Point Prim near where his grandmother had lived. Walt had a good relationship with his grandmother, describing her as “a wonderful lady, lots of fun.” Sadly, she passed away in 1951.
In the middle of his schooling, being at age 23, he decided to send his documents out to Halifax. Thus, flying as an individual, he arrived in Vancouver before arriving in South Korea. More than anything, he wanted to see a nation and dreamed of commanding an infantry pontoon. Landing in South Korea, while the war was still going on, by half an hour later when arriving in Busan, the war was over.
Following this, he spent a year in Korea before heading home to attend Queen’s University, finishing school with a Bachelor of Arts degree before heading straight back into the army. He served in Quebec for the Armoured Corps. Throughout his year working there, he tried to break it up, rotating between working as a staff officer in headquarters, infantry, and tanks. Walt commanded a number seven pontoon in the Royal Canadian Regiment. Since he was driving in the winter, it was colder than you would imagine, which was not as pleasant as working in headquarters. Additionally, he met a woman from London, Ontario. She had worked as a teacher and later ended up becoming his wife.
One of his most cherished memories, he had been posted to Churchill for two years, making him feel very lucky. To this day, he looks back at it being “absolutely wonderful.” He even got the chance to head to the Arctic and camp, which he had described as “cold and not nearly as grim as you think it is.” He remembers once having to chase polar bears to leave the camp. He was not allowed to shoot them, but he did go up and talk to it. He tried to persuade the mother bear, who was with two cubs, but it was not very cooperative. Eventually, it did leave the camp, and nobody ever got attacked by a polar bear at that camp.
Upon returning to Korea a few years after the war, the people in Korea never forgot. At seven in the morning, with four busloads of veterans, 400 being from Ottawa, they were escorted by two motorcycles on each side of their bus full of 45 veterans. Cruising across Seoul, along the four-lane highway, he could see that they had stopped traffic. When he looked out the window, he could see the faces of the Koreans who were saluting them. They were cherished, fed, and accommodated in clean buildings. In total, he visited Korea about three times. When he visited with his daughter, they wandered around the 38th parallel. This was about 45 kilometers from Seoul. He pointed to where a forest had been. There was barely any foliage during the war, unlike in Canada. This was a country that had changed entirely which had once been destroyed and rebuilt. He thought about the refugees especially. They had nowhere to go and were sheltered under pieces of cardboard. He found it astounding how well they had adapted. With everyone pitching in, eighteen countries in the forces, it surely was a nasty and brutal three years of warfare. Despite this, there was “no raw material heart bleed to them”.
At the end of the interview, I was astounded by Walt’s bravery, empathy, and kindness. Before having the chance to talk to him, I knew quite little about the Korean War besides what I had learned in school. Now, I acknowledge when Walt walked into the war, he was no different than you or me. Furthermore, despite the fact that the armistice would be signed soon after he arrived, I could never even imagine what was going through his mind when flying to a foreign country alone without any knowledge as to what it would be like. More importantly, it gave me a better perspective of how real the war was. Those years heavily impacted not only those in Korea, but many in Canada as well. He often mentioned the resilience of the Koreans. When times were hard and they had nothing, they were still able to persevere and get through those tough times collectively. Finally, it was a pleasure to not only learn about the Korean War, but also hear Walt’s stories and get a good laugh once in a while as well.As a result, I am grateful that I had gotten the opportunity to be a small part of the Intergenerational Integrities project, and I feel proud of everyone that contributed.