VETERAN: 70 years ago: "I felt I had to be there."
Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 8:19 amVE Day anniversary: 'I felt I had to be there,' recalls veteran, 94
[ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... veteran-94 ]
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen Published on: May 7, 2015 Last Updated: May 7, 2015 6:06 PM EDT
Gordon MacKay crouched on a battlefield in North Africa one night, cradling a fellow soldier in his arms.
His comrade, a 16-year-old with blonde hair, had been hit by German fire — a bullet in his shoulder and two more in his abdomen — and would not live to see the sun rise. As he watched this brief life ebb away, MacKay, just 23 or 24 at the time, knew that it was too late even to inject a morphine syrette for any relief. Instead, he offered what faint comfort he could, holding the youngster’s head and telling him that help was coming, that he’d been hit bad, but that he’d be alright.
He told the boy that his parents would know all about him, that MacKay would be around if he needed help. He told him he loved him.
And then the boy said “Good night, mom,” and died.
In the 70 years since that night, MacKay, 94, has been reluctant to talk about it. His first close encounter with wartime death, it churns up all kinds of distressing memories that he’d prefer were left undisturbed; he’d rather think about the many good times he had during his 28 years with the army. He doesn’t now recall the soldier’s name, or whether in fact he ever knew it. “When someone was killed, you didn’t want to know his name,” he says. “If I knew his name, I felt I’d have to find his parents. But there were already people who did that job. I knew what that was like, and I didn’t want to do it.”
Yet that night was an exceptional one for MacKay, who as a 16-year-old in peacetime had lied about his age to join the army, primarily because the country was waist-deep in a Depression and he needed work. The army offered food, clothing and shelter. It told him where to go and what to do and when, and it gave him a paycheque. “It was something to do,” he says. And two years later, in 1939, when Canada went to war, he was excited for the opportunity to do some actual soldiering.
But as his battlefield companion drew his last breath that night and others arrived to retrieve the body, MacKay underwent a transformation. He suddenly realized that war was useless, and he didn’t want to be there anymore. “It was bad,” he says. “He was even younger than me.”
But he also understood for the first time that it was vitally important that he and others like him were there, and that he must persevere. It ceased being simply a job; it was now a duty with a purpose.
“It was a strange feeling,” MacKay recalls. “but it was a nice feeling. I felt I had to be there. It meant a lot, because of the kid that lay dying.
“It was a good thing to remember,” he adds, “but I wouldn’t want to remember any more.”
MORE:
[ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... veteran-94 ]
***
WTF? Canada votes against UN resolution condemning glorification of Nazism!
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclime ... ification- ]
BY DAVID J. CLIMENHAGA | NOVEMBER 24, 2014
Can someone please explain why Canada was one of three countries to vote Friday against a United Nations resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism?
The resolution, which censures attempts to glorify Nazi ideology and denial of German crimes during the Second World War, was passed by the General Assembly committee that deals with human rights abuses by a vote of 115 to three, with 55 nations abstaining. [ http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/69/docs/v ... 6.Rev1.pdf ]
If you're having a WTF moment, rest assured I'm not making this up. This is not fake news. It is the real McCoy, and it's been widely reported -- in Russia. You can read about it on RT or ITAR-TASS. [ http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/761115 ]
Here is the UN's own report of the meeting. [ http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/gashc4124.doc.htm ]
The Canadian media, however, apparently doesn't think this is an important story, if they are even aware of it. Leastways, there seems to have been very little Canadian coverage of this story, which, if I may be so bold, is odd given the media's normal fascination with anything to do with Nazis.
Actually, we can begin to puzzle out why Canada voted against this resolution when we know the identities of the other two countries that voted the same way: the United States and Ukraine. Probably not coincidentally, the U.S. media also seems completely uninterested in the story.
It is also helpful to know who put the resolution on the agenda. That would be Russia.
Knowing this much, we can begin to see the general outlines of what was really going on when Canada's representatives cast their bizarre vote at the General Assembly's Third Committee
MORE:
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclime ... ification- ]
[ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... veteran-94 ]
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen Published on: May 7, 2015 Last Updated: May 7, 2015 6:06 PM EDT
Gordon MacKay crouched on a battlefield in North Africa one night, cradling a fellow soldier in his arms.
His comrade, a 16-year-old with blonde hair, had been hit by German fire — a bullet in his shoulder and two more in his abdomen — and would not live to see the sun rise. As he watched this brief life ebb away, MacKay, just 23 or 24 at the time, knew that it was too late even to inject a morphine syrette for any relief. Instead, he offered what faint comfort he could, holding the youngster’s head and telling him that help was coming, that he’d been hit bad, but that he’d be alright.
He told the boy that his parents would know all about him, that MacKay would be around if he needed help. He told him he loved him.
And then the boy said “Good night, mom,” and died.
In the 70 years since that night, MacKay, 94, has been reluctant to talk about it. His first close encounter with wartime death, it churns up all kinds of distressing memories that he’d prefer were left undisturbed; he’d rather think about the many good times he had during his 28 years with the army. He doesn’t now recall the soldier’s name, or whether in fact he ever knew it. “When someone was killed, you didn’t want to know his name,” he says. “If I knew his name, I felt I’d have to find his parents. But there were already people who did that job. I knew what that was like, and I didn’t want to do it.”
Yet that night was an exceptional one for MacKay, who as a 16-year-old in peacetime had lied about his age to join the army, primarily because the country was waist-deep in a Depression and he needed work. The army offered food, clothing and shelter. It told him where to go and what to do and when, and it gave him a paycheque. “It was something to do,” he says. And two years later, in 1939, when Canada went to war, he was excited for the opportunity to do some actual soldiering.
But as his battlefield companion drew his last breath that night and others arrived to retrieve the body, MacKay underwent a transformation. He suddenly realized that war was useless, and he didn’t want to be there anymore. “It was bad,” he says. “He was even younger than me.”
But he also understood for the first time that it was vitally important that he and others like him were there, and that he must persevere. It ceased being simply a job; it was now a duty with a purpose.
“It was a strange feeling,” MacKay recalls. “but it was a nice feeling. I felt I had to be there. It meant a lot, because of the kid that lay dying.
“It was a good thing to remember,” he adds, “but I wouldn’t want to remember any more.”
MORE:
[ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... veteran-94 ]
***
WTF? Canada votes against UN resolution condemning glorification of Nazism!
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclime ... ification- ]
BY DAVID J. CLIMENHAGA | NOVEMBER 24, 2014
Can someone please explain why Canada was one of three countries to vote Friday against a United Nations resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism?
The resolution, which censures attempts to glorify Nazi ideology and denial of German crimes during the Second World War, was passed by the General Assembly committee that deals with human rights abuses by a vote of 115 to three, with 55 nations abstaining. [ http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/69/docs/v ... 6.Rev1.pdf ]
If you're having a WTF moment, rest assured I'm not making this up. This is not fake news. It is the real McCoy, and it's been widely reported -- in Russia. You can read about it on RT or ITAR-TASS. [ http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/761115 ]
Here is the UN's own report of the meeting. [ http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/gashc4124.doc.htm ]
The Canadian media, however, apparently doesn't think this is an important story, if they are even aware of it. Leastways, there seems to have been very little Canadian coverage of this story, which, if I may be so bold, is odd given the media's normal fascination with anything to do with Nazis.
Actually, we can begin to puzzle out why Canada voted against this resolution when we know the identities of the other two countries that voted the same way: the United States and Ukraine. Probably not coincidentally, the U.S. media also seems completely uninterested in the story.
It is also helpful to know who put the resolution on the agenda. That would be Russia.
Knowing this much, we can begin to see the general outlines of what was really going on when Canada's representatives cast their bizarre vote at the General Assembly's Third Committee
MORE:
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclime ... ification- ]