Fifty years ago, Sechelt resident Peter Langfield was tromping around the Malaysian jungle as a member of Her Majesty's Armed Forces, keeping the peace at the tail end of a 12-year long guerrilla war with communist insurgents. Now, the Malaysian government is saying "thank you."
Langfield was awarded the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal at a ceremony in Vancouver Monday for "distinguished chivalry, gallantry, sacrifice or loyalty" in upholding Malaysian sovereignty during the period known as the Malaysian Emergency.
"It's the last thing in the world I expected. I'm talking about 50 years ago now when it happened, and to get something out of the blue I felt very humbled to be thanked for something I did so long ago," Langfield said.
After an hour of meeting with the consul assistant and poring over maps of the country to discuss his experiences there and the progress the country has made since, Langfield experienced a rush of memories of the first of many great adventures he had in the military.
"It brought back instant memories of 100 per cent humidity, never being able to stay dry and taking leeches off the backsides of your partners - hundreds of leeches a day - but it wasn't a hardship when you're young. When you're 18 to 20 years old, it's not a problem," Langfield said.
Langfield joined a military academy at age 15 in Chepstow, England in 1957 and shipped off to Malaysia (then called Malay), beginning a month-long survival training course in the jungle in 1960.
"At 18, it was quite frightening, I must admit. I'd never been away from England or anything like that," he said. "We had lectures on communist terrorism -how they think, how they work - and patrols, how to find your way around the jungle, the animals in the jungle, all jungle tactical warfare."
Langfield said the sounds of wild animals in the jungles used to keep him up at night in terror, but as he took to his training, it all became part of the adventure.
"By the time I finished that course, to hear a tiger or see the elephants or the wild hogs or the snakes, you just brushed it off as being part of your life," he said.
Langfield stayed in Malaysia for three years before returning home to England and then joined an outfit called the Trucial Oman Scouts in what is now the United Arab Emerites. He retired to Sechelt in 2002 and became a Canadian citizen in 2007.
Langfield's son Kit, 18, now wears boots in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Shilo, Man., but his voice goes solemn when asked about military service today.
"It's a different time. It's a different war. It worries me immensely. When I was his age, I thought the same as he does, that I was invincible," he said.
Langfield said it was coincidence that he would receive the medal just before Remembrance Day, but said it makes the award all the more special.
