Purple Heart Medal

Two American generals, I should say, walked in with a big box of medals one day, Purple Heart. I was still all bandaged up, you know. A beautiful nurse walked with them down the line, you know, mud was the floor. They were sprinkling water sometimes to keep the dust down, you know. We had a walk of boards or whatever they had there too, you know, along the beds, you know, sidewalk, you see. Don’t forget, this is tarps, you know, it’s quite a hospital. This nurse says, these two American generals - they were happy, looking at their wounded, giving them the medal - and she come up to my bed and us RCRs were scattered in there, so, “This is a Canadian soldier.” “Oh, how are you? ” “Fine.” “You really got it. Who led the raid? ” I says, “My company commander.” “Oh, well, you really got it.” He says, “Did you get one of these? ” I said, “I can’t accept it, sir.” And I couldn’t accept it because we don’t get that. We don’t wear them and therefore we don’t accept it because we cannot wear them. It’s not our medal and a Canadian soldier don’t get a medal for being wounded. “Oh, too bad.” But you know, but these Americans … I spoke to some of them when I was getting better. They’re happy soldiers. You know, that medal means everything to them. It really does, you know. They get the Purple Heart, you know. I guess it gives them a wishful thinking of - that they’ve been in it, you know, I’m wounded, and there it is.