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Heart Surgery; a path taken boldly -accolade to 83-year old veteran
The Toronto Sun column reprinted below is about heart surgery for a man in
his ‘80’s. It is about hope, and above all about bravery. Its author would
shrink from the last designation and perhaps modify it to ‘curious,’ or
‘audacious.’ But bravery is more than correct.
Peter Worthington is a Korean War Veteran who had planned to revisit Korea
in April this year as a member of the Canadian revisit group. He was going to
take his wife Yvonne along as his caregiver and also show her the country he
had fought in nearly 60 years ago.
He planned to do this even though he was scheduled to undergo heart
surgery just six weeks before the departure date. What changed his mind was
the thought of sitting with post operative pain in his chest and shoulders in
economy seating. He toyed with buying himself business class tickets, which
would mean putting out $12,000 of his own funds. Finally, he figured it would
put too much stress on Yvonne, not himself, and that he better give up his
economy class seat to another veteran – which he did.
He did not know it, but I first met Peter Worthington in 1952 when in
dark night he came onto a feature in Korea known as the Hook, or
Hill 121. He was carrying a submachine gun.
Worthington before boarding plane in Vancouver to fly to Korea as
journalist reporting on the 2003 Veterans Affairs Canada Pilgrimage to
Korea for the 50th anniversary of the July 27 armistice that ended the
war . He had revisited once before in 2000, as a distinguished guest
of President Kim Dae-jung.
My company was attached to the British Black Watch after two of its
companies had sustained massive casualties in an enemy attack.
He was a lieutenant and I was an acting lance corporal and if there is
any lower position of command in the Canadian Army I don’t know
what it can possibly be.
I could barely make out his face in light from flares until I nearly
bumped into him. “Hi,” I said. “Hi,” he said back, grinning. I had just
been debriefed after returning from a deep patrol. I went to my small
team on the furthest finger of the Hook which ran into an enemy-held
feature called the Ronson. He headed off toward a very hot
observation post that faced out toward a feature called the Warsaw ,
which was a patrol area a day before but which the enemy had
occupied.
Three weeks later, I spent a terrible half hour under machinegun fire
delivered from a couple of concealed weapons that were between me
and the Vegas outpost. I had been assigned a Browning medium
machine gun to cover Worthington ’s fighting patrol in the event it had
to withdraw under fire. He had a whole platoon out there and they were
shooting up an enemy position while a team of the enemy was trying
to shoot me and my lone comrade.
He did not know it, but I first met Peter
Worthington in 1952 when in dark night he
came onto a feature in Korea known as the
Hook, or Hill 121. He was carrying a
submachine gun.
Worthington before boarding plane in
Vancouver to fly to Korea as journalist
reporting on the 2003 Veterans Affairs
Canada Pilgrimage to Korea for the 50th
anniversary of the July 27 armistice that
ended the war . He had revisited once
before in 2000, as a distinguished guest of
President Kim Dae-jung.
My company was attached to the British
Black Watch after two of its companies had
sustained massive casualties in an enemy
attack.
He was a lieutenant and I was an acting
lance corporal and if there is any lower
position of command in the Canadian Army
I don’t know what it can possibly be.
I could barely make out his face in light from flares until I nearly bumped into
him. “Hi,” I said. “Hi,” he said back, grinning. I had just been debriefed after
returning from a deep patrol. I went to my small team on the furthest finger of
the Hook which ran into an enemy-held feature called the Ronson. He
headed off toward a very hot observation post that faced out toward a feature
called the Warsaw , which was a patrol area a day before but which the
enemy had occupied.
Three weeks later, I spent a terrible half hour under machinegun fire delivered
from a couple of concealed weapons that were between me and the Vegas
outpost. I had been assigned a Browning medium machine gun to cover
Worthington ’s fighting patrol in the event it had to withdraw under fire. He
had a whole platoon out there and they were shooting up an enemy position
while a team of the enemy was trying to shoot me and my lone comrade.
Others put hundreds of bullets on a firm base patrol below me. Half a dozen
bullets hit and killed a friend, Stanley Mudd, from Moosinee , Saskatchewan . I
did not see Worthington that night but heard the enormous roar of his platoon
in full scale attack with everyone firing. Then I heard and felt the sickly bullets
that ticked by my ear and put their wind on my cheek. Such a wretched, icy
dirge to chill one’s heart! I heard them for a long time and for years had to
divert the memory or go sleepless.
I never ran into Peter Worthington again until I read his name in the Toronto
Sun, some 45 years later. I had lived outside of Canada for many years at
that point. I had missed out on reading his considerably exciting on the
scene reports from many wars around the world that had appeared in the old
Toronto Telegram. He had been its roving world reporter, and also the chief
of its Moscow Bureau. He had been kicked out of Russia for helping a
dissident escape from the Soviet Union, as well as for poking fun at how the
economic system was not working well in an era when blow torches were
used to unfreeze car engines on the Moscow streets.
The old “Tely” had gone bankrupt in 1971 and he helped put together a team
that financed and founded the Toronto Sun – arguably the most successful
new newspaper venture launched in North America in the past 50 years. He
was its founding editor.
Worthington (right), never short of
ways to promote popularity of his
Toronto Sun, invited actor Ed Asner
(left), then starring on a popular TV
network program titled Lou Grant,
where he was featured as a
newspaper editor, to come to the Sun
and actually fiddle with the editorial
management for a day or so. It was
all hype but Worthington received
complaining letters from readers that
he had invited an American to
Canada to swipe the job of a potential
Canadian editor and infleunce its
editorial policy.
The absurd impact was right up Worthington ’s alley. To deliver the news
precisely, but in a novel, entertaining package, was his editorial policy.
He left to enter politics, returned to take over editorship of the Ottawa Sun.
At one point (at least once) he was fired and at many times was in
contention with new owners. The very successful Sun newspaper chain
was sold over and over again, for ever increasing vast amounts of money.
Peter Worthington in 2010
Peter Worthington is an irascible Korean War Veteran who has led the
equivalent of several lives. Now in his 80’s, he never shrinks from new
paths to unknown adventure. Indeed, his life is a record of looking for such
excitement, and he has been blessed by finding it. In that regard, he has
had good fortune akin to the great Winston Churchill, whose grand life
helped shape western history. Peter’s accomplishments may have been of
lesser scale and impact, but the simile is valid. They both took the roads
others might quickly step past and never shrank from the prospect of hair
raising danger. Worthington has never failed to make a difference in the
world around him, to help the underdog, to expose himself to physical
danger, or to the endless verbal brickbats from critics of varying degrees of
intellect sanity, in his quest to make things better.
A very serious person outwardly, to those who know him and are privileged
to share his company from time to time, he is an extremely witty individual
whose days are filled with mirth, although often concealed behind an
unshakeable face and eyes that never flinch. He was, for several years, a
boxer and looks not just at what he sees but what he expects one to do
and usually his assumption is correct.