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WW II Veteran remembers life and war at sea By Katina Diep
scientist for of 30 years before retiring. He and Lois Knowles-Smith, his second wife, will celebrate their second anniver- sary this coming September. The young generation of Military A couple of months ago, Smith at- tended the Cornwall Support Group’s first meeting out of curiosity. “For my- self there was no problem, but many get back (from their service) and they are disabled. They don’t get the service they need. I also wanted to know about PTSD. A lot of veterans need the money, the funds,” shared the veteran. Some people will come back from a mission affected by what they saw, what they lived. In Smith’s point of view, train- ing is a crucial part of the mission. He believes the younger soldiers go to fight too soon. “The training goes a long way; it’s what’s important, whether in the Navy or the Air Force. They need longer training. Kids come back and they are affected. They go to the front and fight. When I was at war, I wasn’t married; I was by myself, free,” pointed out Smith. “Today, they go into the Navy on a mission, to get a job. In those days, it was sail or jail or get a job,” he stated. The Cornwall Veteran Support Group will continue their meetings after La- bour Day. For more information, contact Denis Labbé at 613-931-1892 or Steven For- rest at 613-937-4474.
to a fixed salary. His position was on a ship delivering goods, munitions and gasoline to soldiers stationed abroad. “We were gone a few months at a time, depending on where they needed material,” said Smith. He would be gone at sea for months at a time. Some ships were tankers; others were food and supply carriers. “You change ships every time we delivered,” he recalled. “We were trained to run a ship. We would bring the supplies to the Canadian bases in different part of the world. We’d carry mu- nitions, tanks, medical supplies. Some Mer- chant ships were tankers; others were just food and supply carriers. We delivered,” he said. There were certain risks on a ship just as there were on the ground. “You’re always scared, Merchants were always scared. In the beginning they had no guns in the ships. Later on during the war, they got guns and could use them,” said the 88-year- old veteran. “In the beginning, they had no guns on Merchant ships. Later on during the war, we had guns. I could use a machine gun to shoot at submarines, but we were not trained to fight,” he added. “In the Army, they were trained to kill, but when you had to do it in real life it’s hard. I had to do it on shore. It’s hard to kill some- one, you don’t have time to think,” recalled Smith. While on a mission in the Caribbean sea, off the shore if Italy, a torpedo hit the ship
sailing with a crew of 37 members of the Merchant Navy, breaking the ship in half. “My Mom had heard that I may have been killed. I was with one of the officers. It hap- pened at night,” recalled Smith. In the dark, Smith could see what had happened to the rest of the crew. He was one of the only two who survived the attack and was later res- cued by Italians. “Today, they go into the Navy on a mission, to get a job. In those days, it was sail or jail or get a job.” It was only in the eighties, over 50 years after Smith was discharged, that Merchant Navy was allowed to receive a retirement pension for their service. “It took a very long time to get the recognition. Not everyone knows Merchant Navy was different from the Marines and it no longer exists” he said. Smith recalls a lot of details about this part of his life. Today, he appears as collect- ed and content as any man looking back. “I go to all the formal events I’m invited to,” he said calmly. After two years of service, he became a
World War II veteran Lee Smith recently took a look back at his life, the equiva- lent of two lifetimes, comparing genera- tions of military. He was 19 years old when he enrolled in the Merchant Navy, a group he recalls, was often confused with the Navy. The two were distinct entities, offering differ- ent conditions to soldiers. For one thing, they were paid by deliveries, compared
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