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![The Memory Project, Historica Canada]({"id":"968c0dba-41d0-4f00-a604-bb8cc0652b21","disk":"s3","directory":"The-Memory-Project\/image","filename":"16280_original","extension":"jpg","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","aggregate_type":"image","size":54732,"variant_name":null,"original_media_id":null,"created_at":"2022-08-03T11:38:35.000000Z","updated_at":"2022-08-03T11:38:35.000000Z","title":"Memory Project Image #16280","alt":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada","caption":"","creator":"Memory Project Image #16280 - Veteran #1239","source":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada","conversion_urls":{"original":"https:\/\/d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net\/The-Memory-Project\/image\/16280_original.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net\/The-Memory-Project\/image\/16280_original.jpg","credit":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada","pivot":{"mediable_id":"a350e508-547d-4fad-b993-9a872affe559","media_id":"968c0dba-41d0-4f00-a604-bb8cc0652b21","mediable_type":"App\\Models\\Article","tag":"gallery","order":1},"translations":[{"id":"529485d4-7c55-4ac9-9828-1509f20b01c7","media_id":"968c0dba-41d0-4f00-a604-bb8cc0652b21","title":"Memory Project Image #16280","alt":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada","caption":"","creator":"Memory Project Image #16280 - Veteran #1239","source":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada","locale":"en","credit":"The Memory Project, Historica Canada"},{"id":"adddc7fe-fab2-4add-a2df-1450994dd0ec","media_id":"968c0dba-41d0-4f00-a604-bb8cc0652b21","title":"Memory Project Image #16280","alt":"Le Projet M\u00e9moire, Historica Canada","caption":"","creator":"Memory Project Image #16280 - Veteran #1239","source":"Le Projet M\u00e9moire, Historica Canada","locale":"fr","credit":"Le Projet M\u00e9moire, Historica Canada"}]} "Memory Project Image #16280")
Life overseas was, well, you know, every day was a point in life that anything could happen to you, right? In fact I almost got killed myself just by walking over a... the Germans set-up some kind of stuff and I had to go out when they were on the move away. We were following up, of course. That is, this day I walked out over the hill I think down to where the children or the fellows that were getting wounded and I just had to do all the records for them and get them all prepared for and decide where they were going to go or whether they were going to go and just fix up and send them back to war, in the war lines.
Anyway, I was going down over this field and there was a big part of just something built, right there, and I have to walk around it to go down, to get down there because I was with like a warrant officer, I had to go down with him to where the bastards were, you know looking after the people. And this day I went down over this machine dig thing and I have to walk around it, walk around to get down there, and I had to come back the same way. One day I was in a rush and I went down over that rock and you are not going to believe this, but it’s the truth. I walked over that rock, jumped over the rock to save a little time to get down. I come back. Two days later, a fellow walked over the rock and the Germans had it all fixed up someways and he was killed. Sad story, eh? It could have been me.
When I felt anything sad, I used to go and get my pencil and paper and book and go down and try to read. The locals would say, “Now, where’s Charlie Brown? Where’s Pete Smith. Where’s Johnny?” Just to find out just how they were, right? So all my time in life I tried to keep track of the boys who were with me there.
I’m over my 90th year of my life. Finished. The way I looked after myself is how I think I saved my life and as long as I have lived and I am so grateful to people who taught me. I’m grateful to the Lord and I’m grateful to everybody that helped and were willing to help me to do some of the things I had to do. Nobody can do everything alone. You’ve got to have somebody to help, right?