Casualty clearing station

Now for Christmas of 1917, I was put down for amputation on this right leg, see, when I went in the casualty clearing station. It was an American doctor that made the difference for me having this leg on now and losing the leg. Because that was a British hospital, a British casualty clearing station. And all he said, he looked at my leg and he said, “Prepare him for amputation.” I was, every 10 minutes or so there’d be somebody say from the (inaudible), it was all (inaudible). It was the closest thing they had (inaudible). And somebody would say, “Bearers,” and it sounded like an undertaker, and they’d lift the guy up and take him in. My turn came and I went in. And, well, I had never been in a place like that before. So, out of simple, young adolescent curiosity, I wanted to see what it was like so I raised myself up to a sitting position on the stretcher. It was all on the stretchers this was done, see. It was two horses on both ends, they put you on those horses and they operated on you there. There was this fellow that was there that was supposedly to do the operation. He caught me by the face and shoved me back on my back. “What’s wrong, lad. Are you nervous? ” I said, “No, not a bit, but,” I said, “are you? ” He said, “No,” but he says, “I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do with you.” He said, “I’m going to operate on you.” I said, “Are you? ” I said, “Well, you look old enough to,” some words to that effect, something complimentary. He said, “You know, you must be a Canadian.” I said, “Yes, I am!” You almost said that in a sort of belligerent way, you know, because you want to impress them with the fact that you were tough. So, anyway, he said, and I hadn’t been out of the line long enough to be anything else. But anyway, he said, “You know, I’m a close cousin of yours.” I said, “Are you? ” He says, “Yes.” Now this is truth, anything here I tell you now is truth, see. He said, “Yeah, I’m an American.” I said, “What the hell are you doing here? You’re not in the war yet.” He said, “No, but we’re going to be. We’re all going to be in it. I thought I’d get a jump on the rest of them and get some experience if I came over here as a surgeon. I’ve graduated in this whole thing and I may as well get some practice, so that’s exactly what I’m doing.” And he said, “I’ve learned a lot already. That’s where I’m getting my experience. So, I’m going to experiment on you. I want to do something on your leg.” I said, “Well, I hope you save it. There’s a hell of a lot of things I can do with two legs that I can’t do with one.” He says, “Right, that’s simple mathematics, yes. But, I’m going to do my best to save it.” And by God, he did.