Wilfred Brass - Memories from a Daughter's Perspective
My dad joined the Army in 1949 and was discharged in December of 1953 or 1954. This date is uncertain because documents burned in a fire. He fought in the Korean War and was wounded.
My father was the most outgoing person I know. Sometimes he would walk up to perfect strangers and start a conversation. He probably made a friend or friends in every town he ever set foot in. When we lived in Wetaskiwin, Alberta I went to Bingo in Hobemma with him a few times. One minute Dad would be sitting with me then I'd lose him. When I finally spotted him, he'd be sitting talking to some strangers. When he finally came back to sit with me again, I'd ask him, "Who were those people?" And he'd tell me their names and where they were from, where they worked, the number of children they had etc. A National Geographic reporter once bumped into my Dad at a RV site in British Columbia, when my Mom and Dad were vacationing one summer. I think it was around six or seven o'clock in the morning and dad invited him back to their campsite for tea and bannock. The reporter wrote about this encounter and sent Dad the magazine it was in. My Dad was also a very generous person. When our family (my own) lived in Alberta for five years, my husband, Randy and I were both going to school so we had a very hard time financially. My dad would show up at our house at least once a month, he'd have groceries or if he didn't he would hand me money to go grocery shopping. He wouldn't even let us know he was coming either. He often did impulsive things like that and he also liked to surprise people in that way. My dad had a stroke when he was 61 years old and stayed in the Herb Bassett Nursing Home for the last year and a half of his life. It was hard to visit him there but I look back on those visits as humor filled. One of the most important attributes Dad possessed was his humor. He was always teasing somebody, never intending to hurt anyone he just wanted to see them laugh. I always remember how he loved to torture his sister, Auntie Yvonne. She was terrified of mice and one day we got off the school bus, Auntie Yvonne was running around the house screaming and swearing at dad. He was chasing her with a mouse. She screamed at him, "Just wait Ronald, I'm going to look for a snake and you'll be sorry". Dad was deathly afraid of snakes because in Korea when he was crawling through tall grass, he came face to face with a huge, ugly looking one. Dad loved music, he loved animals, and he loved his family. Family meant the world to him. He would do almost anything to help them out. The most important thing I got from my Dad was that he made me see how important having a good education was. When I was in grade 11, I got expelled from school for skipping out, well Dad marched into the principal's office and I was back in school the next morning. Out of ten of us children, nine graduated and five of us attended university. I should mention that my Dad was a smokejumper from 1959 to 1962 during which time he made 84 jumps.

Stories Told by his Sister

A couple of funny stories my brother told us when he returned from Korea. He never spoke of the war but sometimes told us funny things. When he was in Japan, on night some of the soldiers were drinking in a bar, when a fight broke out. The MP's were coming and if soldiers were caught they would have been in trouble, so he ran and went into a home. There, he paid this old Japanese couple to hide him. They got into bed with him in between them and covered him up. He waited there until things quieted down. Then he sneaked back to the barracks.

When Ronald first joined the Army he was sent to Chilliwack, British Columbia and traveled by train. When he went to eat in the dining car he was puzzled. There were so many forks. He had to watch people so he would know which fork to use for different foods. After he arrived in Chilliwack and got his gear, he asked his Sergeant, "When do we get our guns?" The Sergeant told him, "come here son". When he got right up to him the Sergeant yelled, "around here we call them rifles".