Decisions in Battle can Cause Regret

Heroes Remember

Decisions in Battle can Cause Regret

Transcript

You’d be marching along a field with your rifle forward and you’d be fired upon. You had a drill that said, “Down, crawl, observe, fire!” You’d hit the ground, you’d roll over and over, pick up a firing position and try and identify the enemy and fire. One incident that comes to mind, we were walking along in platoon formation andsuddenly from the distance from here to that front door a machine gun opened up on us and it could have mowed us all down and there was a chap by the name of Stuart in my platoon who had a machine, what was called a Bren gun, an automatic Bren gun and he just swerved and fired back and killed those people but my point was that I regret that I never wrote up the heroic deed of that man Stuart. And, of course, you’re always full of, I mentioned you’re always concerned did you make the right decision to send out that patrol, to withdraw that patrol, to call down fire and so it’s a period of decision making time, some you will always regret and it’s always you must take it in the sign that in the fog of war and what you knew with the conditions at the time is probably reasonable. I won’t say good but probably reasonable.

Description

While commanding a platoon, Mr. Swick tells of a brave act of one of his soldiers in protecting the platoon and his personal regret of not properly recognizing that heroic deed.

Lloyd Swick

Mr. Lloyd Swick was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1922. After attending Catholic school Mr. Swick joined the military and served as a platoon commander with the Calgary Highlanders travelling overseas during WWII. Post war he attended the University of Manitoba earning a BSc. degree. Rejoining the military he became part of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and served in Korea holding rank of officer. Continuing on with his military service, Mr. Swick undertook United Nations Observer duties in India and Pakistan. After his service, he became the driving force behind having a monument erected to honour “Animals in War” which serves to highlight and acknowledge their wartime contribution. He is the founder and coordinator of this permanent monument in Ottawa, Ontario and continues to promote the uniqueness of this history. Mr. Swick resides in Ottawa with his family and continues his involvement with veterans and seniors as well as speaking to youth about his military service.

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