Some of them were laughing at me.

Heroes Remember

Some of them were laughing at me.

Transcript

When the guys saw me get the stripe, they, some of them were laughing at me. But then I got my second stripe and we were in action, action and we came back in, we came back in from Belgium. Belgium for a, to check over our vehicles and having it easy. So just driving in, in the jeep, a jeep came flying by us and stopped. The BSM jumped out and he, he came back to our gun, our gun was number one, so we were out were out, out in front and he said, "Bombardier, MacDougall." He said, "The major wants you, wants to speak to you." So I didn't have my hat on and the guys they said, "Go and get your beret on, for Christ sakes." So I went over to the jeep, and he told me to jump in, he talked, talked for a bit, asked me how things were going. "Well," he said, "I'm going to tell you something, we are going to, we are going to promote you to a Sergeant." I said, "What?" He said "Watch that language now," so, so now he said, "When we get to your billets, your billets this evening, the first thing to do, is get them stripes sewn on. So I did, and then in, oh I don't know, maybe an hour or so, the Sergeant Major came, marched in. He said, "Sergeant MacDougall." He said, "Do you know what? You're in charge of the guard this evening. So that'll be your first performance."

Description

Mr. Macdougall describes the informality of his field promotion to Sergeant.

Donald J. MacDougall

Mr. MacDougall was born near Harriston, Ontario, in 1923. He was eager to join the Armed Forces, but was turned down three times because of his age. Mr. MacDougall returned home to work in a dairy but was finally accepted into the army in 1941. Once overseas in England, he was trained as an anti-aircraft gunner. He landed in France one week after D-Day and attained the rank of Sergeant while on the battlefield. Mr. Macdougall served in several battles across Northern Europe. He was married in England, and returned home to Harriston after the war ended.

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