Fighting For and Losing Friends

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Description

Mr. Gowing describes how the largest motivation on the front line was to protect your friends and comrades, who were doing the same for you. He then describes how hard it was to see friends die.

Transcription

Interviewer: Now, I've often been told that when you're on the line, in fire, under fire and shooting back, what you're fighting for is your buddies. You're not fighting for any kind of great big cause. It's for your buddies.
Yeah, that's what you do. You protect them.

Interviewer: Could you explain that to me?
You're protecting your buddies. They're . . . at that moment, they're the best friends that you have, okay. It don't matter family, others. They're the best friends that you have. They do the same for you, as you do for them. They're protecting you along with you protecting them, so . . . That's, that's my way of looking at it, anyway. And, if you know that your buddy's under, under tremendous fire, you're gonna be there, trying to help ‘em out, so . . .

Interviewer: Now, did you lose good buddies during that?
A couple. Couple, yeah. It's memories you don't wanna have. It's hard to describe something like that, to see somebody, to see somebody shot, is not a nice thing. To hear somebody holler, you know how bad they were hurt. If it's a sudden thing, it's not so bad. But when they get wounded and lay there for a while and then all of a sudden, they die, it's a different story again. So, I've seen both, and it's something I tried to forget.

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