Hill, Terry

Terry Hill was born March 25, 1944 in Toronto, though the family relocated to Lake Wilcox just to the north of the city shortly after Terry’s birth. Another move to Toronto followed, and that is where Terry went to high school (York Memorial), though he did not graduate. Terry’s father originally came from Finland, and he returned to his homeland during the Winter War of 1939-1940; he did come back to Canada after he was injured, and he worked as a carpenter during the war. Terry and his sisters grew up in the postwar years, though Terry recalls some disillusionment in those days – and that prompted him to join the US Navy as he had a cousin who had done the same. Terry joined in the midst of the escalation of the Cold War:  the Cuban Missile Crisis had just occurred and Vietnam was getting underway. Initial training took place at the Great Lakes Naval College in Chicago, and Terry was selected as an aviation mechanic during that time, and further training took him to Tennessee and California.  He was ultimately assigned to the USS Kearsarge, a 7th Fleet aircraft carrier that was mainly involved in anti-submarine operations, and sent on a Westpac cruise. Pearl Harbor would be their main base, and other stops included Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, where they helped to monitor the 1966 Peace Conference.  They would at times encounter the Russian Navy, and they also ventured into the Gulf of Tonkin at about the time the Vietnam War was underway, though their time there took place before the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident.  After the Westpac cruise they returned to San Diego in time for Christmas, as Terry recalls. In that time Terry did survival training among other duties and not long after he was bound for Vietnam for a second tour on the ship, which lasted until early 1967. Terry opted not to extend his term of enlistment, so he left the navy behind and made his way back to Toronto, ready to move on with his postwar life.