The Korean War Veteran Internet Journal May 17, 2013 Why we should remember our good friend, Lieutenant Peter Worthington Peter Worthington 1927-2013 A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquise, duke, an' a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, Gude faith, he maunna fa' that! For a' that, an' a' that, Their dignities an' a' that, The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth, Are higher rank than a' that. - Robert Burns A funeral service for Lieutenant Peter Worthington will be held in Toronto on Wednesday, May 22 at the Deer Park Christ Church at 1570 Yonge St. A reception will follow for attending veterans and friends at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery Visitors Centre. All Veterans who are in the vicinity and who are able, are encouraged to attend and to honour this worthy man. Veterans who attend should wear full or miniature medals, out of respect for Lieutenant Worthington and to honour his family. Please advise the Korean War Veteran or intentions to attend, with names of participants and service affiliations - [email protected] There are many reasons why we should remember our fallen comrade, Peter Worthington. Canadian news media have been abuzz with legions of stories about his fame as a newspaperman, his uniqueness as an individual, even touching on his military service and on his voluntary civilian missions to Afghanistan. Every one of those stories is a gem – written by one of Canada’s very best reporters or writers, or “journalists,” which is a term both Worthington and I found a little curious and did not use as a credential. Those in the news business are diverse as the general population. Talents and motives are manifold, and skills and energies are of different categories and levels. There are no qualifying exams or professional boards to certify them, but within the hardest working bunch there is tacit recognition of those who are qualified, those who are fairly good at their pursuits, those who are very good, and the very, very few who are great – like Worthington. There are very special reasons why veterans should remember Peter, and participate in his funeral service next Wednesday in Toronto. In fact there are hundreds of such reasons. Long a supporter of veterans and their needs After I convinced Peter – my claim to fame – to return to Korea for the first time in 2000, he would say later that until then he had put any Korean War memories to rest; that he hadn’t particularly thought much about the war and his service in Korea for some years. But that wasn’t quite a sound reflection, though I understood what he was saying. He was not being deceptive in any way; that was not his nature. It was probably that he thought all of the things he had done in connection with the war, or its veterans, were just commonplace stuff that he thought little about; nothing memorable or worthy of comment. Helping Herbert Wood with 'Jacket Coates' For one thing, early on in the years after the war he had met and befriended the former commanding officer of our Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Wood. Herbert had not completed his full tour in Korea, being medically evacuated at a time when Peter was detached from his assignment as the Princess Patricias intelligence officer – before that he had been a front line platoon commander – to serve as an aerial observer with the United States Air Force. As a civilian, Peter helped Wood complete two novels about Korean War Soldiers. One of them was called “The Private War of Jacket Coates.” Wood did such a good job, aided by Peter who did proofing and editing, that later on some would-be “expert” historian would actually cite “Jacket Coates” in the bibliography of the Korean War history that he had written. He would allege him to be a source on record in the Princess Patricia’s 2nd Battalion War diary – which was absolutely untrue and says something about some of our historians and their work. Jacket Coates, the character, and the entire book were pure fiction, coming from the mind of Herbert Wood. The closest he got to his soldiers at the front in Korea or in training in Canada was when they stood before him on serious charges and he listened bemused to their excuses or the confessions for their often colourful misconduct. Sometimes in Canada, before the Battalion went to Korea, Peter had been standing behind Wood when he listened to those charges; Peter was, for a short spell, Wood’s Battalion Adjutant. Peter would later suggest it was not a job that he was suited for. Wood was quite proud of his literary contrivance – using “jacket” and “coat” to form his fictional hero’s name. He would never guess that some day Jacket Coates would be cited as an actual person in a military history that even was cited still later on by curators and historians associated with the Canadian War Museum. So beware of tales about the Korean War that come from those who were not there and who have never stepped foot in the country. Too bad Herbert Wood had not enlisted Peter’s aid to help him write his “Official History of the Canadian Army in Korea: Strange Battleground.” It could certainly use a touch of clarity and better selection of subject, although it is a useful reference, even with big holes in it and what seems a staff officer’s distance from the men who made that history. In Korea, Wood had been shocked when he first toured the front and saw the rat hole bunkers his men would have to live in, and was aghast that at one position there were still enemy bodies hanging in the barbed wire barriers. He said aloud that it he had any option he would never post his soldiers in such places. He also wanted, very badly, to mount a two-company attack on the enemy and show them the kind of war he and his veteran senior officers had known in Europe. Frankly, many Canadian soldiers would have preferred that to the trench and outpost warfare where a few fell as casualties every day or so. The thing is, the enemy was numerous and had amassed a huge arsenal of artillery and shells from the Soviet Union and such an attack would likely have been disastrous at that stage of the war. Besides, it would have gained no ground. Friends with Royal Canadian Regiment General Also, after Peter had been fired from the Toronto Sun that he had founded, but quickly rehired as the editor of its newly formed sister paper, the Ottawa Sun, he befriended another Korean War Veteran. Peter was an enormously strong champion of his own Regiment and in personal face to face situations he picked on those who had served in others; but never in print. In Ottawa he met Major General Danny Loomis, who was commissioned in the rival The Royal Canadian Regiment. A new lieutenant who had just graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in June, 1952, Loomis had been shipped straight to Korea. He joined the 1st Battalion of his Regiment on the bloody slopes of Hill 355 in the front lines, at a time when the enemy was blasting upwards of several hundred shells each day onto the position. Danny was an instant hit and extremely popular with his men. Badly wounded early on leading a fighting patrol, he stayed back near the enemy until every wounded man was rescued and every killed soldier was recovered. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the field for that action. Ordered to be medically evacuated he kicked up much noise and outrageously refused. His Battalion was taking extreme casualties on Hill 355. Danny worked out an arrangement with his commanding officer whereby he served in the trenches by night and went behind the front for physiotherapy by day. He was at the front when the enemy attacked with devastating force, including 5,000 shells fired onto the Hill 355 forward positions, on October 23, 1952. Danny had a horrid bad limp. Together he and Peter rehashed, reviewed the war, and the needs of veterans in Canada. This, of course, all became grist for Peter’s work and was put to good use. Danny also filled Peter in on some of the shortcomings he saw working in Canada’s evolving army and this, too, provided Peter with useful insights that were of great use to him. Writing the Preface for the Veterans Memorial Book Later on, in response to a request made in 1997 by another Korean War veteran, Major General Herbert Pitts, who had served with Peter in the same company in Korea, he authored the Preface to the Korea War Veterans Association of Canada Memorial Book. It contains the names of all 516 Canadians who are listed on the Korean War Honour Roll. As most veterans know, but reporters and commentators and speech makers imply in understandable error, not all of them fell in Korea. Peter’s preface in the Memorial Book is short, incisive, and probably the best explanation of Canada’s involvement in the Korean War ever written. He hammers down that the Korean War was the first in many United Nations military operations; that Canada played a key role that was much appreciated by the United States, which bore the brunt, and that Canada has since been involved in all of the UN military and peacekeeping missions. For the past few years in Korea, those who serve on the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee, of which I am a member, have been trying to define the war so succinctly.