
Remembrance Day celebrations differ from person to person. Some, with no affiliation to wartime, may see it as merely a day off. Others may have had parents or grandparents that saw action, their observance is more personal. Then there are those that felt the sting of war very personally. Local resident and veteran Hartley Patton is one of those people. This 92-year-old gem of a man has a story to tell.
Early Life
Hartley grew up in Drumheller, but his family did not start out there. The family had a farm in Sheerness, Alberta and the economic realities of the 30s made it impossible for his Dad to keep up the payments. They relocated to Drumheller hoping his dad would find work in the coal mine. Hartley recalls leaving the farm with all of their possessions, his Mom, Dad, and 2 sisters and as far as he was concerned, he didn’t know where they were going, but his Dad did. After an arduous 70-mile journey by wagon, they arrived in Drumheller only to discover there wasn’t much work of any kind to be had. The mine had shut down and there was an old office building still standing, but that was about all.
They moved into the old office building and tried to make it a home, which was no easy task as the water was running down the inside of the walls. As fate would have it, there was a fire in Drumheller at one of the hotels, and after it was put out his Father went down to the site with a wagon and loaded up as much old wood that was left after the fire and brought it back and built a peaked roof on the old office building to help keep the rain out. After a year or two, they had that old building in pretty good shape. The mines began to reopen but when Hartley was 9 the war broke out and his father was now off to fight.
Left back at home, it was his Mom trying to keep it all together for the three children. The monthly deposit, while his father was at war, helped them financially. They had a hundred chickens every spring and a huge garden to provide food, but it was very difficult to keep it up in his father’s absence. When his father would come home on leave, he’d say he didn’t like coming home because he had to work 24/7 to get the garden back in shape. Had to work very hard for everything they had but always had what they needed. Hartley’s own words about his upbringing were “I LOVED IT.”
He recalls, after moving, that he had to attend school and had only one pair of boots that were reserved for working in the barn, so he showed up at school in bare feet. The teacher was quite upset and asked “where are your shoes?” He explained that his rubber boots were in the barn and she didn’t want him to wear those to school. The teacher said I want to talk to your Mom and Dad and sent a letter to them with his sister. The next day he had a pair of runners that his Dad bought for him.

Horseshoe Canyon – Drumheller
When asked about his going to war, Hartley relayed the following:
“I was sitting on the chesterfield at a party with 4 or 5 of my friends and there was a radio beside me. It was not very loud, so people could talk, but I heard they were looking for volunteers to go fight in Korea. I asked my friend, Ken Chase, what he thought about the Korean war and Ken replied, “What Korean war?” I explained about the war in Korea and told my friend they were looking for people to go and fight. I told him, “I think I am going to go.”
I had been a cadet for years and had some knowledge of the military and weapons so I thought it was going to be a good place for me. Ken said, “Well, if you’re going to go, so am I.” Before the night was over, we hired a taxi to take us from Drumheller to Calgary and were put up in Currie Barracks. The next morning, we passed all the requirements and were in the army. I thought ‘HOLY JUMPIN’ what did we do?”
In the span of two days, they went from carefree youths to soldiers.
With his adventurous spirit and youthful curiosity, as well as his experience in the Cadets, he was ready for this new exploit. His father had encouraged him to get as much education as he could when it came to combat just in case there was a war. He recalled training and going to the firing range. All his previous weapons experience was a .22 caliber on the farm and now he found himself on the business end of a Bren gun (light machine gun), which took two people to operate so that they had enough magazines of ammo to operate. He loved the Bren gun!!!!! He used it a lot in Korea. Then the Americans gave them a .30 caliber; that was a game changer because all the ammo was on a belt so you never had to stop firing.
When asked how the reality matched up to his expectation once he was in Korea, he said “I didn’t like it at all”. He went on to describe the geography and topography of the battlefield and that he spent most of his time crawling through mud and water in rice paddies and described it as a “bloody pile of manure.” As a soldier, you had no choice. When someone is shooting at you it’s a good idea to stay low, therefore, much of his time was spent in the mud holes of Korea.
He relayed a story of one of his fellow soldiers jumping down for cover and ending up in a hole about eight feet deep. They managed to pull him out but he was covered in mud and the smell was unreal. The rest of the country was hills and most of the fighting was done from one hill to the next. Hartley served one year in Korea and volunteered to stay for a second year. When his time was up, he witnessed a bunch of new recruits coming in that he felt were hardly old enough to be there. He thought, “I have no reason to go home so maybe should stay on and help some of these young guys.” He remained until the armistice.
“War was going well for us and we pushed back to the river that separates North Korea from Manchuria and we thought that was as far as we were going to go until engineering came in and put pontoon bridges in to cross the river.”
Hartley and another soldier swam that river with ropes as a means to transport items across. Once all this was complete and they had set up camp on the Manchurian side, the order came to fall back. He remembered thinking, “What are they talking about, fall back? We just fought and walked our way across the country and now they want us to fall back?”

It was explained that talks were on and Korea was going to be split into two territories. They were told to fall all the way back to the 38th parallel on one side and the enemy would be planted on the other side. So, the effort of gaining ground and then having to give it back was very discouraging for him and his comrades, but you have no choice. You do what you are told to do.
Hartley made many good friends but had lost many as well; many of whom, are buried in Korea. He said the country was not a good place for young people. He grew up where it was tough going; but in Korea, if you needed drinking water you had to hike down a hill and bring a jerry can up to fill the canteens. He remembers one young man, that turned out to be 16 years old, who had his turn to go get water. This boy couldn’t carry a full can so he ended up only filling it up halfway in order to transport it.
When asked what he might say to a younger version of himself, Hartley thought for a moment and then stated:
“I could have done lots of things differently. When I came back from the war I had a piece of shrapnel in my arm and it was in a sling. I needed work and ended up working on an oil rig in Provost. One day a young guy came to the rigs and asked if anyone is interested in playing baseball and I had played as a kid so I thought I would go play. On the way back, I came to a farmer’s gate and I opened the gate for the farmer. He asked if I was going to town and I said ‘You bet’ and the farmer replied, ‘hop in.’ We traveled down the road that was full of mud and ruts. The truck hit the ditch and I was thrown from the bed of the truck but managed to hang on to the side as my leg was run over. I began pounding on the side of the truck and the farmer fainted when he saw my leg, now mangled and full of mud and blood.
‘Get me to the Hotel in town and I will get the tool pusher to have a look.’ When I arrived, they told me I had to go to the hospital. They had a 3-ton truck and put a mattress in the back and gave me a bottle of whiskey as we headed for help. By the time we arrived at the hospital, the whiskey was almost gone. The nurse who came out to meet me said, ‘Another Drunk.’ The doctor wanted to cut the leg off, but I said, “Wait. I need to talk to my Dad, he has a level head and has more sense than I did.’ My Dad said, “no way” and called Edmonton and before I knew it I was being rushed to Edmonton for medical care.”
Serendipity stepped in with his nurse, Catherine, who took care of him for 14 months. Hartley took a shine to her and after a lot of time had passed he finally got up the nerve to ask her to go to a hockey game with him that the DVA had organized. She turned him down flat and said, “I don’t go out with patients.” Hartley said “Okay, but I am going to ask you every time because I like you and I would like to take you out.” Later on, the Ice Capades came to town and he asked her once again, she told him she loved Ice Capades and would love to go. After that, they went to many hockey games together and their relationship grew. Hartley recalls the night he proposed, she had invited him over for a chicken dinner on a fateful Sunday. The chicken was good and Hartley said, “You know, I need someone to look after me the rest of my life, will you marry me.” She said, “I thought you’d never ask”.

In 1954, they were married and that lasted 60 blissful years and had four children; one girl and three boys. All his children live very close to Chestermere. Hartley has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
When asked how he approaches Remembrance Day, he mentioned he is so proud to walk around with his medals on and feels that he and his fellow soldiers did a good job. He feels he has done a lot of good for the country and is proud to live here. He believes Canada is the best country in the world and he is proud of the work done in Korea.

And finally, when questioned about advice he might give to a young ten-year-old boy about life, his response seemed incredibly simple, yet profound. “Listen to your Mom and Dad, learn from your teachers, and look out for your Dad.”
Hartley continues to care and inspire. He has great pride in his family and I was truly inspired by the time spent with this remarkable man. So, as we approach Remembrance Day, I hope this story has given you a moment to pause and consider that there are literally thousands of stories like Hartley’s. Every soldier’s family has something worth remembering. We owe gratitude to him and countless others.
So, at 11 am on November 11, be still and be grateful. We owe much more than one moment of silence, but the collective spirit of us all at that moment serves as a tribute.