The Peaceful Soldier

In 1952, Alphonse Pelletier was ready to leave Canada toserve on the battlefields in Korea. What he wasnt willing to dowas carry a gun.

- Stephanie Verge

Alphonse Pelletier was weeks from the front lines when he realized he’d never be able to kill anyone.

The private, a soldier in the Royal 22e Régiment, had enlisted in the Canadian Army on November 28, 1949, at the age of 19. On that day, he hadn’t been thinking about guns or war or the possibility of shipping out to the Korean Peninsula. He’d been thinking about friends, about family, about belonging.

The army had given him, a lonely youth, a place to land. After two and a half years of training and teaching, it had become his home. Now he would have to exercise his conscience and risk it all.

THE VINGT-DEUXIÈME was founded in 1914 and was Canada’s only French speaking unit in the First World War. Almost four decades later, it set off for East Asia, one of three Canadian infantry regiments to defend democratic South Korea against invading North Korean and Chinese forces. Colloquially referred to in English as the “Van Doos,” an anglicized pronunciation of “vingt-deux,” the battalion could be recognized by its beaver insignia and regimental motto, “Je me souviens.” Its members were also famous for their bravery—and bravery’s close relative, rowdiness.