Joining the Army

He was a physician, small town physician. One brother four years younger. I ran away from home when I was sixteen and got captured but he was pretty firm. Well I just couldn't hack it any longer because another fella who was getting the same treatment. We were noisy teenagers and the two of us ran away and we got as far as Niagra Falls and we were captured and brought back. Thinking of joining the army, it was ‘39, eventually. My father was a Veteran, World War One. He used to use French, I'm picking up more French phrases he used all the time. A common expression was "it's napoo" you see, well the Belgians would say "il n'y a plus, " "there is no more." I grew up with it and I didn't realize what it was till I took a French course a few years ago. Napoo. He was a medical officer with a field ambulance. He had the highest regard for those who were, as he put it, in front of the guns. I always wanted to be an infantryman because I heard him talk about them so much. He got a DSO along the way. Cleaning up battlefields.