Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 157 continued ... continued ... After my 28 days leave was up, I went back to No. 11 Depot in Halifax to work and come home every weekend. We weren’t doing too badly until one weekend I was put on fire duty and had to stay in Halifax. I told my Sergeant I wanted to see the Officer in Charge. He paraded me in and I proceeded to tell him that I was in the Army for 4 years and was never in trouble. I went on to explain to him that I had a little girl born while I was overseas and that it took me a long time to win her over, and if I didn’t go home for two weeks, I would lose all I had gained with her. The OC told the Sergeant to take me off fire duty. Two months later the Doctor that signed me in the Army, signed me out of the Army. Every two years over approximately six years I had to go to Camp Hill where the same Doctor always saw me. I saw a lot of death. At the Plastic Surgery Neurological Hospital there were nine buildings and 18 wards. Each ward had 15 beds on the left side, then a horseshoe, and then another 15 beds on the right side. We only had a little night-light to work with. One night in particular that I remember it was around one or two in the morning. Everyone was awake and I was going around taking their orders for juice or whatever. As I was making my rounds I heard a man behind me and when I looked he was huge, looked like Lil Abner. He was following me and making strange noises. I began to sweat and everyone kept asking, “What are you going to do Orderly?” That strange man followed me until about the second last bed. I realized there wasn’t one man in the ward that could help me. Then it came to me that I was the boss there! I turned to that man and in a loud voice I said, “What are you doing out of bed?” I ordered him in bed and I made darn sure he was well tucked in. It was kind of sad you know. Then there was another time when I asked one of the patients to do me a favor and help clean the ashtrays. The ashtrays were always full. He wouldn’t help me. Then the day came when he needed an enema so I asked the nurse if carbolic soap would cause any damage. She told me she thought it would sting a little but that it was not damaging. Well I mixed some of the soap in the enema and administered it. Well let me tell you he had fire in his eyes when he came out of the washroom and I never had trouble getting his help after that! I remember when I was on the boat that left Greenock, Scotland; the Friday night “law of the sea” was that you didn’t leave before midnight. Word got to us to get the sick bay ready because a Ship’s Company man needed his appendix out. We had an officer specialist going back to Toronto with us. Our Major got the specialist to operate. He told us that the operation on Civilian Street would cost $500.00. On that trip we started out with a man on the ward covered with eczema from head to toe. Another man had both his eyes out. It was either the first or second night out that a rap came on the ward door. There was a little blond woman and she told me her husband was in the ward - he was the man with no eyes. I took her in and she stayed all night with him but I made sure she was out by six a.m. It turned out she slept with him every night. Two or three nights after we left we were once again told to get the Sick Bay ready. This time there was a POW u-boat sailor who needed to have his appendix out. He was a little blond about nineteen years old. There were two guards on him and we named him Willie. As time went on we’d get some guys in who had CLAP. At one point there were eleven of them. We had to give them two big tablets, sulfarthyson, every four hours. They looked like peppermints and we had to make sure they took them. Halfway through an officer came in. He was a ferry pilot who looked just like Gregory Peck. He had the CLAP. I asked him where in hell he got it. He said that two weeks back he was with his wife. She didn’t know he was coming home and he didn’t know what to do. I suggested that he
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