Description
Mr Gratto recalls the type of thing you may come across during a regular day.
James Gratto
James Gratto was born in 1934 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and as a child was raised in Pictou, Nova Scotia. His father worked on the Canadian National Railway. His mother passed away when he was still very young. One day during school he and some of his friends went down to the recruitment truck during lunch time to sign up for the Canadian Forces. After getting the call to serve, Jim decided to quite school and join up. He went to the Royal Canadian School of Signals in Kingston, Ontario where he took ten weeks of basic training. He then completed his trades courses as a radio operator and cryptographer. Mr. Gratto went to the No. I Airborne Signals Squadron in Kingston, Ontario. Upon completion of trades training, Mr. Gratto served with the United Nations in Congo for seven months. Mr. Gratto had a military career of 31 years. While serving in the military, Mr. Gratto married his wife Shirley from Fredericton, NB and together they raised a family who would become very familiar with the military way of life residing in many military bases throughout Canada. After retirement, Mr. Gratto and his family settled in Kingston, Ontario.
Transcript
We were going down to the airport to pick up some supplies in a jeep and went around and there’s always, in all these towns there’s always like a traffic circle with a bed of flowers in the middle of them, you know. And you go around there and the incident it was the only incidence I ever came across that made me sick was see an arm over there in the ditch. The other half of the torso is up on the road, you know, where the night before where the Baluba tribe, they use to come in and at night they go and hack. But they’re hacking, they’re killing their own people. You see, and of course it’s not right, but then I guess that’s their life and that’s the way it worked.