War History Online

[oneh2obabe]

Tommy Prince, Native Canadian, Was So Quiet, Sometimes In Stead Of Killing Germans He Would Steal Something From Them.

Tommy Prince was born in October 15, 1915 in Scanterbury Manitoba Canada in a family of eleven siblings. He left school at an early age (8th grade) and followed his father in his hunting expeditions around the Indian reserve, and was thus able to provide a meal for his younger siblings. At the time, hunting was just a means to put food on the table; little did he know that it would come in handy during his career as a soldier. He later joined the cadets as a teenager, where he perfected his rifle handling skills until he could easily put five bullets on a small target. He is often described as a quiet man whose moves were always well calculated.



In 1939 at the onset of World War II in Europe, Tommy Prince volunteered to fight for the Canadian Army but was turned down multiple times until he was finally accepted in 1940 in the Royal Canadian Engineers. He trained here for two years and later joined the paratrooper service and after enduring rigorous training he was among the few people who were sent to join the parachute school in Manchester, England. Due to his earlier acquired hunting and tracking skills, he excelled at the parachute school, and was promoted to Lance Corporal. He returned to Canada in 1942 and joined the Canadian Parachute Battalion, where he was made a sergeant. This Canadian unit joined forces with the US Special Force, to form the 1st Special Service Force.

<snip> Tommy Prince was awarded some of the most distinguished medals during his career as a soldier, including the US Silver Star. He served in various military positions until September 1954 when he was respectfully discharged, due to Arthritis infection on his knees. He died on November 1977, at the age of 62. He left a living legacy as one of the most decorated Native Indian soldiers of World War II. <snip>

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