Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 35 continued.... Before WWII, Rushton worked on his family's farm. Rushton on his family’s Pictou County farm After the war, he bought and ran a store in Salt Springs, NS. But like the metal in his body, soldiering remained in Rushton's blood. When Canada appealed for volunteers for a new unit called the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade (Special Force), Roy, at 32 years of age, handed the store's keys over to his mother and went to the nearest recruiting depot and was one of the first to enlist in August 1950. His Veteran’s knowledge and his utter bravery proved of great benefit to the soldiers of 10 Platoon, D Company, the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Many of the soldiers were fresh recruits, hurriedly trained, but their battalion was at strength in early September and on the Pacific in October, sailing for Korea. Age and his injuries, however, made a return to the battlefield more painful. "The physical strain, no doubt, must have been a great deal more on guys in their 30s, particularly guys who had been wounded in the leg and were carrying a bullet around with them," said Vincent Courtenay, 84, a fellow Korean war veteran who befriended Rushton later in life. But it wasn't in Rushton's nature to complain or let on about the injury to others. His former brother-inarms, Bernie Cote, 89, was unaware of the bullet lodged in Rushton's leg. What he remembers of the soldier he served alongside in 1951 was his laid-back attitude and the way in which he inspired the men around him. He was a "real guy from down East," Cote said. "And all the guys in the platoon thought the world of him." Rushton's past wartime experience made him a role model for those serving alongside him in Korea, Cote said. "When you get somebody that knows something and you don't know nothing, they were like a father figure to you," said Cote, who was then 22 to Rushton's 33 years of age. "You felt safe with them." An example of this came when Rushton's platoon worked to capture Hill 532, a mountainous piece of terrain named for the fact it was 532 meters above sea level. In the first major attack on the hill, Roy’s platoon Commander was badly wounded in the knee and the company Sergeant Major, Swede Larson, was shot through the shoulder. Roy took the platoon Commander’s binoculars and map case and took command of the platoon.
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