It Was The Right Thing To Do

Interviewer: What was your reaction when you heard that Canada was at war? Oh, well, I was, what, 17. My brother had already taken off to join the army as soon as he, you know, they were recruiting. My reaction? Oh, I thought it was the right thing to do, absolutely. Well, everybody knew that, and all four boys joined the services.Interviewer: Did they all come through okay? Pardon? Interviewer: Did they all survive the war? Yes ... my brother Morris was badly wounded in Italy, in the Tank Corp. He was in British Columbia Dragoons. He was badly wounded there. The one you met there, Gil, he was injured in Germany, on the Dutch-German border. I think his jeep hit a mine or something. He was in the army, in the Intelligence Corp. My youngest brother was in the air force after the war, during the Korean War.Well, I was in the army in the clerical part of it. I was considered B2. I was underweight, but I had the skills, you know, with the office work. So I was Orderly Room’s Corporal and then Orderly Room’s Sergeant and I was fed up with it. So I had a chance to … you could transfer to the air force if you went for air crew, and I passed my medical for air crew. They didn’t care if I was underweight because the smaller you are, the better it is for these planes. So I took my transfer to the air force. I guess we all thought we had to go, you know. We all thought that we should do our part.