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Courtenay veteran honoured by U.S. for wartime derring-do

A B.C. veteran who was a member of the so-called Devil’s Brigade will receive the highest civilian honour the U.S. government can bestow.
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B.C. soldier Richard Hilton around the time he was a member of the "Devil's Brigade" during the Second World War.

A B.C. veteran who was a member of the so-called Devil’s Brigade will receive the highest civilian honour the U.S. government can bestow.

Courtenay resident Richard Hilton, who turns 99 on Sunday, will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal next week for his Second World War service with the elite Canadian-American formation called the Devil’s Brigade.

The gold medal has previously been presented to the likes of George Washington, Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Hilton, who uses a wheelchair to get around in the assisted care centre where he lives.

It was different 70 years ago, where a picture shows the dashing young Hilton looking like the prototype commando: handsome, strong and confident.

The 1,800-member force climbed mountains in Italy to get around German positions, earning the nickname “Black Devils” from the diary of a German lieutenant.

“The one thing that held us together is that we had the best esprit de corps of any outfit anywhere,” Hilton said. “The only thing I really enjoyed was the training: mountain-climbing, parachuting and skiing.”

The unit’s official name was the First Special Service Force, its members raw newcomers who gathered for training in 1942 at Helena, Montana. It was the only unit formed during that war with troops from the U.S. and Canada.

The men were recruited from the ranks of lumberjacks, outdoorsmen and hunters. Hilton came from a life in the bush searching for mining claims.

“They wanted toughies who could handle it,” said Hilton’s son, Rick Hilton. “They needed their survival skills.”

The force’s website at firstspecialserviceforce.net says the unit’s campaigns accounted for 12,000 German casualties and the capture of 7,000 prisoners.

Hilton won’t be among the 40 or so survivors who will receive their gold medals on Tuesday in Washington from congressional leaders.

Instead, he will be having soup and a sandwich at the care centre.

Former Montana senator Max Baucus, one of the bill’s sponsors, said he can’t think of any unit more deserving of Congress’s highest honour.

“They mastered unconventional tactics to do the impossible,” Baucus said in a statement.

After the war, Hilton was the father of three boys and spent more than 30 years at a desk job in the forest industry. He’s happy and taking lessons on the organ.

“Dad hopes our family never has to go to war,” Rick Hilton said.