Shoot Yourself!

Interviewer: What about the, what did they tell you about, if you were shot down and you survived the crash...

"Shoot yourself."

Interviewer: Pardon?

"Shoot yourself."

Interviewer: Give me the whole lecture, tell me exactly.

That's it, that's the whole ball of wax that the intelligence officer, he said, "Your chances of coming out of that, if you're shot down, of coming out of it are nil. Rather than be tortured," because the Japanese were, they were sons of guns, you know, they didn't like us. And they wouldn't think at all of decastrating or cutting your, beheading you or whatever, and he said, we didn't take any of these exotic pills, I don't know anything at all about that, but the guy, the intelligence chap, he said, "Shoot yourself." And that was it, and then he just went on. And he was British, you see, and, and I think, I think they're crazy, a lot of those guys, you know. You know, Christ, they, they, they're gung-ho, we had, we had one there that, flying into monsoons, we wouldn't fly into, you know, I, is it that critical that we go, let's give it six hours and see if the weather changes or re-program it, see if you can get it through headquarters to re-program the trip. No way. He bought it. But they, they, they had a different, somewhat, they were pretty hard, they were, they were good soldiers, they were, they were, nothing wrong with them, they were pretty hard and that was his, "Shoot yourself," that was it, and then go on. No explanation, nothing. And you looked at the other guy, you know, "He's talking to you, not me." Ey-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi. I thought, "I'm in the wrong war, here." But that was the answer.

Interviewer: And so, what, what kits did you have for if you went down in the jungle?

We had a survival kit. I have, I had something, I had one, one scarf thing with a map and so on, we had, I should, possibly, back up a bit. When that guy said, "Shoot yourself," we felt, "What's the point in bringing along a lot of stuff? We've got our revolver," and you had that strapped to you all the time, anyway. If you're gonna go down, what the hell's a band-aid kit gonna help you? And, like the map-things were good, in that, if you went down, then to find out, "Oh, we were here. Now, the nearest spot we know of is over here. We might try to make that, if we're alive." But other than that, this, this shoot yourself or what the hell's the point, you know, why, why get the first aid kit?